Coe Supports Merritt ban, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

      Lord Sebastian Coe & Paula Radcliffe, IAAF Gala, 2007, photo by PhotoRun.net.

Sebastian Coe has a tiring year and one half ahead of him. As the voice of the 2012 London Olympics, Coe is either slammed or praised, depending on the day, and how he breathes,
regarding every type of decision that goes with the London Games. Recently he has been dealing with keeping an athletic legacy for London after 20102. This last week it was noting the huge cuts in athletics and culture support from the besieged and fused government.

Most recently, Coe was asked about LaShawn Merritt. Merritt, the gold medalist from Beijing and Berlin, tested positive after using an over the counter product called Extenze. The quick jokes aside, it became quite apparent that the athlete had not taken into consideration what was in the product, and that he was now facing a ban from competition of 21 months, shortened from 24 due to his ‘exemplary behavior”.  An arbitration hearing, held
by AAA,  claims that Merritt should not be kept from competing in London 2012. The IOC
disagrees, and Lord Coe supports the IOC rule. 

While Merritt’s ban goes 21 months, allowing him to compete in World Champs in Daegu, Korea in August 2011, he will not compete in London 2012. The IOC adopted a rule in 2008
noting that if an athlete had a six month or more suspension, that they were not allowed to compete in the next Olympic Games.

EME NEWS (OCT 23, 2010)



Coe supports Merritt ban
LONDON (GBR): Lord Sebastian Coe has backed the rule that means Olympic
400 metres champion LaShawn Merritt will be unable to defend his
title at London 2012 because of a doping suspension. Writes
insidethegames. Coe is also IAAF Vice-President. The AAA claims that it
would be unfair to punish Merritt again
by missing London 2012 but Coe, the chairman of London 2012 and a
former double Olympic 1500m champion, has no sympathy for the
American and claims that it only brings the rest of the rest of the
world closer to being in line with Britain’s hard-line approach to
drugs cheats. “It is perfectly legitimate for an organisation to
take an
individual approach,” said Coe who added: “The British Olympic
Association (BOA), for instance, has a clause
that is very clear: that if you are positively competed you don’t
ever compete in an Olympic Games.”

Makau at 15 km
HEERENBERG (NED): Kenyan Berlin Marathon winner Patrick Makau will
compete at the Wincanton Montferland Run on December 5. Makau wants to
attack the course record at 15 km which is 42:36 by legendary Haile
Gebrselassie in 2007. Also competing were in the history of the race
Kenenisa Bekele, William Kipsang, Luke Kibet and Khalid Khannouchi. Last
year winner Nicholas Kamakya missed the course record only by two
seconds with 42:38.

IAAF Indoor dates

OTHER NEWS

LONDON (GBR): Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has offered some hope
of
the 2015 World Athletics Championships coming to London by claiming
the Government has not yet ruled out underwriting a bid following
budget cuts earlier in the week. UK Athletics and London 2012
chairman Sebastian Coe have repeatedly
expressed their desire to see the prestigious event come to the 2012
Olympic Stadium – tipped to host them as part of its long-term
sustainability and legacy plan – but any bid almost certainly
depends on financial support from the Government. Robertson, who
earlier this week said sport had received a “good
settlement” in George Osborne’s spending cuts, told insidethegames:
“A decision on funding has only just been made so we need to sit
down and look very carefully at exactly what we have got. “I have
always maintained that funding for elite athletes is my
priority and that remains so ahead of anything else. But at this
stage, I’m ruling nothing out,” said Robertson for insidethegames.

VIENNA (AUT): New head-coach of Austrian Athletics is German Jurgen
Mallow. The 65-years old former German head-coach (2004-2008) signed the
contract with Austrian Athletics Federation OLV. As personal coach he
was leading the career of former excellent steeple runner and world
champion Patriz Ilg.

DONETSK (UKR): Sergey Bubka´s home city of Donetsk is biding to
stage the World Youth Championships in 2013. IAAF will do the final
decision at the November council meeting in Monte Carlo.

LONDON (GBR): BBC informs that  Olympic and World 2007 400 m champion
Christine Ohuruogu says she will benefit from her injury-hit season in
the long-term. She missed Barcelona and New Delhi this year. “I’d really
been pushing myself for five or six years, but I think it was nice to
give myself a mental break,” she told BBC London 94.9. The 26-year old
added that she wants to build herself up in time for the 2011 World
Championships in South Korea.

LONDON (GBR): Spikesmag.com informs that former 100 m olympic gold
medalist Linford Christie is set to appear in I’m a Celebrity. Get Me
Out of Here! The British sprint superstar will appear on the British
Jungle-based reality show in which celebrities have to undergo a series
of challenges including eating  “exotic foods” from the jungle. The show
will be screened on ITV.
  
BRATISLAVA (SVK): Best Slovak runner in past years Jozef Repcik who
improved the 40 years old national record of Jozef Plachy in 2008 at
Ostrava Golden Spike meet to 1:44.94 is changing coaches. After 2009 and
2010 did not brought good results (always out in heats in Berlin and
Barcelona) he will now be guided by Pavel Slouka who is succesfully
leading the career of best female runner in the country Lucia Klocova
who is 4th placer from Barcelona.

RESULTS

DUBAI (UEA, Oct 22)
:  Ethiopian-born United Arab Emirates (UAE)
athletes Betty Desalegn Belayneh (16:46) and Alia Saeed Mohammad
(16:55) together with Amnae Beriso of Ethiopia (17:32), achieved the top
three spots in the first ever Dubai 5 km women’s run. Media are
informing about 1000 participants. The UAE runners of Ethiopian origin
are planning to compete also at Asian Games in November. Informs
Ethiosports.

NDALAT GAA (KEN, Oct 23):  World cross country 14th placer from
Bydgoszcz Gladys Chemweno (27:39) outclassed former Amsterdam Marathon
champion Magdaline Chemjor (27:56) to win the 8 km race during the
second edition of Ndalat Gaa cross-country in Nandi North meeting.
Writes The Nation. Third Valentine Kipketer was way behind 28:42.
Chemjor, who will line up at next month’s New York Marathon, said the
second place was a challenge in her campaigns for a place in Kenya’s
team to 2011 IAAF world cross-country and the great show in the Big
Apple. Purity Cherotich a junior World cross-country junior silver
medallist in Bygozscz, Poland beat a classy field in 20:51. Janet Kisa
(21:01) was second followed by and Gladys Chesir (21:07). Barnabas
Kosgei, the 2005 world junior bronze medallist, won men´s 12 km in
36:38. National junior champion Charles Chebet (36:39) and upstart
Timothy Kiptoo (36:40) were second and third. Newcomer Gedion Kipketer
got the junior title in 24:04 ahead of Nicholas Togom (24:10) who is a
younger brother of Mathew Kisorio, third was David Bett in 24:14.

ROSTOCK (GER, Oct 23): The winning team at 5th Crosstock Team race was
“Kieler Sprotten” with steeple specialist Steffen Uliczka, Falko
Velhling and Svenja Killius in course record 51:00.

GRODNO (BLR, Oct 23): Olga Kravtsova won the Belarus CC Championships at
6 km with 22:18. Second Olga Minina (23:20) and third Aleksandra Duliba
(23:54). In men´s 8 km race winner was Sergey Platonov with 27:01
beating Igor Teteryukov 27:10 and Vladimir Bondarenko (28:32).

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