by Larry EderDavid Oliver, who ran the fastest 60m hurdle race of the year, will not be running at the USA Indoor this weekend. Through his coach, Brooks Johnson, RBR was told last weekend, that David, ” had accomplished what he needed to do indoors, and now it is all about World Champs.”
RBR translated that as Oliver’s slight strain needed some rest and Albuquerque was probably not in the cards.
Galen Rupp, who ran the new AR for 5,000 meters last weekend in Birmingham, UK, will be running the 3,000 meters in Albuquerque to give Bernard Lagat a real challenge for this USA Indoor champs.
Just got word that Lj Van Zyl just broke the South African record for the 400m hurdles, with his early run of 47.68 on a very cold and rainy track in Pretoria, South Africa. The 400m hurdles is an example of hell on earth, even in a good race, where one combines the lactic acid overload of the 400 meters, with the necessity of clearing hurdles, when one’s body would rather do anything but that action. Add cold rain, Van Zyl must be pretty fit!
OLIVER
OUT
ALBUQUERQUE
(USA): US hurdles record holder David
Oliver is the latest withdrawal from the weekend´s US Indoor Championships.
Aries Merritt is also not competing, so the title is now an wide open issue.
Best in the list is Jarret Eaton. Also not competing will be Amy Begley in the
women 3000 m
and Cory Martin in shot put.
SPIEGELBURG
IS ILL
LEIPZIG (GER): German pole vault record
holder Silke Spiegelburg will not compete during the weekend at the national
championships. It is because of illness (virus). But she can count with Paris selection because of her high quality marks during
the season and mainly the national record 476 form Karlsruhe. But tough fight is expected for
remaining two places among Kristina Gadschiew, Lisa Ryzih, Anna Batke, Carolin
Hingst, Martina Strutz and Julia Hutter.
RUDISHA
IS IN AUSTRALIA
MELBOURNE (AUS): World record
holder and IAAF AOY in 2010 David Rudisha is already in Australia preparing for his track
debut of 2011. He will be the star in the Melbourne Track Classic on Thursday
(IAAF World Challenge) and again in Sydney
on March 19. At Olympic Park last year, the Kenyan clocked the fastest 800 m ever run on Australian
soil with a time of 1:43.15, a week after setting a 400m personal best of 45.50 in Sydney. “After running the fast time here
last year it gave me a lot of hope and after breaking the world record last
year that took a lot of pressure away. This year we have the world
championships and that is what I’m focusing on because up until now I don’t
have any major championships, despite the fact I have been running fast and
breaking the world record.,” he said for Australian media.
BERCY NEWS
PRAGUE
(CZE): Czech Republic will be represented by 16
athletes in Bercy (9 men and 7 women). Legendary Roman Sebrle leads the current
European lists and will be one of the medal favorites in his sixth appearance
in a row at this event. Another top medal hope is continental list leader at 60 m hurdles Petr Svoboda.
High in the rankings also pole vaulter Jirina Ptacnikova and Denisa Rosolova
for 400 m.
Also in the team silver medal winner from Torino 2009 Lucie Skrobakova at 60 m hurdles. Middle distance
runner Jakub Holusa is entered at both 800 m and 1500 m and will decide in
last minute about the event. 400
m hurdles specialist Zuzana Hejnova will compete in
pentathlon although she was also qualified in the 400 m. Standard holder Michal
Balner (570) will not be able to compete in the pole vault because of his hand
injury from Donetsk.
Other team members – men – 60 m: Veleba, Zilka, 400 m: Maslak, high jump: Baba,
long jump: Novotny, Wagner. Women – 60 m: Cechova, 800m: Masna, pentathlon:
Klucinova.
LAUSANNE (SUI): Ukrainian Oleksiy Kasyanov is
out from the list of invited athletes for heptathlon at European Indoor
Championships. Instead of him added is sixth best from this years list Belarus
representative Eduard Mikhan. In total 16 heptathletes will compete. Based on
2010 invited are Sintnicolaas, Kravchenko, Pahapill, El Fassi, Van Alphen, Geffrouais,
Schwarzl, Draudvila, Raja and Vos. Six are added based on 2011 headed by Sebrle
and followed with Kharlamov, Distelberger, Kislov, Van der Plaetsen and Mikhan.
In women´s pentathlon 15 athletes will compete. Based on 2010 Ennis, Klucinova,
Tyminska, Goncharova, Panteleyeva, Samuelsson, Aerts, Marcussen and Fransen.
The list from 2011 is composed by Skujyte, Nana Djimou, Sadeiko, Hejnova, Kand
and Hernando.
BUDAPEST
(HUN): Hungary will send to Paris five men and one
female athlete which is shot putter Anita Marton. Still a junior Marcell Deak
Nagy runs the 400 m,
Tamas Kazi the 800 m
and Barnabas Bene is intered to both 1500 m and 3000 m. Balazs Baji is
scheduled for 60 m
hurdles and Lajos Kurthy for shot put.
SANTANDER (ESP): Ruth Beitia
has confirmed she will compete at the European indoor championships although
she is not 100% fit. The Spanish athlete claimed victory at the Spanish indoor
championships for the 15th time although back pains have held her back in
training. Her victory convinced her she will be ready in Paris.
OTHER NEWS
BERLIN (GER): German chief of Olympic
Federation of Sports (DOSB) and IOC Vice-President Thomas Bach supported openly
German athletes in their initiative to persuade public TV stations ARD and ZDF
to broadcast live the world championships in Daegu in summer.
SAN JUAN (PUR): World record holder Leonard
Komon, Sammy Kitwara and Moses Masai are set for a showdown at the 14th World’s
Best 10K, an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, this Sunday on the Teodoro Moscoso
bridge. The battle among the Kenyan trio at the most prestigious 10km race
could produce a new course record and throated the 27-minute barrier. With the
absence of two-time champion Vivian Cheruiyot, the Puerto Rican race will crown
a new women’s champion. Informs IAAF. Two other Kenyans will be gunning for
victory, including reigning Worl Cross Country champion Joseph Ebuya (27:33 in
2008) and twice runner-up Silas Kipruto (27:28 in 2008), who lost the 2008
edition by taking a wrong turn a few metres from the finish line.
DIEKIRCH (LUX): World champion
on the track Maryam Jamal of Bahrain is the most prominent name among those
entered for Sunday’s ING Eurocross, the penultimate 2011 IAAF Cross Country
Permit Meeting. The event in Diekirch, Luxembourg, will be staged exactly three weeks
before the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria. The man to beat in the 10.2 km contest will be
Onesphore Nkunzimana of Burundi
who’ll be chasing a record fourth victory at the Eurocross. Athletes from 23
nations will compete on the 1.35 k loop course which has one significant hill.
Writes IAAF.
LAUSANNE
(SUI): Maria Trinidad Cuesta Fernández of Spain and LovÃsa Hreinsdóttir from Iceland will attend next week’s European
Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris
as special guests of the organisers after being named the grand prize winners
in European Athletics Women Leaders in Athletics survey lottery. The two lucky
ladies completed the three-part on-line survey about attitudes towards women
and women leaders in athletics, which is part of a European Union funded
project entitled ‘Closing the Leadership Gender Gap in European Athletics’, and
were automatically entered in the random draw.
TOKYO (JPN): One of the Kenyan favorites
Gideon Ngatuny is also out from Tokyo Marathon on Sunday because of an injury.
Informs Ken Nakamura. Ngatuny who has 59:50 half marathon best was planning to
debut in marathon on Sunday. Brett Larner adds that also defending champion
Masakazu Fujiwara is out of the race after coming down with a fever. 2007 Tokyo runner-up Tomoyuki
Sato is injured and will not compete too.
BARCELONA (ESP): Barcelona Marathon plans for
March 6 new participation record with 15 000 runners. Organizers are informing
in a release. Kenyan Jackson Kotut with 2:07:30 clocked excellent course record
here last year. Born in 1978, la
Marató de Barcelona is one of the oldest marathons in Spain, but its
sporting and participation level in its first 27 years did not correspond with
the prestige of the city. Except in 1992, when Barcelona organized the Olympic Games and was
in the international point of view, the marathon of the city never had more
than 4.000 runners.
FRANKFURT
(GER): German pay television Sky plans next winter to start with a special
sports news channel. It will be called Sky Sports News HD and will be
orientated mainly on sports news from Germany
and Austria.
CORAL SPRINGS (USA):
Double olympic bronze medalist in sprints Walter Dix will sponsor the Walter
Dix Invitational at his home track at Coral Springs High. Dix said he wanted to
give something back to the school and community that launched him onto the
world stage and draw attention to the sprinting tradition of Broward high
school track. Last year, Dix ran personal bests in the 100 (9.88) and 200
(19.72), but a hamstring strain ended his season in August. He said a high
volume of racing contributed to it, and he’s working with coach Rey Robinson on
aspects of form to avoid a recurrence. Local media are informing. Dix will run
his first race of the season in a 4×100 at the Penn Relays in April.
VENLOOP (NED): The ING Venloop
half marathon has announced Kenyans Stephen Chelimo, who holds the course
record of 1:01.32 and Philip Langat as favorites to for the 6th edition on
March 27th. Dutch half marathon champion Patrick Stitzinger (1:02.42) hopes to
be good competition for European entrants Jussi Utriainen from Finland, Irish
Mark Kenneally and Mariusz Gizynski from Poland. In the women’s race last
year’s runner-up Sharon Tavengwa from Zimbabwe faces Kenyan athletes
Naomi Maiyo and Joan Rotich. Triple Dutch half marathon champion Miranda
Boonstra has also confirmed her participation. Over 10.000 entrants are
registered so far reports the organization.
WARENDORF (GER): Sabrina
Mockenhaupt is the clear favorite at this weekend’s European Military cross
country championships in Germany.
Mockenhaupt will feature in the short cross and brings a solid German team to
the starting line. Her main competition will come from France with Sophie Duarte and Belgium with
Natalie de Vos.
NEW DELHI (IND): Suresh
Kalmadi, the chairman of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising
Committee, will be arrested for his involvement in the corruption linked to the
event writes Insidethegames.The claims were made as his two closest aides,
Lalit Bhanot and V K Verma, the secretary general and the director general
respectively of the Organising Committee, were appearing in a court in Delhi
charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption in in connection with
a 24 million dollar contract awarded to Swiss Timing.
LONDON
(GBR): The British
Universities and Colleges
Sport Championships (BUCS), normally a low-key event that operates in the
margins, will be centre stage next May when it becomes the first event to be
held in the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, informs insidethegames. The event, to
be held between May 4 and 7 next year, is part of a comprehensive event and
venue testing programme in the run up to the Games. The event is usually held
in Bedford. The
first official test event this year will be a 10 kilometres road
race that will take place on the loop planned for the Olympic marathon on May
30 and will be held alongside the UK Athletics 20km Race Walking Championships.
The walks course are due to use the same loop as the marathon.
MONTE CARLO
(MON): IAAF confirmed in its latest Newsletter the two years doping ban for Portugal
national javelin champion Luis Almeida (best 72.22 m). He was positive
at national championships last July and will lose his title. His ban ends on
August 25 in
2012.
ZURICH (SUI): Former top hurdler and World
Championships 1999 bronze winner Marcel Schelbert (34) is new member of the
leader board of Swiss Sports Television SSF. Schelbert clocked in 1999 48.13,
still valid Swiss record at 400
m hurdles.
RESULTS
ADLER (RUS, Feb 24): Olympic
medalist Mariya Abakumova won the Russian Winter Throws javelin title with good
65.12. Igor Sukhomlinov was the best in men´s competition with 78.03.
YALTA (UKR, Feb 24-25): Good quality men
javelin at Ukrainian Winter Throws Championships. Young Dmytro Kosinskiy
achieved in his first 80+ career competition 81.22 and won over experienced
Oleksandr Pyatnytsa who had four 80+ throws but the best 81.00 was not enough
to win. Also in women javelin new 60+ thrower emerged in Hanna Hatsko 60.10
beating favorite Vira Rebryk 59.56. Oleksiy Sokirskiy won the hammer 74.10. In
the discus wins for Oleksiy Semenov 62.20 and Kateryna Karsak 60.22.
OTROKOVICE (CZE, Feb 24): Paris
bound Roman Novotny won the long jump at International meet here with 773 cm. Jan Marcell in last
possibility to attack the Paris standard in shot put got 19.49 (19.90 was
needed). Iva Strakova won the high jump (186).
BLACKSBURG
(USA,
Feb 24): Kiani Profit won the pentathlon at ACC Championships with the final
score of 4250 points, new personal best.
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