2011 AREVA Paris: Bolt & Lemaitre, Robles VS. Oliver, Event by Event Preview, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

Thompson, Bolt, Lemaitre, 2011 Compeed Golden Gala, Roma, photo by PhotoRun.net

Dayron Robles, 2011 FBK Hengelo Games, photo by PhotoRun.net

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Turner, Oliver, Xiang, 2011 Nike Pre Classic, photo by PhotoRun.net

The AREVA Paris meeting is a meet that gives one hope. One keen observer of the sport put it this way, ” Since Laurent Boquillet took over the management of the Paris meeting, it has been resurrected. Laurent understands the sport as a former footwear executive, sponsorship manager, and athlete. The move to the current hotel, the attention to detail in the media center, even the quality of the food has changed. AREVA Paris shows what can be done when someone who knows and cares about the sport gets involved in a major meeting. “
The press conference for Bolt on Wednesday, July 7, had 134 media members and, a veteran of Bolt media days noted, ” it was one of the best.”
The interviews today with Robles & Oliver were the highlight for me. The most telling moment was, when Dayron and David were both asked how often they had raced, they both acted as if they did not know. Then slowly,
Robles remembered last race, and times of both, and they went, race by race, for four minutes, to the astonishment of the media, over each of their races-a truly unique moment.
Right now, for me, the 100 meters is a great event, but the competition, the truth of our sport, the life blood of our sport, is at the 110m hurdles, the 100m hurdles, the men’s triple jump, the men’s shot put and the middle distances. That Robles and Oliver and Xiang will race this year is tremendous.

Bolt is Bolt. Usain is a phenomenon that fills stadiums, and when stadiums are filled, the meets get better and better. It is something we should note: Bolt and competition fills our meets. It is a juggling act to be a successful meet director, and Laurent Boquillet has developed a masterpiece. Tres bon, Monsieur Boquillet!

Bolt (and Lemaitre), Robles vs. Oliver
PARIS (FRA): Samsung Diamond League continues with AREVA in Paris on Friday at the
monumental Stade de France, temperatures up to 20 degrees, hopefully no
rain is the forecast. The highlight is Bolt with Lemaitre at the 200 m,
but also Robles vs. Oliver at 110 m hurdles. Meet records expected
mainly in menÂ´s 200 m and women javelin, also some world leads are very possible.

Event by event preview:
Men
200 m: Bolt wants to be faster than in Oslo 19.86, MR for sure (20.01), can Lemaitre lower his French record (20.16) ?
400 m: Wariner has sub 45 as only one from the field, J. Borlee is the
best European, Bartholomew at the end not there. Pistorius hopes for PB.
1500 m: Attack for first sub 3:30 of the year. Lagat, Laalou, Kiprop the top names.
Steeple: World champ Kemboi in his first big European meet of the year,
MMB wants also run fast, will he come back to Oslo idea to break as
first European 8 minutes? Other top Kenyans resting for the trials.
110mH: Clash of the evening: Robles vs. Oliver. Cuban is unbeaten,
Oliver lost once to Liu in Shanghai. Their head to head per Tilastopaja
is 16:4 for Robles. But since September 2008 they met only once.
LJ: Saladino, Watt, Lapierre vs. Europeans (Reif and Britons with home Gomis). Or Mokoena waiting behind?
HJ: Small Russian champs, all best five competing.
PV: Lavillenie likes this stadium, looks like world lead is a real possibility (so far 584).
DT: Harting so far unbeaten this year. Will it remain?

Women
100 m: VCB can attack Marion Jones 10.88 meet record. Will Lalova confirm sub 11 shape from home track?
800 m: World leader there, US champ there, Meadows, also Semenya, Hachlaf, looks like sub 1:58 could be possible.
5000 m: Defar, Melkamu and many other Ethiopians fighting for Daegu
qualification. If good pacing first years sub 14:30 a possibility.
400mH: Jamaicans vs. Stambolova, Hejnova waiting behind, can young Tracey attack world junior record 54.40?
TJ: Savigne and Saladuha for first years 15 meters?
SP: Adams beat Ostapchuk in Oslo, but in the meantime the Belarussian improved the world lead.
JT: Another clash of top trio: Abakumova vs. Obergfoll vs. Spotakova. Meet record 64.59 should go.

Gill 20.75 in the qualifiying round

LILLE (FRA, Jul 7): During first session of second day at World Youth
Championships New Zealand young star Jacko Gill achieved easy 20.75 in
the shot put qualification. Fastest in boys 3000 m heats was Kenyan
William Sitonik in 7:54,09. Australian Liz Parnov cleared 390 in girls
pole vault qualification. In the boys 1500 m the fastest in the first
round Ethiopian Teshone Dirirsa 3:45.32. French Wilhelm Belocian was the
best in the 110 m hurdles heats 13.78 and US Nnenya Hailey posted world
leading youth 58.44 in the girls 400 m hurdles heats. After six events
in octathlon leading position for Australian Jake Stein with 4969 points
and bests over the hurdles 14.25 and in the high jump 198.

Bubka comments on Durban decision

DURBAN (RSA): IAAF Senior-Vice President and IOC Member Sergey Bubka
commented on the election of 2018 Winter Olympics host. “First thing I
would like to say immediately after the voting is “thanks” to all three
candidate cities. I want to thank to hundreds of people who worked on
the bids and hundreds of thousands who live in the candidate cities and
inspired the bid committees. Your work and your inspiration help not
only your cities – it helps the sports, it helps the whole planet. All
three 2018 candidate cities held on the tradition. Several months before
the vote it was clean – whoever the winner is it would be a good
choice. Both IOC Evaluation Commission and IOC president Mr. Jacques
Rogge said every city candidate deserves to host Winter Olympics in all
aspects including one of the most important – “green” concepts. To
PyeongChang – for brand new Alpenasia resort, the best in this part of
the world, for their motivation, self-belief, persistency and tenacity.
To Munich – for their great idea of using legendary Summer Olympics
1972′ venues for the Winter Games. To Annecy – for splendid Alpine
Olympics concept which harmoniously combined the unique splendid nature
of Alps and hi-tech ideas. The most helpful factor for PyeongChang team
was their experience. It was the third Winter Olympics bid in a row for
them. During these years Koreans made their bid close to perfect. They
fulfilled all the promises given to IOC concerning venues,
infrastructure, logistic. Korea held plenty of major championships in
winter sports which gave a boost to winter sport in the whole Asia.
Thanks to all this Korea has got a good sporting reputation. It is a
lesson for those who intend to host Olympics in the near future – for
Ukraine in particular – experience in hosting sport events gives an
advantage.”

Powell confirmed for Gyulai Memorial

BUDAPEST (HUN): It is now confirmed world leader Asafa Powell will run
the 100 m at the inaugural Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Budapest on July
30. It is his third confirmed meet for the pre-Daegu European circuit
(other two are Birmingham and London). The main rivals in Budapest will
his training partner Michael Frater and US Darvis Patton. Also
announced were already earlier Veronica Campbell-Brown, two-time World
Athlete of the Year, Sanya Richards-Ross, and discus throwing legend,
Virgilijus Alekna. The event which will take place on 30 July in the
Ferenc PuskÃ¡s Stadium, in Budapest, is named after one of the most
recognised and most popular Hungarian sports diplomats, the former
General Secretary of both the International Sports Press Association
(AIPS) and the International Association of Athletics Federations
(IAAF), who passed away five years ago. Other top Hungarian athletes,
like KrisztiÃ¡n Pars, who is leading the All-Athletics.com World Hammer
throw Ranking, and European 110m Hurdles bronze medallist, DÃ¡niel Kiss
will also compete in Budapest. Sports Director of the event Attila
Spiriev, Managing Director of All-Athletics.com, is negotiating with
further top athletes to make the inaugural IstvÃ¡n Gyulai Memorial a
memorable sporting event in Hungary.

OTHER NEWS

LAUSANNE (SUI): The month of June saw the outdoor track & field
season get into full swing. Following major competitions such as the
SPAR European Team Championships, European Cup Combined Events, European
Cup 10000m and a number of top one-day meetings, European Athletics is
pleased to announce the nominations for the European Athlete of the
Month for June representing 13 countries. At the end of each month, a
panel of experts produces a shortlist of the outstanding athletes and
performances achieved by European athletes during that month, which is
emailed to European athletics media and thousands of fans who have
signed up to receive news from European Athletics. The voting will close
on Monday 18 July at noon CET.

PARIS (FRA): South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, the famed “Blade Runner”,
has only 12 days left to get the all-important qualification time that
would allow him to compete in the world championships later this month.
Agencies are informing. After missing out on the Beijing Olympics by
just 0.3sec, at stake now is the qualifying time of 45.25 to ensure a
slot in the South African squad at the World Championships in the
indvidual race. “We’ve had our (South African) national trials (in
March). We’ve got until the cut-off date on July 15, but I’ve had
extension through to July 19 because I have two more races,” said
Pistorius, who ran a best of 45.61sec at the trials. Even when not
achieving the time he still might be selected for the relay, in case the
relay is qualified.

PARIS (FRA): Another blow for former world 110m hurdles champion Ladji
DoucourÃ© who has to end his season due to another injury. The French
hurdler is suffering from an injury to his hamstrings following his race
in Sotteville-lÃ¨s-Rouen where he ran a disappointing 13.73. DoucourÃ©
has also withdrawn from the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Paris this
Friday reports AFP.

HAMBURG (GER): German European indoor champion Sebastian Bayer will miss
the Paris Areva DL in the long jump. Knee problems is the reason. The
injury is not too serious he might be ready to jump on Sunday in
Dillingen.

LONDON (GBR): Jo Pavey and Louise Damen who both achieved the
qualifying time with tremendous performances at the Virgin London
Marathon in April have withdrawn from next month’s World Championships
in Daegu. Pavey has sustained a minor foot injury and has had to ease
off her required training schedule for three to four weeks so took the
decision to withdraw as a precautionary measure. The former
Commonwealth 5000 metres silver medallist if recovering may target an
autumn marathon. Meanwhile Damen will receive treatment on a sports
hernia this summer and has also withdrawn to ensure she can regain full
fitness ahead of her 2012 build up.

BIRMINGHAM (GBR): Andy Pozzi the newly crowned UK Junior 110 metres
hurdles record holder is part of a 57-strong Aviva Great Britain and
Northern Ireland team for the European Junior Championships in Tallinn,
Estonia, from 21-24 July. Pozzi coached by hurdles guru Malcolm Arnold,
set his time of 13.29seconds in Mannheim, Germany, at the weekend and
now has the realistic target of securing the European age group title
won by his training partner Lawrence Clarke two years ago. Also ranked
number one in Europe, World Junior 100m champion Jodie Williams will
attempt a sprint double as she lines up in two individual events, plus
the 4 x 100m relay, in Tallinn. Emelia Gorecka and Jonny Hay, both
coached by Mick Woods, lead the European endurance rankings in the 3000m
and 5000m.

AMSTERDAM (NED) : The Netherlands is sending 29 athletes to the European
U23 championships including two 4x100m relay teams. Most important
medal contender is Melissa Boekelman in the shot put.

PARIS (FRA): French high jumper Melanie Melfort feels ready to win a
medal at the world championships in Daegu she said for athle.com. The
French record holder continues her strong season with competitions in
Birmingham and Monaco as well as the French national championships.

MINSK (BLR): Belarus is sending 21 athletes for European U23
Championships in Ostrava. They are 11 men and 10 women. Top names are
long jumper Anastasiya Mironchik-Ivanova, Eduard Mikhan in decathlon,
Yana Maksimava for heptathlon and other former world and european youth
and junior medalists, mainly in throwing events.

RESULTS

SACRAMENTO (USA, Jul 6): Track and field legend Zola Budd Pieterse was
back on the track, or rather the course, at Granite Regional park
competing in the World Masters Athletic Championships’ 8 km. Local media
are writing. Things looked good for the 45-year old South African as
she led the pack of runners from the start, legs churning as they have
done in many international competitions over the years. But the pace
proved a touch too quick, and Spain’s Soledad Castro Solino closed hard
in the last two miles to win the race in 28:52.7. Budd Pieterse was
second in 29:19.9.

TEL AVIV (ISR, Jul 6): During first day of 75th Israeli national
championships Yochai Halevi achieved 16.77 (+0.3) in the triple jump,
Russians cleared 219 in high jump, Sergey Milokumov and Andrey Tereshin
with local star and Youth Olympic Games winner Dmitriy Kroyter beeing
third with 216. Belarus guest Anastasiya Shvedova cleared 450 in the
pole vault and equalled the all-comers record. Jillian Schwartz was
second 424. Another meet record by Russian hammer thrower Anna Bulgakova
66.85.

CORRECTION

LILLE (FRA): In the girls 3000 m the right order was top 3 for Africans, fourth place for Russian Alena Kudashkina.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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