VIVIAN
AND MAKAU

NAIROBI
(KEN): Remarkable season that produced world gold medals in the 5000 and 10 000
m and the cross country saw Vivian Cheruiyot named the 2011 Kenya Sports
Personality of the Year on Wednesday night at the Safaricom Kenya Sports
Personality of the Year Awards (Soya) gala. It was a double celebration
for Athletics Kenya when Patrick Makau and Cheruiyot walked away with the top
prizes. Makau was named Sportsman of the Year after clocking marathon world
record. Ethiopia’s top athlete, Meselech Melkamu, was the chief guest at the
awards ceremony sponsored by Safaricom, National Bank of Kenya, CCK,
SuperSport, Multichoice Kenya, NSSF and Huawei. Informs The Nation.

SHUSTOV
EARLY BEGIN

MOSCOW
(RUS): Russian High Jump European Champion from Barcelona Aleksandr Shustov
will start his season already early in January in Russia. His first event will
be on January 7 in Yekaterinburg at Luch Meeting and on January 9 at
Lukashevich Memorial in Chelyabinsk. Also Russian Winter on February 5 is in
the plan. „We agreed with my coach that I will jump indoors because
training is going well but we have no specific goals. In case I will
qualify for Istanbul it will be good, but if not nothing happens, main priority
is Olympic Games,” said Shustov.

COLLINS
PLANS FOR ISTANBUL

AMSTERDAM
(NED): Double gold medalist from Daegu and former World Champion at 100 m Kim
Collins of St. Kitts has plans for indoor season 2012. At age of 35 he wants to
compete at World Indoor Championships in Istanbul and also at the meetings in
the weeks before. Collins has a 6.50 best at 60 m from last winter season
and so far won two silvers at World Indoors in 2003 and 2008.

MERRITT
FOR 500 M WORLD BEST

NEW YORK
(USA): Millrose Games meet director Ray Flynn announced that 2008 Olympic Gold
medal winner LaShawn Merritt will compete in the 500m at the 105th Millrose
Games on Feb. 11 at The Armory. Merritt will attempt to break the world indoor
best for 500m. No one has ever broken one minute in the indoor 500m with Ken
Lowery holding the World best (no records officially ratified at this distance)
with 1:00.17 since 1987 (Indianapolis).

ROBLES
RETURNS

DUSSELDORF
(GER): First top names for 7th PSD Bank Meeting in Dusseldorf on February 10
(EA Indoor Permit) are in shot put. German world champion David Storl will meet
with olympic winner Tomasz Majewski and world indoor champion 2008 and 2010
Christian Cantwell. Summer world record holder and olympic gold medalist Dayron
Robles returns for 60 m Hurdles and old timer Kim Collins is scheduled for the
60 m. Live TV transmission is secured by Eurosport which recently signed for
the event for the next three years.

RECORD
NUMBERS

MONACO
(MON): IAAF informs that the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul (March
9-11) are shaping up to become the biggest gathering in terms of participating
nations in the history of these championships, exceeding the previous record
set four years ago in Valencia. Following the deadline for Preliminary Entry
Lists last Monday 12 December, no fewer than 160 of the IAAF’s Member Federations
have confirmed their intention of sending a team to Istanbul. In Valencia
2008 147 countries took part in the event with the second best gathering taking
place in Doha 2010 with 142 nations competing. With the Final Entry Lists
finalised on 27 February 2012 (midnight Monaco time), Istanbul 2012 is on track
to break the record in terms of participating national. In term of
participating athletes, the previous record belongs to the edition of Paris
1997 where 712 men and women competed followed by Budapest 2004 with a total
of 677 athletes. Again, Istanbul could break more records as no fewer than 847
athletes have been entered in the Preliminary Entry Lists, 450 men and 397
women, figures which are on line to become the highest in the history of the World
Indoor Championships.

BARMASAI
AND MERGIA WILL BE BACK

DUBAI
(UAE): Reigning champions David Barmasai of Kenya and Ethiopian Aselefech
Mergia will return to the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon next month
determined not only to defend their titles but strengthen their bids for
Olympic Games selection. This year’s race saw Kenya’s Barmasai emerge as the
surprise package in the men’s contest, storming home for the second win of his
short marathon career in a time of 2:07:18 while Mergia clinched the women’s
title for Ethiopia in 2:22:45. With the Dubai route renowned as arguably the
flattest in the world, organisers apart from the pair of current title holders
expect to see a stellar up line up attracted to be alongside them at the
race on 27 January. Informs David Martin.

OTHER NEWS

AMSTERDAM
(NED) : Dutch 800m runner Arnoud Okken is ending his 800m career to focus fully
on the 1500m. Okken suffered with two different injuries in the last year and
decided he can no longer fulfill the speed training required for the 800m. The
29-year old athlete now wants to qualify for the London Olympic Games in the
1500m writes losseveter.nl.

BERLIN
(GER): Malte Mohr hopes to win a third consecutive German national indoor
title at the DLV German indoor championships in Karlsruhe on February 25th and
26th. Mohr is aiming to compete in all major German championships in 2012 and
added that he aims to jump over 6 meters. Apart from Mohr a group of
German athletes has already confirmed their presence at the national indoor
championships including Raul Spank, David Storl, Martina Strutz, Silke
Spiegelburg, Christian Reif and Sebastian Bayer reports leichtathletik.de.

KINGSTON
(JAM): On Saturday Dec 3rd, more than 200 Agents gathered in Tokyo, Paris and
St Louis to gain certification for a new IAAF Examination, exclusive to
agents who have been licensed for less than seven years. Prior to the exam many
agents expressed concern of the need to write such a test, as they already
represents many top athletes and clearly are fully aware of the rules and how
the business works. However now that the results are public the overall pass
mark was 83%, which showed a high degree of professionalism by active
agents within the IAAF writes Trackalerts.

NEW YORK
(USA): World 400m Champion Kirani James said, continued national support of
athletes is important, as they set sights on Olympic medals in 2012. James, who
came to New York this weekend to receive an award from The Grenada Boys’
Secondary School’s Alumni Association of New York, warns that attention would
be drawn to himself and Rondell Bartholomew in the one-lap event, but that they
are prepared for the challenge when the Olympic Games come round according to
Trackalerts.com.

LONDON
(GBR): McDonald’s staff have been competing fiercely for the chance to work in
the Olympic Park during the Games next summer. The company, a worldwide
Olympic sponsor, has four restaurants in the Olympic Park during London 2012,
and 2,000 crew members will be chosen to work in those outlets. More than 6,000
staff have been involved in the competition to work in the Park, with 50
managers also being selected from existing ranks to lead crews at the Games
next summer reports Insidethegames.

LONDON
(GBR): The British Olympic Association (BOA) announced that it has filed a formal
appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), challenging a decision
last month by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that declared its
controversial anti-doping bylaw non-compliant, which could leave the door open
for athletes like Dwain Chambers to represent Team GB at London 2012. The BOA
and WADA have agreed that CAS is the appropriate forum for resolution of this
matter, and both parties are seeking to arrange matters so that a decision
can be made by CAS before the end of April 2012 according to
insidethegames.biz.

PERTH
(AUS): Three of Australia’s best field-event athletes will square off against
world-class competitors from the United States at the Perth Track Classic in
February. Olympic discus champion Stephanie Brown-Trafton, US javelin record
holder Kara Patterson and former US pole vault champion Mark Hollis have all
accepted invitations to the February 11 meet. They will square off against 2009
world discus champ Dani Samuels, Commonwealth javelin silver medallist
Kimberley Mickle and Olympic and world pole vault champion Steve Hooker writes
theage.com.au.

LONDON
(GBR): Senior officials from the British Olympic Association are considering
whether to attend the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year awards after no
women were included on the 10-strong shortlist. BOA chairman Lord Moynihan and
chief executive Andy Hunt have been invited to next Thursday awards and are
still considering whether to attend reports walesonline.co.uk.

SAN
ANTONIO (USA): The Bowerman Award, which debuted in 2009, will be presented to
the nation’s top male and female collegiate track and field athletes from the
2011 indoor and outdoor seasons. This year’s men’s finalists are Washington
State’s Jeshua Anderson, Florida State’s Ngoni Makusha of Zimbabwe and
Florida’s Christian Taylor. The women’s finalists are Texas A&M’s Jessica
Beard, LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan and Arkansas’ Tina Sutej of Slovenia. Oregon
decathlete Ashton Eaton and Virginia Tech hurdler Queen Harrison are the 2010
winners of the award.

OSLO
(NOR): Olympic javelin winner Andreas Thorkildsen signed with Coca-Cola. He
will become ambassador of the brand in the activities the company is preparing
ahead of Olympic Games in London.

BUDAPEST
(HUN): World hammer silver winner Krisztian Pars is Hungarian male Athlete of
the Year 2011. On the women side the top position also for a hammer
thrower. Eva Orban was a silver winner at World University Games. In the
U23 category the top positions for hurdler Balazs Baji (silver in Ostrava at
European U23 event) and shot putter Anina Marton. In the junior category 400 m
European junior champion Marcell Deak Nagy and hurdler Petra Munkacsy. Hammer
throwers won top positions in youth category. Super talent Bence Pasztor who
won World Youth Championships and European Youth Olympic Festival and Beatrix
Banga was 5th there and 6th in Lille.

JOHANNESBURG
(RSA): Athletics South Africa announced the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
of the Federation as Frik Vermaak. Vermaak’s experience ensured that he was
chosen for the position out of 25 candidates. He has been involved in athletics
since 1978 in various capacities, some of which include Race Walking Coach, LOC
member of various meetings including the first Soweto Marathon, Team Manager
between 1986 and 1999 and also as Chairperson of the South African Athletics
Statisticians (SAAS). Vermaak has also been involved in Radio and TV sports
commentary for close to 20 years. Athletics South Africa President James Evans welcomed
Vermaak and expressed his belief that Vermaak will assist in reviving the
fortunes of athletics in the country. “Frik has immense experience in the sport
and in business. He convinced the Board, during an exhaustive process, that he
was the correct candidate and we are sure that his appointment will be the
first step in the process towards putting athletics back at the top of the
sporting pile in South Africa.” Informs ASA website.

MADRID
(ESP): Spanish athlete Josephine Onyia has been suspended for 2 years after
another positive anti-doping test. Onyia previously tested positive in 2008
after testing positive for Methylhexanamine and Clenbuterol but only received a suspension
of 2 years after the IAAF went to the CAS to overrule the Spanish Federation’s
decision to not suspend Onyia. The IAAF could again overrule the RFEA’s
decision as a second doping offence could mean a life ban from the
sport reports supersport.com. EME NEWS already informed about it, but the
verdict of Spanish Federation was not known at that time.

RESULTS

BARQUISIMETO
(VEN, Dec 13): During Venezuelan National Games new national record in
decathlon by William Valor with 7691 points. Informs Venezuelan federation
website. In statistics is a better mark by Douglas Fernandez 7734 points
back in 1983.