by Larry Eder
Nick Symmonds auctioned a tattoo on his left shoulder on Ebay.
Symmonds started a “Your Twitter Name on an Olympian in 2012”eBay auction, launched on Friday, January 6th. He was auctioning the
opportunity to place a temporary tattoo on his left shoulder for the
2012 track and field season.The winner, HDC, will also use Nick on their advisory board. We congratulate Nick on his successful venture and are looking forward to seeing how this sponsorship develops.
The question comes, how will the footwear companies deal with new sponsors? How does it benefit them? Athletes, managers and the federation need to see how new sponsors add to the sport, and continue to give the footwear sponsors value on the money that they already put into the sport.
As someone who observes the sport daily noted, ” We may have to reinvent our sport and how we market and brand the sport.” What are your thoughts? Send them to runblogrun@gmail.com.
EME NEWS (JAN 18, 2012)
Klishina against top duo
GLASGOW (GBR): The Aviva Indoor Match boasts top women long jump field
with Russian European U23 Champion Darya Klishina, olympic medalist
Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria (she runs also the 60 m for Commonwealth
team) and US Funmi Jimoh. Information based on the start list available
at uk athletics web site.
Aman stripped of world title
MONACO (MON): The 2009 African Junior Championships gold medalist at
800m, Mohamed Aman of Ethiopia, has been stripped of his medal by the
IAAF for being too young to compete in those championships. According to
a statement from former IAAF General Secretary Pierre Weiss dated 27
November, 2011, which was circulated by BBC statistician Mark Butler, an
investigation determined that Aman was born 10 January 1994, making him
15 years-old when he won his gold medal in Bambous, Mauritius, on 2
August, 2009. In global junior championships, athletes must be at least
16 years of age by the end of the year during which the competition was
held. Aman did not turn 16 until ten days after that year had ended.
The new gold medalist is Kenya’s Nickson Tuwei, who clocked 1:48.91 to
Aman’s 1:48.82. The silver goes to Kenya’s David Mutinda (1:49.82) and
the bronze to South Africa’s William Mothosola, who ran 1:51.44. Informs
RRW.
Williams and Chicherova for Slovakia
BANSKA BYSTRICA (SVK): The 19th Europa SC High Jump meet (for first time
with EA Permit) in Banska Bystrica on February 8 announced both world
champions from Daegu competing. US Jesse WIlliams will come for the
fourth time seeking the first win here in his third meet of the year
after US Open and Arnstadt. He will face Bahamian duo Donald Thomas and
Trevor Barry, Czech star Jaroslav Baba and Greek Kostadinos Baniotis
among others. In the women field debut in Central Slovakia for Russian
Anna Chicherova. She will have her fourth meet of the indoor season
after Chelyabinsk (200 cm) and Antwerp with Arnstadt. Her main rival
will be title defender Italian Antonietta Di Martino who last year in
Banska Bystrica cleared Italian record of 204. Also in the field US
record holder Chaunte Howard and Canadian Commonwealth Games winner
Nicole Forrester. Last year in the favorable conditions here both world
leads of the indoor season were established (Ukhov 238 and Di Martino
204).
Nelson and Hoffa vs. Storl
NORDHAUSEN (GER): The 12th Energie Indoor shot put meet on Friday will
see US duo Adam Nelson and Reese Hoffa with Russian Aleksandr Lobynya
competing with world champion David Storl and former European champion
Ralf Bartels. 2000 spectators should also follow women competition with
home throwers Nadine Kleinert and Christina Schwanitz as top favorites.
Early season world leads 21.29 and 18.00 will be under threat.
Kenyan selection process
NAIROBI (KEN): Regarding the 10 000 m and 5000 m Olympic teams,
Athletics Kenya say they will pick a core team that will go into
training in May. There will be no 10,000m race at the national trials in
June. The number 1 to 10 runners in the 12km cross country at the
National Cross Country Championshipson February 18 will be potentials
for the 10,000m team and will be selected for early training camp. The
junior men’s 8km top athletes at the Nationals will also be considered
alongside the seniors as also to be selected will be the 10,000m team
for the World Junior Championships in Barcelona. In May, Athletics Kenya
will select the 10,000m team and pick them for training early for the
Olympics so that coaches and federation has ample time to monitor their
training. Informs The Nation.
Superb fields for US Open
NEW YORK (USA): USATF informs that Madison Square Garden will host
perhaps the best and deepest fields it has seen in several years as the
2012 Olympic track & field season kicks off in earnest with the U.S.
Open Track & Field event on Saturday, January 28. Full fields for
the meet were announced by USA Track & Field on Tuesday and indicate
that Bernard Lagat will be busy trying to win a ninth mile title in the
Garden; the men’s high jump adds American depth; and the sprints and
hurdles are even more stacked with talent than they were a week ago.
Stars such as David Oliver, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Asafa Powell, Jesse
Williams, Nesta Carter, Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson, Dawn Harper,
Kellie Wells, Tiffany Ofili Porter, and Jenn Suhr all have been
announced previously. Bershawn Jackson runs the 600 y and Jason
Richardson is the late withdrawal at 50 m hurdles.
Suhr and Simpson for Millrose Games
NEW YORK (USA): US record holder in the pole vault Jenn Suhr is also
entered in the Millrose Games’ Fred Schmertz Women’s Pole Vault event
February 11 at the Armory’s New Balance Track & Field Center,
announced today by the Armory Foundation. The rest of the field includes
Mary Saxer, former NCAA champion Lacy Janson, Israeli record holder and
Olympian Jillian Schwartz, former NCAA champion Becky Holliday and 2008
Olympian Kelsie Hendry of Canada. Reigning 1500 m World Champion Jenny
Simpson and 2008 Olympic finalist Shannon Rowbury headline an
international field in the Women’s Wanamaker Metric Mile — sponsored by
the New York Road Runners in another info about Millrose Games. Simpson,
the only woman in the field to run sub-four in the metric mile, and
Rowbury, a two-time U.S. champion, will face emerging Ethiopian star and
reigning World Indoor Champion Kalkidan Gezahegne, Canadian Nicole
Edwards Sifuentes and Spain’s Isabel Macias, all of whom have run
personal bests in the last two years. Also in the field is Serbian
record holder Marina Muncan, who ran at Villanova, and New Zealander
Lucy Van Dalen, who still runs at Stony Brook and has the fastest indoor
time among all collegians so far this winter.
OTHER NEWS
BRUSSELS (BEL) : Belgian middle distance athlete Jeroen D’Hoedt is not
going to compete at the Cross Cup race in Hannuit this weekend. D’Hoedt
is a university student and has been focusing on his exams, which makes
him unfit for the race in Hannuit reports De Morgen.
BERLIN (GER): Former world indoor heptathlon champion André Niklaus is
preparing one last time for the London Olympic Games. Niklaus has parted
with his coach Rainer Pottel and commenced with new coach Katrin Buder,
who had guided him to his world junior bronze medal. Niklaus is
planning a training camp in Tallinn in February and is going to The
United States in March to train with Olympic Champion Bryan Clay
according to leichtathletik.de.
LONDON (GBR): IOC President Jacques Rogge has revealed that his
organisation would welcome a bid for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games from
the UK. The British Olympic Association (BOA) formally declared their
interest in bidding for the competition last month by opening a process
inviting applications from cities in the UK to put themselves forward as
candidates for the event reports Insidethegames.
DUBLIN (IRE): Marathon runner Martin Fagan is suspended for two years by
Athletics Ireland after he admitted using banned performance-enhancing
drugs. The 28-year-old from tested positve for the blood-boosting drug
erythropoietin (EPO) during an out-of-competition test at his training
base in the United States last month. He admitted at a hearing in Dublin
that he had bought EPO on the internet and administered it himself
ahead of a planned appearance at last weekend’s Houston Marathon
according to Insidethegames.
BERLIN (GER): Leszek Klima, coach of German pole vaulter Silke
Spiegelburg, told leichtathletik.de that his pupil is ready to jump at
least 480. Spiegelburg just last week improved the German indoor record
to 477.
GLASGOW (GBR): Mark Lewis-Francis and Simeon Williamson will line up
against world class sprint powerhouses Asafa Powell and Kim Collins in
the Aviva Series 2012, offering fans a sneak preview of this summer’s
track action at the London Olympic Games. Lewis-Francis will line up in
the hotly contested 60m sprint at both the Aviva International Match in
Glasgow on 28 January and the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham on 18
February, while Williamson will join the high calibre 60m field at the
final meet of the UK indoor season at the NIA.
MILWAUKEE (USA): Hanson Dodge Creative (HDC), America’s leading active
lifestyle agency, announced the addition of 2008 Olympian and 2012
Olympic hopeful Nick Symmonds to the agency’s new Active Lifestyle
Advisory Board. The move is designed to deepen the agency’s
relationships with emerging and leading athletes and expand on the
overall understanding of the lives, spirit and preferences at play
within the active lifestyle marketplace. The Olympian came to HDC’s
attention during Symmonds’ “Your Twitter Name on an Olympian in 2012”
eBay auction, launched on Friday, January 6th. He was auctioning the
opportunity to place a temporary tattoo on his left shoulder for the
2012 track and field season. Because of HDC’s recent winning bid,
Symmonds will sport the agency’s @HansonDodge Twitter profile name
tattoo at upcoming races, including the Sydney Grand Prix. He will also
wear it at the 2012 London Olympic Games, should he qualify.
MANAMA (BRN): Bahraini Athletics Federation informs that the time of
2:07:59 by Adam Ismail Khamis as the winner of the Marathon at Valencia
last November was officially ratified as a new National Marathon
Record. The runner was erroneously entered/listed as a Kenyan (Isaiah
Kiplagat Kosgei was his name before he decided to change his nationality
and to compete for Bahrain) in the official results. With this
performance he is the fastest Asian marathon runner for 2011. Informs
Heinrich Hubbeling.
RESULTS
KRASNODAR (RUS, Jan 14-15): At regional meet olympic medalist Yevgeniy
Lukyanenko cleared 560 in the pole vault. Vasiliy Kupreyev leaped to 790
in the long jump. Yulia Katsura got 7.30 in the 60 m and Marina Goncharova totalled 4343 points in the pentathlon.
MINSK (BLR, Jan 18): Solid sprints at Minsk Winter indoor meet. Maksim
Lynsha got 7.72 at 60 m hurdles and Yulia Balykina achieved 7.25 in the
women 60 m.
HANNOVER (GER, Jan 18): Eike Onnen cleared 223 at the indoor high jump meet here.
PRAHA (CZE, Jan 17): European indoor champion Denisa Rosolova started
the season with fast 37.78 at 300 m. In the men´s race Jiri Vojtik was
the fastest with 33.98.
