BOLT
FOR MONACO

MONACO
(MON): Fastest man on earth confirmed his first meet in post Trials and pre
Games period. Usain Bolt will return after last year debut to Herculis Meet of
Monaco (part of Samsung Diamond League). But this time on July 20 he will run
the 200 m (in 2011 the 100 m in 9.88). Bolt confirmed this will be his last
meet before London Olympic Games. His aim could be the meet record 19.72 by
Tyson Gay from 2010. “Monaco will be my last race before the Olympics and I am
looking forward to putting on a great show for the fans. It is going to be
my second time racing in Monaco. I love the city and the weather is always
good,” he was quoted by the IAAF. He is confirmed so far in the pre Trials
period for Ostrava, Rome and Oslo, with 100 m races on all three places. He
should also run in Kingston on May 5, but the event is not yet confirmed. There
is also a possibility that Bolt will open his season this Saturday at
UTech meet in Kingston in the relay running for his club Racers TC.

SEMENYA
VS. JELIMO

OSTRAVA
(CZE): 51st Golden Spike of Ostrava (IAAF World Challenge) will see on May 25
first serious duel of two champion 800 m female runners. Olympic winner and
fresh world indoor champion Pamela Jelimo will compete against 2009 World
champion and Daegu silver medalist Caster Semenya. It will be special because
the duel will be staged in Czech Republic which has special relationship to
women 800 m. Invited as guests will be still world record holder Jarmila
Kratochvilova and 1999 World Champion Ludmila Formanova. Another all-time hero
will be also present, legendary Maria Mutola will be there as coach of Semenya.
And to add the spice, Mutola is the meet record holder with 1:57.72 from 2004. „Good
to compete in the country of the world record holder, I´m looking forward to
meet her. My training is going well, we have this weekend our nationals. I hope
to be ready for a fast time at the time of Ostrava,” Semenya was quoted as
saying. Actually, they both ran already together at last year Pre Classic in
Eugene, Semenya was high quality 2nd (1:58.88), but Jelimo had her only race of
2011 (11th, 2:09.12). This time in Olympic year both should arrive to Czech
Republic in good shape and ready for top times. Semenya is running on Friday at
nationals the 800 m heats with finals on the programme of Saturday in Port
Elizabeth.

WORLD
RECORD ATTACK

ROTTERDAM
(NED): Kenyan trio Moses Mosop, Sammy Kitwara and Peter Kirui is aiming about
attacking the marathon world record 2:03:38 of Patrick Makau in Rotterdam on
Sunday. World record bonus offered is 350 000 USD. Mosop is the second fastest
ever in any conditions with 2:03:06 Boston last year. Kitwara with fast half
marathons is debuting and Kirui competed in first marathon last year in
Frankfurt as pacemaker and finished sixth in 2:06:31. Race Director Mario
Kadiks stated that everything is ready for a fast race, the only thing he
can not control is the weather. Forecast says 10 degrees and cloudy.

OTHER NEWS

LINZ
(AUT): Linz Marathon on April 22 aims for 2:10 men winning time. Kenyans Julius
Karinga and David Kisang with 2:08:54. Austrian runners Christian Pflughl and
Markus Hohenwarter will aim for olympic standard 2:14.

MELBOURNE
(AUS): The straight will be ablaze when the 90th Australian Athletics
Championships begin at Lakeside Stadium on Friday as Olympic hopefuls a plenty
take to the track chasing national crowns and Athletics Australia qualifying
stands for the Olympic Games. Leading the charge in the women’s short sprints
is Melissa Breen, who will join her IAAF world championship teammates Hayley
Butler and Charlotte Van Veenendaal. Returning national champion Aaron
Rouge-Serret, meanwhile, headlines the men’s short sprints. He will be joined
in the 100m by four-time national champion Josh Ross and Stawell Gift winner
Matt Wiltshire. The 200m entry lists include Commonwealth Games 400m silver
medallist Sean Wroe and Max Waldron. In the 400m, 19-year-old national champion
Steven Solomon will duel with world championships 4x400m bronze medallist Ben
Offereins and NSWIS scholarship holders Kevin Moore and Matt Lynch. Middle
distance entry lists include Tamsyn Manou (her last nationals), Zoe Buckman,
Kaila McKnight, Belinda Martin, Victoria Mitchell, Jeremy Roff and Jeff
Riseley.

PARIS
(RSA): Legendary South African runner Hendrick Ramaala is aiming to clinch
Olympic Games selection for a fifth occasion with a solid display in
Sunday’s Paris Marathon. Ramaala knows South Africa’s selectors intend choosing
their three runners based on fastest times. That means he has to improve on his
current season’s best of 2:12:12. The 40-year-old veteran achieved that mark at
the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon in January but feels he can go much
quicker over the Paris course. Ramaala knowing it is imperative to beat the
performances of his three faster younger rival Lusapho April (2:09:25), Stephen
Mokoka (2:10:29) and Coolboy Malinga (2:10:43) says he is confident about the
task facing him. „I know the course very well and I’m confident that I will
succeed,” said the former New York City marathon champion. Writes David Martin.

LONDON
(GBR): Author John Bryant a very close friend of Chris Brasher gives an
honest insight into the career of a man who rarely took no for an answer
and had many personal faults – but who will always be admired and remembered
for gifting the nation with the London Marathon. Brasher’s single mindedness
and lack of tact was legendary throughout a career which saw him help pace
Roger Bannister to the world’s ever first sub 4 minute mile and controversially
win the 1956 Olympic 3000 meters steeplechase gold medal after initially being
disqualified. Writes David Martin.

MONACO
(MON): IAAF quickly approved both combined events world indoor records from the
championships in Istanbul. The 6645 by Asthon Eaton in heptathlon and 5013 by
Natalia Dobrynska in pentathlon. Also ratified is the 501 pole vault world
indoor record by Yelena Isinbaeva at the XL galan of Stockholm on February 23.
That leaves not ratified from 2012 indoor season only two junior boys marks
(3000 m 7:32.89 by Isiach Koech and heptathlon 6022 points of Gunnar Nixon).

VIENNA
(AUT): Kenyan John Kiprotich targets the first sub 2:07 time on Austrian soil
in Sunday’s Vienna City Marathon. The defending champion intends to improve his
personal best of 2:07:08. He will be one of five Kenyans in the race, who have
run the distance faster than 2:08. A personal record will be the goal for
the defending women’s champion as well: Fate Tola (Ethiopia) took the Vienna
City Marathon with 2:26:21 in 2011 and is now eager to improve this time.
Organisers of Austria’s biggest sporting event have registered a record
number of 36,000 entries. This includes other running events staged parallel to
the marathon on Sunday. The event will be shown live on the internet on Sunday
from 8.40 am at: www.vienna-marathon.com

RIO
MAIOR (POR): IAAF Race Walking Challenge continues on Saturday with the 21st
edition of the Grande Prémio Internacional de Rio Maior in Portugal. Higher
international quality is seen in the men start list for the 20 km race.
Mexicans Eder Sanchez and Omar Zepeda and mainly Slovak top walker Matej Toth
will aim for sub 1:20 times. Also to note Irish Robert Heffernan and other
South American walkers with home favorite Joao Vieira. Women race will be more
Portugal orientated also because there are more candidates than 3 allowed
places for Olympic Games. Most experienced Susana Feitor dreams about 6th
olympic participation. But also thinking London are Vera Santos, Ines
Henriques, and Ana Cabecinha. Spanish Beatriz Pascual and Irish world medalist
from Berlin Olive Loughnane along with German Sabine Krantz are the top
international walkers here.

LONDON
(GBR): Defending Olympic 400 m champion Christine Ohuruogu has amazed coaching
staff by clocking better training times than she managed before her triumph in
Beijing four years ago reports The Telegraph. After an impressive run as part
of the British 4x400m team in Istanbul Ohuruogu now also in training confirms
she could successfully come back after an injury slowed her down since 2010.
She might start her season in California at small meets and also run the relay
at Penn Relays.

GEORGE
TOWN (CAY): The women’s 400 hurdles event at the Cayman Invitational on
Wednesday May 9 will certainly be considered one of the most exciting on the
programme reports trackalerts.com. At least four Olympians are expected to be
in the blocks including Tiffany Williams of the United States, Ajoke Odumosu of
Nigeria, and Shevon Stoddart and Nickeisha Wilson of Jamaica. Also rising star
Ristannana Tracey is set to join the field.

LONDON
(GBR): The British Olympic Association has called for the minimum ban for
serious doping offences to be increased to four years and exclusion from at
least one Olympic Games according to The Telegraph. In a submission to the
World Anti-Doping Agency, the BOA has also called for all national Olympic
committees to be granted the right to impose additional sanctions on athletes
who break doping rules.

NEW YORK
(USA): Defending Olympic 400m champion Lashwan Merritt told media he would be
interested in racing some of the fastest NFL players after the London Olympic
Games. Meritt explained that it would give more attention to the sport and
added that he is confident he can take on the fastest NFL players. When banned
for taking prohibited substances the American athlete admitted that he had
plans to change sports to the NFL according to fastlifeshow.com.

TORONTO
(CAN): Former 100 m hurdles world champion Perdita Felicien is running well and
looking good now that she’s recovering from an Achilles tendon problem reports
The Globe and Mail. Her coach, Les Gramantik, told the newspaper he is happy about
the way Felicien is progressing and is positive about the Olympic Games.
Felicien is set to compete at the Samsung Diamond League meeting of Doha on May
11th .

ATLANTA
(USA): CNN’s show Human to Hero caught up with Veronica Campbell Brown to talk
about London 2012 and her attempt to win three consecutive 200m gold medals at
the Olympic Games. Campbell Brown also added she is trying to qualify for the
100m, in which she was world champion in 2007 and runner-up in 2005 and 2011.

MAURITIUS
(MRI): IAAF informs that for the second season running the African Combined
Events Championships provide the starting point for the annual IAAF Combined
Events Challenge. The championships are hosted by Mauritius, as they were in
2011, and take place over the weekend of 14 / 15 April, heading-up a season
of 11 meetings which compose the Challenge in 2012. Last year’s African
Combined Events champions, Ali Kamé of Madagascar and the more heralded
Margaret Simpson of Ghana return to compete again this weekend in Mauritius.

LONDON
(GBR): CNN writes that competitors who want to run the risk of taking
performance-enhancing substances before or during this year’s Summer Olympics
will face the most sophisticated anti-doping operation in the history of the
Games, according to London 2012 organizers. More than 6250 samples of blood and
urine will be tested during both the Olympics and Paralympics–four years ago in
Beijing that figure was around 4500 — with around 150 scientists on duty
around the clock. For the first time in Olympics history, a private
sponsor–pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) — will be aiding the
effort, providing the facilities for the scientists to carry out their work.
The 30 million USD state-of-the-art laboratory in Harlow, Essex is a short
distance from the Olympic Park in east London and is fully accredited by the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

RESULTS

PATIALA
(IND, Apr 12): Commonwealth triple jump bronze medallist Renjith Maheswary put
up a better show on the second leg of Indian Grand Prix in NSNIS grounds.
However his best of the day 16.70 fell short of the Olympic B-standard by 15
cm. Renjith was however happy about his evening’s performance and confident of
joining the Indian squad to London Olympics in the weeks to come. On the track
Kunhu Muhammed clocked a personal best 46.58 to extend his winning streak
in the men’s 400m. Former national junior champion Jithin Paul (22) inflicted a defeat
on reigning Asian Games champion Joseph Abraham in 400m hurdles (50.44 to 50.69
). From Murali Krishnan.

ST.
DENIS (FRA, Apr 11): At the 2nd international meet at Reunion Island Roman
Mesnil cleared 552 and missed 572. Second Jerome Clavier also got 552. Vanessa
Boslak started the season with 430 in women pole vault. Also to note the
javelin of Jerome Haeffler 78.35 m and Naman Keita clocked 50.29 in the 400 m
hurdles.