by Larry Eder
EME NEWS (AUG 23, 2012)
Blake improves to 9.69, Bolt delivers MR 19.58, superb high jump
LAUSANNE (SUI, Aug 23): Great Athletissima in nice summer evening, sold out with 17 000 capacity crowd. Five meet records, superb sprinting by Blake and Bolt, also from Harper. The duel of the evening was men´s high jump with several records and world lead was equaled too. Kipsiele Koech, Lavillenie and Adams could not be catched in the Diamond Race after today wins, but they still must compete in the final to deserve the trophy and financial award. Jeter won the closest duel of the evening and Aries Merritt wanted too much and false started.
Event by event review
Men
100 m: Only Usain Bolt ran faster than him. Yohan Blake new PB and MR in virtually no wind 9.69 (-0.1). Bolt twice faster, one time with Gay the same. Gay 9.83 and Nesta 9.95 also sub 10. Note PB for young French Vicaut 10.02 (3rd all-time European U23 list).
200 m: Another meet record by the man himself, Bolt 19.58 (11th fastest time ever). But second Martina Dutch record 19.85 (also EL and 3rd tied in European all-time list). Ashmeade beat second row of Jamaicans 19.94 ahead of Young 20.00 and Weir 20.03, Spearmon 6th 20.10 (the best sixth ever).
400 m: Kirani James in his own class 44.37, 4th fastest time of the year. Santos with 45.03 beats all the others.
1500 m: Olympic 7th placer Silas Kiplagat as usual in fast meeting race can win 3:31.78 over Gebremedhin 3:31.86, third Centrowitz 3:31.96 PB ahead of Chepseba 3:32.31. Oly medalist Manzano as 10th still season best 3:34.08.
Steeple: Kipsiele another top win 8:05.80 and confirms Diamond Race win. Olympic bronze winner Mutai only 4th.
110mH: Merritt false started so no try for another sub 13. Richardson was then a good winner in 13.09 (-0.6).
HJ: That was the duel of the evening, three cleared 237 and that happened only twice in history before at World Championships 1987 in Rome and Stuttgart 1993. Formidable stats and Mutaz then even cleared 239 and equaled Asian record and world lead, set new meet and national records. Ukhov had first failure at 239 and left his last jump to 241. Third Grabarz equaled UK record of 237 and he did in first.
PV: Four tried at new meet record height of 592, but this time no success. On count-back the best Lavillenie (he is now in confirmed Diamond Race winning position) over Mohr, Lewis and new Greek record for Filippidis, all 580.
DT: Kanter won the centimetres battle 65.79 over Okoye and Casanas, Hadadi only 7th.
Women
100 m: Jeter came strong at the end and won over Fraser-Pryce, the exact times: 10.856 and 10.857. Baptiste as third 10.93 over VCB 10.99.
800 m: Jelimo started again her finish phase some 110 m before the finish but was able to manage against Savinova this time, 1:57.59 to 1:58.10.
3000 m: Mercy Cherono a solid winner 8:40.59, bad fall of Mimi Belete at the beginning of last round.
100mH: Dawn Harper showed her class in 12.43 (+0.5), the clock was even stopped at 12.38 but that was supposedly due to her hand. Harrison and Crawford good second and third 12.62 and 12.64.
400mH: Spencer olympic revenge in 53.49 (her fastest of the year) with Melaine Walker second 53.74 (also SB), oly medalists Hejnova 4th and Antyukh 7th.
LJ: Oly silver winner Sokolova with 689 (-0.1) beat the remaining medalists DeLoach 3rd (671) and Reese 5th (666).
TJ: No revenge for Saladukha, she was second 14.42, winner olympic champion Rypakova 14.68 (-0.6).
SP: Valerie Adams and her meet record 20.95. Very special specially in Lausanne. Nobody can catch her in the Diamond Race.
JT: Spotakova again confirms her number one position with two 67.19 throws. Abakumova back where she belongs, 2nd with 65.80 and Viljoen was also over German olympic medalists.
4×100 m: Jamaican-US combination (Henry-Robinson with Stewart, Bailey and Barber) high quality meet record 42.51 over Ukraine 42.56 and home Switzerland 43.54 (they missed the NR by 0.03).
B-races: Some solid marks, Darvis Patton 20.32 at 200 m, Alina Talay 12.96 over the hurdles, Samantha Henry-Robinson 11.17 at 100 m and youth athlete Jessica Judd of Great Britain 4:14.38 in the 1500 m.
OTHER NEWS
BERLIN (GER): Olympic winner at 400 m hurdles Felix Sanchez is another star announced for the 71st ISTAF in Berlin on September 2. Women hammer should see all three London medalists competing Tatyana Lysenko, Anita Wlodarzcyk and home Betty Heidler. Also in men shot put all three medalists are confirmed Tomasz Majewski, David Storl and Reese Hoffa. Barbora Spotakova will fight in women javelin with other medalists Christina Obergfoll and Linda Stahl. In discus Robert Harting with Gerd Kanter and Virgilijus Alekna are the top names. Already 47 000 tickets are sold. In women 800 m the silver and bronze medalists are announced – Caster Semenya with Yekaterina Poistogova.
CHICAGO (USA): The Bank of America Chicago Marathon announced that Liliya Shobukhova of Russia will go for an unprecedented fourth consecutive victory in the event’s 35th running on October 7. After she was unable to finish the Olympic Games Marathon on August 5 due to stomach cramps, Shobukhova, a pre-race gold medal favorite, will look to get back to her winning ways in Chicago where she is undefeated in three appearances. Shobukhova, who ran the third-fastest time in history (2:18:20) to win last year’s race, will face her stiffest competition yet in the bid for her fourth title. Sub-2:20 performer Lucy Kabuu of Kenya (2:19:34) stands in her way, as does Ethiopia’s Ejegayehu Dibaba, who ran 2:22:09 in a runner-up finish to Shobukhova last year. These three athletes have the potential to put Paula Radcliffe’s 10-year-old course record of 2:17:18 in jeopardy. Kenya’s Florence Kiplagat was forced to withdraw from the field due to an injury.
BERLIN (GER) : After 15 years as a professional athlete, pole vaulter Danny Ecker has planned his final competition on August 25th at the Leverkusen pole vault classic. Ecker will be joined by Bjorn Otto as well as Malte Mohr and Yoo Suk Kim from Korea writes leichtathletik.de.
SAN DIEGO (USA): Competitor Group has announced new partnerships with StarKist, Pentax, Jamba Juice and Sony for the popular Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series. These sponsors will be featured in several select markets throughout the remainder of the 2012 tour schedule.
LAUSANNE (SUI): Usain Bolt is a definite starter for another Olympic Games in four years’ time he told Reuters at a promotional event in Lausanne. Bolt added he might change events as his coach would like to see him run the 400m and he himself would like to try the long jump. Bolt also confirmed he will compete at World Championships in Moscow.
DES MOINES (USA): Back home in her hometown Lolo Jones confirmed she will continue to run until the Rio Olympic Games and is hopeful she can win an Olympic medal. Jones told local media she needs some time off to recover from three different injuries she had this year and will then start her preparation for next season.
LONDON (GBR): Olympic gold medalist Jessica Ennis will appear in a special edition of childrens’ comic book The Beano, where she goes head-to-head with Dennis the Menace. Ennis is being immortalised on the cover of The Beano as “Ennis the Menace” as the pair compete against each other in the “Menace Heptathlon” reports The Telegraph.
NEW YORK (USA): ING New York City Marathon officials announced a significant shift in one of their long-established race management policies: participants will no longer be able to bring a bag to the start in Staten Island and have it transported to the finish in Central Park by truck. The change, according to New York Road Runners president and CEO Mary Wittenberg, was being made to ease congestion in the area known as the post-finish, or walk-off, where for years runners had to trudge up to a mile to reclaim their belongings before leaving the park. Race officials had tried different approaches to ease congestion, but decided eliminating baggage transport altogether was the best approach. Officials said that runners could expect to exit the park up to 30 minutes faster than before.
MONACO (MON): IAAF confirmed the change of the date for the IAAF World Challenge Meeting 2012 de Dakar in Senegal from September 15 to September 12.
