by Larry Eder
Yelena passing indoor season
VOLGOGRAD (RUS): Pole Vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva decided not to compete during the coming indoor season. The multiple world record holder already started her winter fitness training and will focus on the preparation for the outdoor season. The main goal is there the World Championships in Moscow. Confirmed her management.
Lemaitre vs. Collins
DUSSELDORF (GER): The 8th PSD Bank Meeting (EA Indoor Permit) announced top men 60 m clash. European Champion Christophe Lemaitre will run against veteran world medalist 2009 and 2003 world champion Kim Collins (36). The St. Kitts and Nevis star won in 2010 in Dusseldorf with meet record 6.52. The national record of Collins is 6.50 from 2011, best of Lemaitre is 6.55 from 2010.
European Teams for Edinburgh
EDINBURGH (GBR): Ireland´s Fionnuala Britton and Spain´s Ayad Lamdassem will defend their individual titles in the annual international match between Great Britain &N.I., Team Europe and the United States at the Bupa Great Edinburgh XCountry on January 5 (IAAF CC Permit). Britton will be full of confidence having earlier this month retained her Spar European Cross Country Championships crown in sub-zero temperatures in Budapest ahead of Portugal’s Dulce Felix and Adrienne Herzog of the Netherlands, who are also included in the Team Europe side. Frenchman Hassan Chahdi the Spar European Cross Country Championships runner up, along with nine times European title holder, Ukrainian Sergiy Lebid, will be strong contenders to cross the finish line first and earn valuable points in the team race. In the Europe team also competing on the men side Belgian Abdi Bashir and Czech Milan Kocourek with Spanish Carles Castillejo. The European U23 team will consist of Dutch Jesper Van Der Wielen, French Romain Collenot-Spiret, from Spain Antonio Abadia and Abdelaziz Merzoughi, Norway´s Orjan Gronnevig and Abdi Ulad of Denmark. In the junior team: Isaac Kimeli (Belgium), Alexandre Saddedine (France), Dino Bosnjak (Croatia), Viktor Bakharev and Mikhail Strelkov (Russia), Johannes Motschmann (Germany). In the women team also French Sophie Duarte, Ireland´s Linda Byrne and Croatian Lisa Stublic. The women under 23 squad: Lyudmila Lebedeva (Ukraine), Clemence Calvin (France), Gulshat Fazlitdinova (Russia), Carla Rocha (Portugal), Yekaterina Matyunina (Russia) and Viktoria Pogorielska (Ukraine). In the junior women selection German Maya Rehberg, Mariya Khodakivska of Ukraine, Finland´s Oona Kettunen, Sweden´s Agnes Sjostrom, German Anna Gehring and Heidi Maartensson from Norway.
Reif for Karlsruhe
KARLSRUHE (GER): The 29th Indoor Meeting of Karlsruhe on February 2 (IAAF Indoor Permit) announced the participation of 2010 European Champion Christian Reif for the long jump. After injury problems in 2011 and 2012 Reif hopes to be ready again for top marks in 2013. He also changed clubs and is competing for LC Rehlingen since next year. Reif admitted he was considering the retirement because all the difficulties.
Pyatnytsa and Saladukha
KYIV (UKR): London Olympic medalists Oleksandr Pyatnytsa (silver in men’s javelin throw) and Olha Saladukha (bronze in wome triple jump) were named “The best athletes of the year 2012” in Ukraine by Ukrainian Athletics Federation based on public, journalists and athletes votes. Also in the top 10 all Ukrainian medalists from World Indoor Championships in Istanbul Natalya Dobrynska (gold in pentathlon with WR), Oleksiy Kasyanov (silver in heptathlon) and Natalya Lupu (silver at 800 m) and all four participants of bronze Olympic women’s 4x100m relay – Olesya Povh, Maria Ryemyen, Khrystyna Stuy and Elizaveta Bryzgina. The list is rounded with European champion and new national record holder in javelin Vira Rebryk.
OTHER NEWS
GENEVE (SUI): EBU warns the EOC. European Games need athletics and swimming to make them appealing, said Stefan Kuerten, EBU director of sports and business. The organisers of the inaugural European Games will struggle to secure free-to-air television coverage without the buy-in of athletics and swimming, the European Broadcasting Union, the umbrella body of mainly public-service broadcasters, has warned. Informs Sportscal.
BRUSSELS (BEL) : Belgian hurdler Eline Berings is optimistic and motivated for the upcoming indoor and outdoor season she told Belgian media. Berings is planning warm weather training camp in Tenerife and an additional training camp in Birmingham and added she will compete at the Perfiction Indoor Meeting (Feb 2) and the Record Bank Flanders Indoor meeting, both in Gent (Feb 10).
PARIS (FRA): Pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie and spinter Myriam Soumaré were voted athletes of the year according to the readers of French magazine Athlétisme Magazine. It’s the first time both a male and female were awarded in different categories.
BRUSSELS (BEL): Belgium’s fastest hurdler Adrien Deghelt has ended his partnership with his long time coach Jonathan Nsenga and will be coached by Jacques Borlée, who is already in charge of coaching his sons and daughter as well as the 4x400m Belgian relay team. The Walloonian Athletics federation told Belgian media they are not happy with the switch.
LONDON (GBR): Olympic champion Jessica Ennis has reportedly bought a new home worth GBP 1 million following her success at London 2012. It is understood that the heptathlete will move out of her current 330 000 GBP semi-detached home to move into the new pad with her fiancé Andy Hill. Reports Sportsmole, and also claims that Ennis is close to making 3.5 million GBP in sponsorship deals.
AUCKLAND (NZL): The beer that toasted every Kiwi medal at the London Olympics has signed up again as the official beer of the New Zealand Olympic team for Rio 2016. The brand has also signed on to support the NZ teams at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
OTTAWA (CAN): Athletics Canada announced its 2012 annual award winners with Jessica Zelinka getting the nod in three categories. Zelinka was chosen as outstanding athlete of the year, as most outstanding athlete in track events and as the combined events athlete of the year. The winners are chosen by Athletics Canada’s Awards Committee from the nominee pool put forward by the athletics community. The award recipients will be honoured at the 2013 Canadian Championships in Moncton next June. The Phil A. Edwards Memorial Trophy for the outstanding athlete of the year in track events voting ended in a tie with the honour going to both Jessica Zelinka and Phylicia George. Olympic bronze medalist Derek Drouin is the winner of both the Cal D. Bricker Memorial Trophy for outstanding performance of the year and the F.N.A. Rowell Trophy for outstanding athlete of the year in field events. Walker Inaki Gomez is the winner of the Fred Begley Memorial Trophy for outstanding athlete of the year in off-track events. Sarah Wells who is 400 m hurdler is the 2012 recipient of the Fred Tees Memorial Trophy as the outstanding athlete of the year enrolled in a Canadian University. Anthony McCleary who leads the preparation of the top female hurdlers is the recipient of Athletics Canada’s Coach of the Year Award.
BOLZANO (ITA): Nearly two weeks before the 38th edition of the international New Year’s Eve Run BOclassic in Bolzano the organizers announced more names. The Olympic bronze medalist over 5000 m Thomas Longosiwa will challenge Imane Merga, the CC World Champion. In the women’s run, vice world champion Sylvia Kibet and last year’s silver medalist Afera Godfay will probably give each other a hard-fought duel. Also in the race US runner Scott Bauhs and top Italians Yuri Floriani with Stefano La Rosa.
PRAHA (CZE): Double olympic javelin winner Barbor
a Spotakova was voted the Czech Sports Person 2012. She won in the poll which had together top men and women in one ranking. She won the award for second time with 1854 points from journalists vote. Behind her other olympic winners Jaroslav Kulhavy (cycling, 1672), Mirka Knapkova (rowing, 1547) and David Svoboda (modern pentathlon, 1468). Famous Chelsea goal-keeper Petr Cech was 5th (918). From track athletes Zuzana Hejnova 11th, Vitezslav Vesely 19th and Pavel Maslak 24th. Spotakova just day before the Wednesday Gala evening returned from training camp in Grand Canaria. “I was running, spent time on the bicycle, played tennis mainly against coach Zelezny. We had excellent weather. I want to keep myself in shape so that I can easily return after the pregnancy,” said Spotakova who expects in summer her first child.
BERLIN (GER): Organisers of the 2013 Vattenfall Berlin Half Marathon informed that the race is sold out. Already 30 000 participants have registered for the event which will take place on April 7th next year. It is one of the biggest and fastest half marathons worldwide.
SIGNAL HILL (TRI): Reigning World Championships bronze medallist in the 100 m Kelly Ann Baptiste is disappointed at not getting among the medals at the London Olympics. She finished sixth in the women’s 100 m finals in 10.94 and became the first T&T woman to qualify for an Olympic final. “I had lots of goals I wanted to accomplish and was not able to. It took me a while to get over (not getting a medal). Even now it is hard to be satisfied with what I did, but at the same time I have to put things into perspective-it was my first Olympic finals and I can’t look at someone’s else career and try to based mind on.” Informs Trackalerts. “I don’t think about the next four years because every year there is a target to hit. Next year is the World Championships in Russia so I am looking forward to that. I take each year one at a time and try not to think about and make a big fuss about it but take little steps to get there.” Baptiste was speaking on Tobago Channel Five’s Rise and Shine Morning show recently during a brief trip to Tobago.
KINGSTON (JAM): The Jamaica Observer and Asafa Powell Twitter and Facebook pages have been blowing up with reader feedback since the superstar athlete made his debut as advice columnist in All Woman. From all accounts, the athlete’s take on the Top 10 worst Christmas gifts for men has been a popular sell, with followers of both handles giving Powell the props for keying them in on what gifts are acceptable and which ones are not this Yuletide season. Informs Jamaica Observer.
MADRID (ESP): Spanish high jumper Javier Bermejo who will celebrate on Sunday his 34th birthday informed that 2013 will most probably be his last year in athletics. The 228 jumper who has the biggest number of national titles (17) wants to compete at highest level next year. Member of FC Barcelona wants to try to qualify for European Team Championships and World Championships in Moscow. Last time he competed at top international event was 2010 at European Championships in Barcelona.
PEUERBACH (AUT): Road world record holder Leonard Komon from Kenyan will be the top entry of the Peuerbach Silvester Race in Austria on last day of the year. He will run against top Austrians Gunther Weidlinger and Andreas Vojta at the 6.8 km distance. In the women field (5.1 km) top German marathon runner Irina Mikitenko, Serbian Sonja Stolic another top German runner Antje Moldner-Schmidt with Susanne Hahn.
DRESDEN (GER): World Championships 2009 medalist German Raul Spank will not compete during the indoor season 2013. The high jumper confirmed that for the Leichtathletik Magazine. The 24-years old jumper hopes to be back at top level in the summer.
SYDNEY (AUS): Prior to the commencement of the 2012 Olympic Games in London Australian 400 m runner John Steffensen made a number of allegations about his treatment by Athletics Australia over the course of his career and about statements made by Athletics Australia Chief Executive Dallas O’Brien. Steffensen asserted in the media that he had been “racially vilified by this Federation, being discriminated against on many teams… it’ll help if I was a different colour”. These comments followed the selection of Steven Solomon to compete in the individual men’s 400m over Steffensen. After the 2012 Olympic Games the Board of Athletics Australia appointed lawyer Paul Horvath to conduct an independent investigation into Steffensen’s allegations. Steffensen was given the opportunity, which he accepted, to provide evidence to the investigator. As part of his investigations, Horvath also interviewed a number of athletes and officials who were involved in representative teams over this period. The result of the investigation is that the allegations of racial vilification or discrimination made by Steffensen cannot be substantiated either generally or in relation to his non-selection in the individual men’s 400m. Furthermore, the investigation has concluded that there was no basis for stating that O’Brien had lied or was a liar. The Board of Athletics Australia has determined that it will refer to an independent tribunal for determination a number of allegations against Steffensen. Informs Athletics Australia.
ORLANDO (USA): Southern Utah’s Canadian long distance runner Cam Levins and LSU’s sprinter Kimberlyn Duncan were named winners of The Bowerman in front of a packed house at the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Convention at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, Fla. The Bowerman is awarded to the most outstanding collegiate male and female athlete of the year.
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): John Nuttall has been appointed to the role of Endurance Coach in the latest coaching appointment to the UKA Performance team by Performance Director Neil Black. Nuttall will join Terrence Mahon in taking UKA’s endurance programme through to Rio 2016 and the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London. Nuttall, who was endurance lead for the 2012 Olympic Games, is the former coach to 2010 European 10,000m silver medallist Chris Thompson and currently coaches European Indoor 3000m champion Helen Clitheroe as well as leading British marathon runner Lee Merrien and 2011 European Cross Country bronze medallist, Gemma Steel. From UK Athletics website.
ROMA (ITA): Italian Olympic Committee CONI banned walker Alex Schwazer for four years. He had positive doping control before London Olympic Games on July 30 (EPO). Also he had anomalies in his Biological passport and another issue against WADA code also the purchase and possession of doping substances. Schwazer won gold at 2008 Olympic Games in the 50 km walk.
ISTANBUL (TUR): Turkish media are informing that long jumper Karin Melis-Mey (28) was banned for two years starting from August 8, 2012 until August 7, 2014. She tested positive during European Championships in Helsinki, her result from there will be cancelled (5th). The same from Olympic Games where she qualified with 680 into finals (third best result of the qualification), but then was not jumping. She won bronze at World Championships 2009 in Berlin.
LAS VEGAS (USA): Thebiglead.com informs that runner Suzy Favor-Hamilton (44), who represented the United States in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics, has spent the last year as a high-end call girl in Las Vegas. She said that only her husband Mark, 44, was aware of her escort work, but that, “He tried, he tried to get me to stop. He wasn’t supportive of this at all.” The couple lives in a $600,000 Madison home and appears to be in no financial distress based on a review of court and municipal records.
