WEIR ON HIS WAY

KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica Gleaner writes that in the past two seasons olympic bronze medalist in the 200 m Warren Weir transformed from a potential sprint hurdler into the world class sprinter. The progression has also seen him move from under the shadow of his more celebrated counterparts Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake and blossomed into a star in his own right. At the recent Youth View Awards, Weir, who is now known as the ‘Weirwolf’, the former Calabar High athlete, won the award as Breakout Celebrity of the Year. After his recent sprint relays was a buzz inside the national stadium as track aficionados contemplated whether or not the talented and affable young star could become the third Jamaican sprinter in recent times to breach the 19.70-second barrier.

KIPROTICH IN ACCIDENT

KAMPALA (UGA): New Vision writes that London 2012 Olympics marathon gold medallist, Stephen Kiprotich has survived an accident with no injuries when his vehicle swerved off the road and went down the valleys of Kapchorwa on Monday afternoon. Kiprotich, who has been training in Iten, had returned to his home over the weekend to check on his family and also wait for the dust to settle on the Kenyan elections. He was inside his double cabin vehicle with some athletes when the incident occurred, leaving two of the vehicle occupants seriously injured, and have since been transferred to Mbale Hospital. Kiprotich is currently preparing to take part in the London Marathon, one of the world’s top marathons, on April 21.

GOTEBORG REMARKS

BUDAPEST (HUN): In All-Athletics.com scoring the Goteborg Championships had 46 162 points and it is the best competition of the 2013 indoor season in comparison with one day meetings and national championships. It is also the best score since 2002 edition in Vienna, the only one better was Paris two years ago with 46 223. The others had less points – Torino 2009 44 975, Birmingham 2007 45 692, Madrid 2005 45 689 and Vienna 2002 45 894.

BIRMINGHAM (GBR): UK Media are writing that Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz will begin work with renowned sports psychologist Steve Peters after being one of Britain’s rare flops at the weekend’s European Indoor Championships. „That was tough for him. He wanted to do really well and it’s easy to be too tense when you are trying too hard and I think maybe that was the issue, but it’s already been addressed by Fuzz how they are going to go forward, to change things to make it better,” head coach Peter Eriksson said.

BIRMINGHAM (GBR): In another latest UK story the head coach Peter Eriksson believes double European Indoor champion Perri Shakes-Drayton should not consider a permanent switch of events – unless she under-performs at this year’s World Championships. Hurdles specialist Shakes-Drayton won gold over 400 meters in Gothenburg on Sunday, setting the second fastest time in the world this year, before anchoring the 4x400m relay team to another gold seven hours later.

MADRID (ESP): The Spanish 1500 m silver winner in Goteborg Isabel Macias admitted she had additional motivation to run also for her injured colleague Natalia Rodriguez who qualified for the final but was unable to compete. „There was more pressure, but if you get along it helps you perform at your best. I had that motivation and knew I must run not only on my behalf but also for Natalia, „ said Macias.

BRUSSELS (BEL): After her successful first participation at a first senior championship Belgian combined events talent Nafi Thiam met up with Swedish legend Carolina Kluft. Kluft gave some advice to the junior athlete and stressed she should remain focused on herself and not on copying other athletes. Thiam will focus this summer on the European junior championships and will not travel to the European U23 championships.

BRUSSELS (BEL): After returning home from the European indoor championships, Kevin Borlée admitted he was mentally tired after the London Olympic Games and just wanted to train quietly and relax in the last few months. Kevin added he is starting to feel more competitive and will be ready in top shape to the start the outdoor season.

BRUSSELS (BEL): Tia Hellebaut told Belgian media she is extremely disappointed about her performance at the European indoor championships last weekend and seriously needs to think about her future in athletics. Hellebaut is 35 and mother of two daughters and previously stated the combination of training professionally and raising two daughters is very tough. Hellebaut did not want to further comment, neither did her husband and coach Wim Vandeven.

BERLIN (GER): 3000 m silver indoor medalist Corinna Harrer is positive about improving her 1500m best time during the summer, after she successfully ventured into the 3000m this winter. Harrer is confident she can continue to grow in the distance she told leichtathletik.de and confirmed her next big goal are the European championships in Zurich in 2014 where she hopes she can win a medal again.

GOTEBORG (SWE): After successfull results for Swedish team at European Indoor Championships it is over for head coach Stefan Olsson. He will be replaced by Karin Torneklint. Aftonbladet writes that it will be officially confirmed on Thursday. Torneklint is the former coach of hurdles twins Susanna and Jenny Kallur. When confirmed she will be the first female head coach in Sweden.

GOTEBORG (SWE): This Swedish city is a true triple jump capitol. Still both top marks in the history are coming from the 1995 World Championships here. The male record holder Jonathan Edwards was present for BBC during the last weekend and also visited the Stadium. Both triple jumps produced in Scandinavium also world leading marks of 2013 and

OTHER NEWS

SYDNEY (AUS): Australian Flame captain Steve Hooker, his training partner and 2012 Olympic finalist Steve Lewis and two-time World Championships medallist Brad Walker will previewing at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre this Friday the Sydney Track Classic. Set to compete in the men’s pole vault, which is arguably the most exciting event on the program for Saturday night’s Sydney Track Classic, the high-flying trio are the Australian, British and American pole vault record holders respectively. Lewis and Walker are two of the more than 30 international track and field charges set to compete at the Sydney Track Classic, including throwers Valerie Adams and Cleopatra Borel, jumpers Ignisious Gaisah of Ghana and Sarah Cowley, hurdlers Jasmin Chaney, Jernail Hayes and Jershue Anderson, and sprinters Calesio Newman, Toea Wisil, Daiki Goto and Sudanes 400 m specialist Yusif Rabah.

LONDON (GBR): Running My Life – The Autobiography by Lord Sebastian Coe, the London Games Maker and IAAF Vice President recently published is „Fascinating and rather uplifting… This is a singularly well-written sporting autobiography,” writes The Sunday Times.

JOHANNESBURG (RSA): South African 400 m hurdles record holder LJ van Zyl hopes to regain his best form this season after a disappointing campaign last year. Informs Supersport.com. Van Zyl was eliminated in the first round of the 2012 London Olympic Games, and he said on Tuesday he was determined to make up for it with a medal at the World Championships in Moscow. In 2011, he had set a new national best of 47.66 seconds and secured a bronze medal at the global championships in Daegu. „My goals for the season are to be on the podium at the world champs as I did in 2011, and to be the SA champion again,” Van Zyl said. The 27-year-old confirmed he was in full training and started with specific hurdles preparation this week.

FAYETTEVILLE (USA): Former Lady Tiger and two-time Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones will be an ESPN analyst at the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend, where the No. 1 Lady Tigers will compete for the title. Jones works out regularly with the current members of LSU’s women’s track team and said in an interview with The Daily Reveille on Monday that will help her while she works as an analyst Friday and Saturday. Jones’ debut as an analyst was with Eurosport in 2009 at the world championships in Berlin. She recently competed for USA in bob-sleigh with vision to qualify for Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi.

NAIROBI (KEN): World Indoor 800 m champion Pamela Jelimo leads the onslought in chase for speed against her colleagues at the first Athletics Kenya/National Bank of Kenya track and field meeting at Nyayo National Stadium this Friday and Saturday. At the same time, AK officials have confirmed that they will use the Nairobi meeting to pick a team to the inaugural Africa Youth Championships to be held in Warri, Nigeria, on March 28 to 31. The competition will see the introduction of relay races in weekend meetings and will also be used to name a team to Penn Relays. In the women 400 m not only Jelimo but also other 800 m specialists Winnie Chebet and Cherono Koech should compete. Ly
dia Wafula a former Africa Junior 800m sensation, will try her luck at the longer 1500 m. In the men 400 m olympic medalist from 800 m Timothy Kitum will face Anthony Chemut, another two-lapper.

MOSCOW (RUS): Happy news as Darya Korableva (24) gave birth to a daughter (3 kg, 50 cm) as the father is former javelin world champion and olympic bronze medalist Sergey Makarov. Korableva clocked in 2009 at 400 m hurdles good 56.01 and won the same year bronze at European U23 Championships.

BRUSSELS (BEL): Another setback for decathlete Hans Van Alphen as he has torn a ligament in his foot during a pole vault training. Van Alphen will be out for several weeks and is uncertain about his first competitions in May.

DOHA (QAT): The organisation of the 20th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships was thrown into turmoil last week after the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu refused to host the event citing the presence of Sri Lankan athletes. The state accuses the Sri Lankan government of committing war crimes against the Tamil minority. Chennai was due to host the event from July 3 to 7. The Athletics Federation of India is trying to host the event in another city, but is reportedly apprehensive of getting the same financial backing that was being promised in Chennai. Meanwhile, a section of the Indian media reported that Qatar could be a possible host. However, the Qatar Association of Athletics Federation could not confirm this. Writes Dohastadiumplusqatar.com.

ALGER (ALG): African Athletics facebook informs that former coach of World Champion Hassiba Boulmerka Amar Bouras has been elected as new president of the Algerian Athletics Federation.

LAGOS (NGR): Following the sanction inflicted to Nigerian shot putter Vivian Chukwuemeka who is banned for life from athletics, with effect from 21 June 2012, all her performances achieved from this date are all void. In this respect, the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) has decided to withdraw the Gold Medal won by her in Porto Novo, Benin, on 1st July 2012 in Shot Put Women, while also canceling her title of African Champion. New champion is so Chinwe Okoro also of Nigeria with 16.21 m. She will have also canceled her African record 18.86 and valit will be her mark from 2003 18.43 as continental record. African CAA website.

RESULTS

PRETORIA (RSA, Mar 2): Jacques de Swardt completed a solid double 21.02 (+0.4) and 46.23 in the 200/400 m combination.

TRIPOLI (LBA, Mar 1): Good Kenyan wins at the 2nd International Libya 10 km. Silas Kipruto clocked 28:15 ahead of Moroccan Anis Selmouni 28:19 and Dickson Marwa of Tanzania 28:29. They were followed by Titus Mbishei 28:35 and Dennis Masai 28:36. Best European Roman Prodius of Moldova 29:49 as 20th. Agnes Barsosio topped the women field in 33:15 just one second ahead of Amare Mekasha of Ethiopia 33:16 and Alemu Tedelech Bekele also of Ethiopia 33:17. Russian Natalya Solovyeva as top European got 34:39 on the 6th position. Interesting to note the 8th place of former world steeple champion Dorcus Inzikuru of Uganda 35:20.

PLONE0UR LANVERN (FRA, Mar 2): 1996 Olympic winner Jean Galfione cleared at local indoor jumping meet 470 cm in first attempt and equalled so the French masters record. Galfione (will be 42 in June) tried also at 490. His last five meters jump is from 2010. The official world indoor record in this age category is 536 by US Patrick Manson from 2008.