Meseret Defar winning 2010 World Indoor 3,000m title, by PhotoRun.netDefar & Kaki are shooting for the 3,000m womens and 1,000m mens WR at the XL-Galen meet in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday night. Also on Saturday, in Boston, MA, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will have three hours of top competition.
Watch for a sizzling womens 3,000 meters, and the final event being the men's mile, with Nick Willis, WC silver medalist, Alan Webb, AR record holder. Also watch Lukas Verzbicas, the Gatorade 2010-11 XC Boys athlete of the year, with a personal best of 4:04.34, to come very close to breaking four minutes for the mile.
At the NB press conference, Alan Webb was asked what he thought of Lukas chances at getting his indoor high school record for the mile. " I would like to see him get it, he is tough, and new records are good for the sport." noted Webb.
DEFAR AND KAKI FOR WORLD RECORDS
STOCKHOLM (SWE): Two world record attempts are announced for the XL-Galan meeting in Stockholm (IAAF Indoor Permit on Feb 22). Meseret Defar will try to improve her own 3000 m mark and Abubaker Kaki the 2:14.96 of Wilson Kipketer from 2000 at 1000 m. Already earlier also the participation of Yelena Isinbayeva in women´s pole vault was confirmed.
LAGAT AND LAGAT
NEW YORK/MELBOURNE (USA/AUS): Former world champion Bernard Lagat is in the spotlight. First Athletics Australia announced that he will take on US distance duo Chris Solinsky and Matt Tegenkamp at the 5000 m during the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic (IAAF World Challenge) at Melbourne Olympic Park next month (Mar 3). In other development on Saturday, February 12, Lagat will get his wish. In a joint effort between the New York Road Runners and the Armory Foundation, a special two-mile race will be held there called the NYRR Deuce Record Challenge in which Lagat will take a shot at Doug Padilla's American record of 8:15.02 set nearly 21 years ago at the Forum in Los Angeles. Remarkably, Padilla's time was set on a plywood track which required 11 laps to cover one mile. "It's going to be my first time running competitively at the Armory," Lagat said from his home in Tucson. "It's going to be my first-ever indoor two-mile race." Informs RRW.
CHAMBERS RETURNS
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): World indoor champion at 60 m Dwain Chambers returns to competition this Saturday at Birmingham Indoor Games. Athletics Weekly writes, that he might be in the shape of his life. Chambers after some years was part of UK Athletics training camp in South Africa. His main rivals during the weekend will be Craig Pickering, Leon Baptiste and Harry Aikinees-Aryetey.
STUTTGART IS SOLD OUT
STUTTGART (GER): Saturday´s 25th Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgart (IAAF Indoor Permit) is sold out. Top names are Christophe Lemaitre, Dayron Robles, David Oliver, Renaud Lavillenie, Fabiana Murer. German channel Sport1 will broadcast the event live and also live-stream will be available at the meeting website. Sensation of the meeting could be the 1500 m outing of Silas Kiplagat who is promising fast times. Abubaker Kaki runs the 800 m, Eliud Kipchoge the 3000 m and Sentayehu Ejigu the women´s 3000 m. French European champion Myriam Soumare is the star of women´s 60 m. Interesting duel is expected in non-traditional indoor relay Germany vs. France 4x100 m.
WITHDRAWALS DEPARTMENT
MOSCOW (RUS): World champion Yaroslav Rybakov is out from high jump duel of titans at Russian Winter on Sunday due to small back injury.
TALLINN (EST): Barcelona decathlon medalist Eelco Sintnicolaas from Netherlands is already two days sick with fever and will not compete in Tallinn at International combined events meetings over the weekend. He is now concentrating for European event in Paris, palsn to do pole vault and long jump at national championships next weekend (Feb 12-13).
STUTTGART: European 100 m winner Verena Sailer is out from Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgart this Saturday because of back problems.
OTHER NEWS
KINGSTON (JAM): The Fastest Man in the World Usain Bolt and his teammates will be attacking their bests in true Jamaican fashion during the 2012 Olympics. Informs Track Alerts. PUMA and Cedella Marley, Bob Marley's eldest daughter, just announced she will be designing the Jamaican Track and Field Team's Olympic uniform, podium and ceremony wear. Cedella describes the partnership as legendary. Bolt likes the partnership as well. "I can't think of a better person to design our Olympic outfits than Cedella. PUMA got that right...hooking up with a legendary Jamaican. She's a great designer but also carries on the spirit of our nation through the legacy of the Marley family. It's going to be inspirational to run in London with that energy surrounding me," he was quoted. Informs TrackAlerts.
LAUSANNE (SUI): The indoor arenas around Europe came alive in January, with a number of athletes already showing their form after winter training and ready to lay claim to top honours at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris. Following this, European Athletics is pleased to announce the nominations for the European Athlete of the Month for January representing 10 countries. The voting will close on Tuesday 15 February at noon CET.
BRUSSELS (BEL): European 400m champion Kevin Borlée and European bronze triple jump medalist Svetlana Bolshakova have received the 'Golden spike' trophee for the best Belgian athlete of the year. The 4x400m relay team was named the best team, 400m athlete Cédric Van Branteghem won an award for his outstanding career. The Borlée twins also confirmed they will be competing in 2 competitions before heading to the European indoor championships in Paris. They will both run a 300m in Lievin and will continue to run the 600m at the IAAF indoor permit meeting in Ghent writes sporza.be.
KYIV (UKR): Ukrainian Athlete of the Year is triple jump European winner Olga Saladukha and on the men side nine-time European CC Champion Sergiy Lebid. The ceremony was held on Tuesday at ACCO International exhibition center. The surprise of the year award went to the 4x100 m women relay team which won gold at European Championships in Barcelona. Vladimir Fedorets who is guiding the preparation of one of the team members Yelizaveta Bryzgina got the coach of the year award. Award at the end of succesfull career was given to shot put olympic winner Yuriy Belonog.
KINGSTON (JAM): After months of uncertainty, The Gleaner understands that Jamaica will, after all, host this year's troubled Carifta Games, in the second city of Montego Bay between April 23-25. The annual track and field championships, which is the first real international exposure for the region's top junior athletes, was in danger of being cancelled for the first time in its 39-year history, after original host St Kitts backed out of its original bid to host the meet. Writes The Gleaner.
MALMO (SWE): Emma Green needs rest for some weeks. That is the verdict after examinations of her injury (strained achilles tendon) during the first competition jump in Hustopece, Czech Republic at the special high jump meeting. "The pain will determin when I will be back. I will absolutely not take any risks and take chances if it does not feel good, "she was quoted. The Barcelona silver medalist still did not rule out the national championships last February weekend and Paris European Indoor Championships. There is also a possibility she will be already ready for the XL-Galan indoor meet of Stockholm (February 22).
LONDON (GBR): England Athletics, the official representative for all English athletics clubs, has attacked the endorsement of Tottenham Hotspur's bid for the Olympic Stadium by the Association of British Athletics Clubs (ABAC). English athletics has claimed that retaining a running track at the stadium would not provide a useful legacy for the sport and has instead backed Spurs, who want to redevelop the Crystal Palace athletics stadium and build a dedicated football stadium in the Olympic Park. UK Athletics favors West Ham's bid, maintaining that London 2012's promise to the International Olympic Committee to maintain athletics at the stadium.
LONDON (GBR): The executive chief of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in London, Sir Keith Mills, will oversee the proposed merger between UK Sport and Sport England. He will be working with the Department for Culture, Media and sport (DCMS). Sport England and UK Sport need to be united into one organisation till April 1st 2013.
RIO DE JANEIRO (GBR): Henrique Meirelles, Brazil's former Central Bank President, became a president of the new agency overseeing the building preparations for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. It is expected to be fully set-up next month when the Brazilian Congress passes a law to establish a rubber-stamp.
ZURICH (SUI): European marathon champion Viktor Röthlin and his main sponsor Raiffeisen extend their cooperation for a further six years. Röthlin had successfully finished his training camp in Eldoret, Kenya. He trained for four weeks with Duncan Kibet, James Kwambai and Robert Cheruiyot, also with Italian Ruggero Pertile, who joined the group as fourth.
RESULTS
ST. PETERBURG (RUS, Feb 1): In the Sports School Cup meeting Yelena Ivanova leaped to 14.13 in the triple jump. Aleksandr Khyutte won the 60 m (6.76) and Aleksandra Kiryashova cleared 440 in the pole vault.