by Larry EderRemember my comment about dominating her event? Revelation of the year Pamela Jelimo is going for the 1,000 meter world record on February 26! Watching her run at Berlin this past summer was mind blowing!
EME NEWS (NOV 24, 2008)
JELIMO TO TRY WORLD INDOOR RECORD AT 1000 m
PRAGUE (CZE): Fresh holder of Revelation of the Year Award from World Athletics Gala Kenyan Pamela Jelimo travelled today to Praha to announce that she will be one of the stars of the new indoor meeting in Czech capital city planned for February 26. In her planned short indoor campaign the 800 m Olympic winner and world junior record holder wants to attack in Modern Prague 02 arena the 1000 m world indoor record of Maria Mutola. „I will train even harder than now and I think I can do it, but as I never run indoors so far, I cannot say for sure. But it is always good to break the preparation with some competitions,” she was quoted. Coming from Monaco and at the Press conference she had a nice company. Also present was Jarmila Kratochvilova, the Czech holder of the oldest current world record at 800 m. „She is a nice person, good lady, she gave me some advice, specially that I need to improve in my speed endurance. Look at her bests at 100, 200 and 400 m, she was lot faster than me,” said Jelimo. Kratochvilova replied: „She has the biggest potential from current runners to break my 800 m record. The margin 0.73 in normal life is nothing, but in running it is still a lot. But she has a good chance.” They met for first time ever during the Gala in Monaco and exchanged first views. Also at the press conference meet director Jan Zelezny was able to congratulate the Javelin world record holder Barbora Spotakova for the World Performance of the Year Award. Spotakova is not having her event indoors, but confirmed she will be at the event as guest star. Additionally she confirmed her first meet of the outdoor season which will be the Golden Spike of Ostrava planned for June 17 as IAAF Grand Prix meeting. Both meets (Prague indoor and Ostrava) are organised by the same group. Ostrava also celebrated as the world record 12.87 of Dayron Robles at 110 m Hurdles was despite great Olympic Games awarded the Male Performance of the Year 2008 at the Monaco Gala.
OTHER NEWS
LA HABANA (CUB) : High jumper Victor Moya, a silver medallist at the 2005 World Championships, is setting his sights to 2010, four months after surgery to a tendon in his right knee. His Olympic dream was abrubtly ended by a serious injury at the Central American Championships in Cali last July. „The track was wet and I slipped during an attempt to jump 2.31meters. I was on top form and it really hurt me to watch the high jump Olympic competition on television. I thought that I could have made it to the final and been a contender for a medal. It was really hard for me.” „The doctors have confirmed that I’ll recoup total mobility in my joints and I’ll be able to jump again” added the athlete who plans to get progressively back into training in December and is aiming at victory at the 2010 Central American Games in Puerto Rico. „I really want to defy the bar again, it’s almost an obsession,” he stated before concluding “But I mustn’t rush up, my goal is 2010″, Granma informs.
MELBOURNE (AUS) : Australia top distance runner Craig Mottram is preparing for next weekend’s Great Australian Run by training himself since his split with coach Nick Bideau. „If I feel like I need a coach, I’ll look for one,” he said. „At the moment I’m confident in my own ability. I think I can do as good a job as any coach at this stage. There’s no need for one.” Mottram who has never run a 15-km road race would be thrilled to get in the top 5 given the quality of the field that includes marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie. „It’s going to be a hard race for me but I’ve done everything I can to get in good shape,” he said. „But this is not quite my distance. I’m not going to break the world record and if they are going to try to do that, I just hope I can keep up for a little while”, the Age informs.
WELLINGTON (NZL): Athletics New Zealand is trying to put up a package to entice top international milers to race there against Olympic bronze medallist Nick Willis. Willis’ agent Rich Kenah said “”I am optimistic about the chances of a world-class event being put together in early 2009. Nick understands the importance of showcasing world-class talent at home. In fact, he has sought out and encouraged milers from the around the world to come to New Zealand for a race.” Athletics NZ chief executive, Scott Newman believes the best way to attract top athletes would be a month-long training package, including accommodation, a rental car and access to decent facilities, with one race at the end of the spell. Among those Athletics NZ hopes would be enticed to New Zealand, are Willis’ training partner, Canadian Olympian Nate Brannen, the 2007 world champion Bernard Lagat, Andrew Baddeley, an English Olympic finalist, and Australian middle-distance star Craig Mottram, the Sunday Star Times informs.
PARIS (FRA): 1999 heptathlon world champion Eunice Barber is to fly to Los Angeles to start her preparation for 2009, but heptathlon is no longer part of her programme, the 34 year old said to French radio RMC. “The most important for me is to carry on with athletics, but not with heptathlon. As one gets older, it’s time to get reasonable. I’ll keep competing in the hurdles and the long jump, which should leave me time to work on other projects I want to develop. I will notably start a foundation in the United States to help athletes who want to conciliate studies and high level sports. I would have like to do it in France but it is very difficult”. Barber then added “I also got an offer which touched my heart: to coach at UCLA. I never thought about it before but said yes immediately. I really want to pass on my experience. I feel honored and useful to do something like that”. About plans for a future career in bobsleigh, Barber confirmed that she was contacted this summer but that she didn’t follow up as she was focusing on her Olympic preparation. “I’m still thinking about it today, but there’s nothing actual right now”.
BERLIN (GER): 2004 Olympic silver medallist Nadine Kleinert announced she is sticking to the shot put during a press conference on Friday. Attracted by the possibility of a career in boxing, the athlete had taken a break after Beijing, where she finished 7th, to think about her future. Her focus is now 100% on the 2009 World Championships in Berlin “I’m not not going there just to take part but to fight for a medal” declared the double world silver medallist, DPA informs.
DUBLIN (IRL): Irish Road Athlete of the year Fionnuala Britton, was a late withdrawal of the National Inter-County Cross-Country Championships in Tranmore yesterday because of a foot injury. Her coach Pat Diskin explained that an MRI scan in midweek, had confirmed it is not a stress fracture but what medics had described as „a bone reaction”. „On a scale of one to 10, her pain level on Sunday was six and it was down to two and a half yesterday, so we would still be thinking very positively in relation to the Europeans,” Diskin said, the Independent informs. Alan Mc Cormack and Linda Byrne were the winners of the senior races in Tramore.
ZURICH (SUI): The goal to stage the European Championships 2014 in Zurich is now confirmed. The Swiss Athletics Federation, the VfG/LCZ organising body of Weltlkasse Meeting and City with Kanton Zurich agreed on common procedures in the bidding process. European Athletics should decide in Autumn 2009. The CEO of bid committee is the Weltklasse Meet Director Patrick Magyar. The costs of the bid are estimated at 600-900 000 Swiss Francs. This will be covered by City, Kanton and Weltklasse meet. The budget for the championships is estimated at 36 millions of Swiss Francs. It is not known yet whether other biding cities will be trying also, some interest was shown by Nurnberg, Germany.
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): Former great runner and current meet director of UK/Fast Track one day events Ian Stewart admits he faces a huge challenge after being appointed to lead UK Athletics endurance strategy initially in the build-up to the next Olympic Games. UKA’s head coach Charles van Commenee has asked the former Olympic 5000metres bronze medallist and world cross country champion, to formulate a programme to revamp the ailing fortunes of British distance running. Informs David Martin.
RESULTS
ALLONNES (FRA, Nov 23): Little known Cheshari Kirui from Mount Elgon claimed his first victory abroad, winning the Maine Libre cross-country in Allonnes (9400m), three weeks after his victory at the Moi University open cross-country in Eldoret. Kirui crossed the finish line in 27:51, ten seconds ahead of Titus Masai. Top French runner, 34 year-old Driss El Himer was third in 28:07, followed by James Theuri, Mokhtar Benhari and Irba Lakhal. Russian Maria Ivanova claimed an undisputed victory in the women’s 5km race. She defeated former 3000m world junior champion Jebichi Yator of Kenya by a 9-second margin (16:15 to 16:24) while Kenyan marathoner Martha Komu took the third place ahead of fellow countryman Mirriam Wangari. Little-known Laurane Picoche was the first home runner in 5th, upsetting more seasoned runners like Sophie Duarte (7th), Maria Martins (8th) or Christelle Daunay (9th).
KAMPALA (UGA, Nov 23): Uganda top runner Moses Kipsiro recorded a fantastic time of 26:44 to win the 10km of the MTN Kampala International marathon, but himself raised doubts about the length of the course: “After three kilometres I realized there was no tough competition. I decided to run my race but again that time surprises me. Maybe the distance was some metres less”. The time is also surprising considering the runners ‘s was disrupted by errant drivers on the road. This year’s course was changed a day to the event due to lack of consensus with traffic police. “At some point competitors ran on the left side of the road yet we had demarcated the right. I believe that could have caused some inconsistencies,” said Faustino Kiwa, who oversees route measurements in Uganda, the Daily Monitor informs. Home runners dominated all the races but the women’s half marathon, where 20 year-old Tanzanian athlete Sarah Ramathan recorded a solo victory in 1:14:35. Isaac Kiprop claimed the men’s race in 1:03:40, while Francis Musani and Jane Suuto were the winners in the marathon in the marathon, clocking 2:19:46 and 2:48:42.
CHIBA (JPN, Nov 24): The Ethiopian squad got a convincing win at today’s Hanji Aoki Cup/2008 Chiba Ekiden in Japan. Their team of three men and three women covered the six section, 42.195 km course in 2:05:27, averaging less than 2:59 per kilometer, breaking the event record established by Japan in 2007, the first year the race used a co-ed format. Japan was second in 2:06:39 and Russia was third in 2:08:04. Ali Abdosh put Ethiopia in the lead on the first 5 km leg, clocking 13:34. However, Japanese 1500m star Yuriko Kobayashi regained the lead for her team in the second leg by running a section record 15:08 for 5 km. The Japanese now had a two-second lead. But in the third leg, Ethiopia’s Dejen Gebremeskel ran a section record 28:20 for 10 km, putting Ethiopia in the lead for good. Informs Race Results Weekly.
KOBE (JPN, Nov 16): Fast sub 1:10 time for Kenyan Julia Mombi at Kobe Women´s Half Marathon with 1:09:45 ahead of Akane Wakita (1:09:57) and Maji Suzawa (1:12:29).
AGEO (JPN, Nov 16): Yuichi Tokuchi clocked 1:02:50 to win the Ageo Half-Marathon. Second Yuichi Suematsu achieved 1:03:22.
used with permission of Alfons Juck, EME News.
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