byLarry EderMark Adams, 45, a champion of innovative uses of various media platforms to reach key young audiences, has taken the Director of Communications position for the IOC. The key will be, how much control the IOC tries to put on Adams. His position starts May 1, and he will be challenged with communicating to the IOC bigwigs such things as how YouTube, Facebook, and other social media can help the Olympic movement, not hinder it.
The Olympic ideal, while tarnished in some circles, is still quite strong among the world’s sports fans. We wish Mr. Adams the very best and look forward to his impramatur on Olympicspeak.
MONTE CARLO (MON): The 37th IAAF World Cross Country Championships on Saturday 28 March, an event taking place in the desert kingdom of Jordan, will see athletes from over 60 countries pleasantly surprised to find the championship venue as situated in relatively lush surroundings. While much of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan which spans the southern part of the Syro-Arabian desert down to the Gulf of Aqaba is covered by desert, the north-western area in which the capital city of Amman is situated in part of what is known as the Fertile Crescent.
LAUSANNE (SUI): The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the appointment of Mark Adams as Director of Communications. Adams, 45, will take up his new position at the end of May. Mark Adams, from Great Britain, is joining the IOC from the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was Managing Director and Head of Media and Communications. Leading a team of 18, he oversaw the media, web and publications departments, as well as managing the organisation’s public image globally, both at the Forum’s Annual Meeting at Davos, and throughout the year. A former journalist, Adams started his career as a reporter and producer for BBC Radio before moving to ITN/ITV in London as Evening News programme editor and as the producer responsible for weekend sports coverage. In 1996, he became the launch programme editor of Channel 5 News, where he created an entirely new format of producing the news to attract a young audience. He then joined multilingual and pan-European television news channel Euronews, in Lyon, as Editorial Director, where he led a team of 250 working in seven languages, before taking on his current role at the Forum.
RHEDE (GER): The 40th edition of the international meeting in Rhede, planned for May 23rd, will not take place in 2009, but in 2010. Apart from the problem that there is another meeting in Weinheim the same day, the German youth championships will also take place in Rhede. The organizers want to concentrate fully on these national championships (August 7th to 9th).
LONDON (GBR): Pat Butcher reflects in his latest blog about Diamond League, Chambers, and 21years since Ben Johnson bust. You can read it at: http://www.globerunner.org/blog/?p=113
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Agencies are reporting that Beijing Olympic long jump champion Maurren Maggi returned to training on Monday. She withdrew from Paris indoor meet in February due to pain in her right knee. She is expected to spend the next two months in Brazil before she heads abroad.
BUENOS AIRES (ARG): South American record holder Jennifer Dahlgren is already early in the season in great shape. At local meet her result was 72.29 m. Earlier during February she even got better 72.79. Her continental mark from 2007 is 72.94 m.
TORINO NEWS
GREAT BRITAIN: British long jump record holder Chris Tomlinson who has been struggling with an Achilles problem has withdrawn from the European Indoor Championships.
FRANCE: French shot puttor Gaetan Bucki has withdrawn from the European championships due to injury.
SPAIN: 1500 m world leader Nuria Fernandez of Spain decided to compete at 3000 m only during the European Indoor Championships. She is entered in both events (1500 and 3000 m). “I prefer to fight for the top position in the 3000 m, because to compete in both events would be too risky,†she was quoted and added that for summer world championships her priority will be with 1500 m. Spain has in total 36 athletes (21 men and 15 women). In similar situation is also the 3000 world leader Russian Anna Alminova, also entered in both 1500 m and 3000 m. In Birmingham straight final was held in 3000 m with 13 runners, currently 20 are entered. If no heats staged that will make the life easier for possible combination (Friday heats of 1500 m, Saturday final of 1500 m, Sunday final of 3000 m).
BELGIUM: Qualified 3000 m runner Jean-Pierre Weerts who achieved the standard at SEC Championships in Lexington (7:58.26) decided not to compete in Torino. He gives the NCAA championships in two weeks the priority. Belgium will so have six athletes in Italy – Eline Berings (60 m hurdles), Elisabeth Davin (60 m hurdles), Damien Broothaerts (60 m hurdles), Kevin Rans (pole vault), Sigrid Vanden Bempt (1500 m) and Willem Van Hoof (3000 m).
BULGARIA: Bad luck for Bulgarian team. The biggest medal hope triple jumper Momchil Karailiev suffered a muscle injury on Tuesday during training in the Festivalna Hall. The third ranked in current entry list for the championships will travel with the rest of the team but will decide whether to compete only shortly before the competition. Earlier in February also injury send out from Torino Team the sprinter Ivet Lalova.
Special thanks to Alfons Juck, EME News.
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