by Larry EderThe IAAF Council Meeting in Monaco is working on changes in the world champ schedules, modernizing the champs a bit, but still, issues remain in the very complicated issues surrounding Caster Semenya….
NEW PRINCIPLES FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS TIMETABLE, SHORTER EVENING SESSIONS WITH FINALS ONLY
MONTE CARLO (MON): IAAF Council Agreed during the first day of its session about many issues related to competitions. Important changes were agreed within the new set of Timetable Principles for the IAAF World Championships starting in Daegu 2011. The World Championships will have 9 days, but it will be clearly structured. With first day to include some of the top athletes, days 2-7 will have morning and evening sessions and days 8-9 only evening sessions. Another important change is that evening sessions will last not more than three hours and will include only finals (or semifinals). One day will be devoted solely to road events. Last two days only evening sessions with finals will be held. Minimum of six finals (or five finals and important semifinal) will be held during the evening sessions. All qualifications will be in the morning sessions. Maximum of three rounds will be set for every running event, what is good news for some of the top sprinters and hurdlers. Doubling possibilities should be preferred. Relays will be spread over last three days, semifinals and finals in the same session only for 100 m and both hurdles sprints. Another innovation will be that the 100 m for men and women will have preliminary round for unqualified sprinters. Vertical jumps with javelin and hammer will have one rest day between qualification and finals, but horizuntal jumps, shot and discus without that. It was also agreed for marathons that the top 10 finishers from all IAAF Gold Label marathons will be considered as having achieved the A-standard.
OTHER COMPETITIONS
Youth Olympics Games: Council agreed that the IAAF competitions department, together with the relevant delegates would review the regulations of the YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES according to the new principles with a view to provide the IOC with a new proposal by 10 December 2009, and to adjust accordingly the timetable. The 1st IAAF Continental Cup (replacing World Cup) next year in Split, Croatia (Sep 4-5) will have two sessions early evening. On Saturday starting at 5 pm and ending at 8.25 and on Sunday again at 5 pm and ending at 8.40 with the awards presentation. High Jump women with expected local star Blanka Vlasic will be held on Sunday at 6.40 pm. An amended timetable was approved for the 24th IAAF World Race Walking Cup next May in Chihuahua, Mexico. First day May 15 will see in the morning 50 km for men and in the early evening 10 km junior men (5 pm local time) and 20 km for women (6 pm). On second day both races will be staged in the morning, 10 km for junior women at 9 and 20 km men at 10.10. 19th IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Nanning, China will be staged in the morning hours on October 16 next year. Men race will start at 9 am and women at 9.15. The 14th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul will be held as usual in second weekend of March (9-11, 2014).
IAAF World Challenge: Following dates and meetings have been approved for the second tier series of the meetings, the IAAF World Challenge: Melbourne March 4, Dakar April 24, Osaka May 8, Daegu May 19, Belem May 23, Ostrava May 27, Hengelo May 30, Rabat June 6, Madrid July 3, Athens July 12, Rieti Aug 29, Zagreb Sep 1. Without confirmed date is so far Berlin ISTAF Meeting. In the group all former remained IAAF Grand Prix Meetings added with Daegu, Korea and Rabat, Morocco.
Hammer Throw Challenge: Good news for hammer throwers who will not be part of IAAF Diamond League. IAAF agreed to create a hammer throw challenge based on same principles as the walking or combined events series. The hammer circuit will have at least 6 competitions, mainly organised by the World Challenge Meetings.
OTHER NEWS
OEIRAS (POR): Latest addition into the field of Oeiras CC IAAF permit is the home runner Ines Monteiro. The European CC medalist from 2008 plans a heavy schedule with running also on Sunday in Llodio, Spain.
MOSCOW (RUS): European Indoor High Jump champion Ivan Ukhov married on Friday Russian singer Polina Frolova. The ceremony was held in Moscow, also attended by deputy Chief of Sports for the City. Ukhov plans full indoor season and is reported to be already in solid shape after training camp in Cyprus. He jumped last winter 240 as the only one in 2009 indoors or outdoors.
NEW YORK (USA): Next Thursday‘s 83rd annual Macy‘s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City will not only feature the famous Sesame Street balloon of the precocious frog, but the first American to win the ING New York City Marathon in 27 years, Meb Keflezighi. The New York Road Runners announced that Keflzighi will ride on the Stature of Liberty Float alongside 2009 Miss America, Katie Stam. Writes Race Results Weekly.
ELDORET (KEN): Newly confirmed 1500 m olympic winner from Beijing Asbel Kiprop was quoted as by Reuters: „I don‘t feel happy in the way I should have felt. We cannot go back to Beijing again and recite the national anthem.“
SAN DIEGO (USA): The Competitor Group announced that it will expand the presence of its Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series in Southern California through an agreement with Grove of Hope to operate and manage an annual fall half marathon in Los Angeles. The newly renamed Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon, scheduled for October 24, 2010, will replace the City of Angels Half Marathon, which has historically been held the first weekend of December since 2006. From trackandfieldnews.com.
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica Observer writes, that Antiguan sprinter Daniel Bailey, the training partner of Jamaican Usain Bolt, has started legal proceedings against Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet which erroneously published an articles claiming he failed a drug test during this summer‘s World Championships in Berlin. Bailey‘s manager Cubie Seegobin confirmed the defamation case had been filed with the Swedish Press Council on Wednesday, November 18. Bailey was fourth in World Championships finals with 9.93. IAAF later issued a statement saying nobody in the 100 m finals tested positive.
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