by Larry Eder
Dayron Robles, Rome 2009, photo by PhotoRun.net.
It is that wonderful time of the year, indoor track & field! Dayron Robles is ready, for the first time since his injuries in Berlin WC. Yelena Isinbayeva is speaking about World Records, and Sammy Wanjiru wants to take thirty seconds off the WR for the marathon in London! Wow! I am…..breathless!
ROBLES IS READY
HAVANA (CUB): Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Dayron Robles is quoted by AP as healthy and ready to come to Europe next week. He should compete for first time since Berlin World Championships where he pulled out. His first meets will be in Germany, on February 3 in Dusseldorf and February 6 in Stuttgart. His main is World Indoor Championships in Doha.
WANJIRU HM DEBUT IN USA
NEW ORLEANS (USA): Olympic marathon gold medalist Samuel Wanjiru in his build-up towards London Marathon will run his first ever half-marathon in the USA. It will happen at the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Marathon & Ë Marathon on February 28. “I’m very happy to be part of the first Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in New Orleans,†said Wanjiru, a distance where he first set the world record in 2005, then lowered it to the current mark of 58:33 in 2007. “The race is perfect timing in my build up to the London Marathon, I know it will be very competitive and should be very fast. I’m coming to do my best and hope for a great performance.†Writes trackandfieldnews.com. It was originally planned that Wanjiru would take on Ryan Hall, but he has unfortunately been forced to pull out.
N. CARTER FOR INDOORS
KINGSTON (JAM): Relay olympic winner and world record holder Jamaican Nesta Carter plans his first indoor meets for this winter. He wants to run at Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham on February 20 and qualify for World Indoor Championships in Doha. Carter opens in Jamaica already this weekend with a 100 m. „I‘ve been running some good 60m times, me and coach talked about it and I said I would like to try so he said alright,“ Carter told the Jamaican Observer. Back in 2005 he ran as high-schooler in New York 6.87 at 60 m in his only indoor race of the career. Carter improved his 100 m PB last autumn to 9.91 in Shanghai race. Jamaican national record is 6.49 by Michael Green in 1997. Another top Jamaicans running indoor this year are Lerone Clarke and mainly relay olympic winner Michael Frater who is scheduled for Stuttgart on February 6.
PHILLIPS TO JUMP IN STUTTGART
STUTTGART (GER): 24th Sparkassen Cup (IAAF Indoor Permit) planned for Stuttgart on February 6 wants to confirm its status among the best indoor meetings in the world. In all 13 events world class athletes will compete. Meseret Defar runs the 3000 m with the aim to attack her own world indoor record, Russian Anna Alminova could be a tough oponent. Last year fastest woman Carmelita Jeter will be in the 60 m (she also runs in Dusseldorf on February 3). Special the women 1500 m duel of World indoor champion Gelete Burka and World outdoor champion Maryam Jamal. Lolo Jones and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep should fight for the 60 m hurdles win, in the men race Dayron Robles with David Oliver, not to underestimate Czech Petr Svoboda. World champion Anna Rogowska competes against home elite and also full of top names is men´s pole vault (Mesnil, Lavillenie and German elite). World champion Dwight Phillips will compete in his special event for first time this winter. In the men´s 60 m Michael Frater and Churandy Martina are the headliners. Tariku Bekele and Edwin Soi in Ethiopia-Kenya duel are the favorites of 3000 m. Already 6500 tickets are sold.
BORZAKOVSKIY VS. ISMAIL
DUSSELDORF (GER): The EA Indoor Permit, 5th PSD Bank Meeting will have on February 3 five olympic winners competing. The organizers are announcing that this years edition will be the best ever. Cuban Dayron Robles runs the 60 m hurdles, Tomasz Majewski is in shot put, Yuriy Borzakovskiy at 800 m (against Ahmed Ismail of Sudan) and Dwight Phillips in 60 m. Also olympic relay gold medalist is Bahamian Chandra Sturrup in the 60 m against US Carmelita Jeter. In women triple jump another Berlin gold medalist Yargelis Savigne of Cuba. In women 60 m hurdles reigning world indoor champion Lolo Jones of USA. Kenyans Daniel Kipchirchir Komen and Paul Kipsiele Koech are aiming for fast 5000 m. Augustin Choge is the 1500 m top name.
ISINBAYEVA THINKS ABOUT WR
MOSCOW (RUS): Sport-Express writes that world and olympic winner Yelena Isinbayeva is ready for her first meet of the year on February 7 at Russian Winter IAAF Permit. The paper writes, that Isinbayeva aims to improve her world indoor record 500 from last year meet in Donetsk. Interestingly none of her 27 world records was set in Russia. Isinbayeva plans only three meets in winter, after Moscow the Donetsk event on March 6 and World Indoor Championships in Doha.
OTHER NEWS
ATLANTA (USA): The Atlanta Track Club announced in the Atlanta Journal-constitution that the 55,000 entrants for the Peachtree road race will be lined up based on submitted finish times. The runners, who will line up for the race on July 4th, will be able to run their times in certified races. Previously, the starting positions of the runners were determined randomly, except for the elite athletes. Runners who do not submit a time will be placed in one of the last starting grids.
MONCTON (CAN): The organizing committee of the IAAF world junior championships announced the official start of the ticket sales. The championship will be staged in Moncton, Canada from July 19th- 25th 2010.
INDIANAPOLIS (USA): USA Track and Field announced in a press release that the VISA Championships series will see an increase in bonus money available to the athletes. The VISA championships is a series of nationally televised USATF competitions featuring the best American athletes. As of 2010 the US athlete who posts the best performance will receive a bonus of $30,000 with the first runner-up receiving a bonus of $15,000 and the second runner-up earning $5,000. Points will be given to the performance of every winning athlete according to the IAAF scoring tables of athletics, determining the top 3 performances over all. Last year winners got 25 000 USD. Last indoor winners were hurdlers Terrence Trammell and Lolo Jones. The series consists in winter of Millrose Games, Boston Reebok Indoor Games and USATF Championships.
KINGSTON (JAM): 800m world record holder Wilson Kipketer will be a guest lecturer at the Gibson Relays Technical corner. Kipketer will address athletes at the GC Foster College during the week leading up to the Relays and will also be a special guest of the organizers on the day of the Relays. “We were trying to get him here from last year because the president of the JAAA had indicated to us that they wanted to develop middle and long distance running and I think that we have a responsibility to assist in this direction and felt that we could get Mr Kipketer here,“ said McCook, chairman of the Gibson Relays organizer committee. „We thought that this was an opportune time since we have a technical corner each year, with the lecture geared towards an area of development needs,“ he added in the Jamaica Gleaner.
BUDAPEST (HUN): All-Athletics.com announced best athletes in the 2009 in new categories. Best jumpers of the year are Dwight Phillips and Blanka Vlasic, best throwers Christian Cantwell and Valerie Vili and best combined event athletes Trey Hardee and Jessica Ennis. More at www.all-athletics.com.
COLLEGE STATION (USA): World Youth sprint gold medalist Prezel Hardy picked Texas A&M for his collegiate career over University of Texas writes kdhnews.com. „It was probably the hardest decision I‘ve ever had to make in my life, because pretty much everybody in my family, except of my dad, have grown up big Longhorn fans,“ Hardy said. The sprinter thought about which school would help him most in his mission to compete in the 2012 Olympics and with dreams of improving his sprint time enough to crack an under-10 second flat time, Hardy said he chose A&M most of all because of its world-class coach, Pat Henry. With his decision to go to A&M Hardy foregoes a possible career in football and decided to concentrate fully on his career in track and field. The 17-years old sprinter won last summer the World Youth Championships in Italy and has a PB of 10.34.
AMSTERDAM (NED): Former steeple European record holder and European medalist Dutch Simon Vroemen is cleared from doping allegations. The decision of KNAU (Dutch Athletics Union) was announced by Friday. Because of the whole case Vroemen (40) missed the Olympic Games in Beijing. He asked for doping control in June 2008 in Cottbus after running olympic qualifying standard 8:12.50. Surprisingly the test was positive for metandienon. Fortunately for him scientific research has found that asthma medicine caused the positive result. Also the analysis was accompanied with irregularities. His provisional suspension since 2008 could now end, but as always the possibilty of an appeal exists. It is already second case where Vroemen was cleared. In his issue at European Championships 2006 in Sweden he used infusion what was the cause of the problem. “I m happy that my name is cleared. I always was training and competing without doping, that is now confirmed,†he was quoted.
BRUSSELS (BEL): Belgian media are informing that top 400 m runner Jonathan Borlee left for Tallahassee and his studies at Florida State University. His twin brother and also world class 400 m runner Kevin is there since last week. He is studying physiotherapy. Jonathan on the other side has no commitments to compete for the university and will be free to run as planned in relay for Belgium at World Indoor Championships in Doha.
PRAGUE (CZE): Czech walking record holder Barbora Pitakova (formerly Dibakova) gave birth to her second child a daughter Adelka. With walking coach Ivo Pitak she already has a three years old boy Matej. Father was at training camp in Italy, but after fast drive he made it on time to Prague.
Special thanks to Alfons Juck, EME news, used with permission.
