Willis Gets his real medal and wins Mile, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

Nick Willis, a Kiwi that we like (we like all Kiwis), got his medal in NZ today in an emotional ceremony and he won the mile. Nick showed some real class and got his friends to do an appeal on TV4 NZ for Christchurch. A class young man all the way around, a honor to his country and to his sport. 

NIck Willis, 2011 NB Indoor Games, February 5, 2011, photo by PhotoRun.net

WILLIS GETS MEDAL AND WINS ONE MILE
WELLINGTON
(NZL, Feb 26): Top New Zealand´s runner Nick Willis recieved his
olympic 1500 m silver medal from Beijing 2008 on Saturday in an
emotional event at Newtown Park in Wellington. The ceremony was planned
to be staged during a Christchurch meet on the same day but after the
devastating earthquake it was moved to Wellington as a fund-raiser for
the victims. In a one mile race Willis clocked excellent 3:58.37 ahead
of US runners Will Leer 3:58.80 and Brandon Bethke 4:00.04.  NZ media
are writing that another training partner, US record holder Alan Webb,
who earlier in the evening ran the 800 m, helped the pacemaking as the
field reeled off 60 second laps after a 58 for the opening 400m.

KOMON FOR PUERTO RICO DESPITE AK AGAINST
SAN
JUAN (PUR): Kenyan road world record holder Leonard Komon is competing
on Sunday at San Juan 10km despite Athletics Kenya not allowing Punta
Umbria team members to go. That was the reason why Vivian Cheruiyot and
Linet Masai will not run as they initialy wanted to attack the women
road WR at the distance. Athletics Kenya General Secretary David Okeyo
said Komon would be dropped from World CC Team if he ran in Puerto Rico,
writes Reuters. 

FELEKE THE TOP NAME
ROMA
(ITA): The 37th edition of the Mezza Maratona Roma-Ostia, Italy’s
largest half-marathon, has a record field of 12,000 entries with hope
of  10,000 actual finishers which will be a new record (there were 8509
finishers last year).  That’s because the slightly downhill,
point-to-point course from Rome to Ostia has been modified to reduce the
distance along the water near the finish to just 300m, thus mitigating
the chance for bothersome headwinds.  The change was accomplished by
extending the opening loop to three kilometers before the runners begin
the long straightaway to Ostia on the Via Christoforo Colombo. Leading
that field will be the Ethiopian Abreham Cherkos Feleke, the 21 year-old
who in 2006 set the world youth record for 5000m of 12:54.19, still his
personal best.  His road racing experience is limited, but he ran 13:15
for 5 km on the road in Carlsbad in 2006, and made a fine marathon
debut in Amsterdam last October in 2:07:29, finishing fourth. Chasing
Feleke will be Italy’s Ruggero Pertile, the 2010 Torino Marathon
champion who has run 1:02:17 for the half-marathon distance.  Other
contenders include Kenyans Abraham Chebii –whose 1:02:59 half-marathon
best is misleading because he’s run 12:52.99 and 27:04.20 on the track–
and Joel Kimurer, who clocked 1:00:09 when he won the Hervis Prague
Half-Marathon last March. Elite athlete coordinator Giampaolo Urlando
has arranged a match-up of two of Europe’s best athletes on the women’s
side.  Jessica Augusto, the petite Portuguese who won the bronze medal
at 10,000m at the European Championships last summer in Barcelona, will
face off with Italy’s Anna Incerti, whose bronze medal in Barcelona came
in the marathon. Also competing for the women’s title will be Kenya’s
Monica Wangari (1:10:33 PB), Hungary’s Krisztina Papp (1:10:53),
Ethiopia’s Abeba Zemichael and Gadse Bedane (no known performances to
RRW), Ukraine’s Olha Kotovska (1:14:16), Norway’s Kirsten Marathon
Melkevik (1:10:19), and China’s Changqin Ding (1:20:01). Informs RRW. 

HERMENS EXPLAINS 
TOKYO
(JPN): Respected agent and former top runner Jos Hermens was in Tokyo
to explain the current situation around Haile Gebrselassie.  “Haile
Gebrselassie asked me to come to Tokyo to explain to everybody what has
happened. He is sorry that he could not be here. He was looking forward
to compete here. Having won the Fukuoka Marathon before, he enjoys
running in Japan. His training was going very well. However, last week
he injured his knee when he fell during the training run in the
countryside. Sometimes he falls, but falling on grass is not a problem. 
But this time he banged his left knee on the hard rock when he fell and
it was very painful. He wounded his knee, so he rested for a few days.
But after a few days his pain has shifted more to the inside of his
knee.  When he tried to run on a treadmill for 10 minutes, it was very
painful on his both knees. By favoring his left knee, his right knee
also started to hurt.  So he decided to have it diagnose with MRI.  The
MRI showed that his knee is bruised and the conclusion was that this
injury will be difficult to heal in a few days or a week. It will take a
month to recover.  He is very sorry and he promises to comeback to
here, hopefully next year. Of course, you never know for sure about
future, but he really would like to comeback to Tokyo.” Hermens also
added that the ultimate goal is London 2012 Olympic marathon and for
that Haile needs to run fast time to qualify for the Ethiopian team. “It
is difficult to say anything about his program in the next few months,
but his next marathon will be in the fall. He is determined to run much
longer into the future. He is still very strong. Also the MRI shows that
besides the bruise his knee is very strong and shows no damage in knee
itself.  His first scheduled race will be half marathon in Vienna in
mid-April, but not sure whether he will be ready for the race or not. It
all depends on the speed of his recovery. But, it will be very
difficult to compete there.  In May, he is scheduled to run 10Km in
Manchester.  Hopefully he will be recovered for that race. Half marathon
and 10Km races are important to him for speed workouts. However, at the
moment, recovering from an injury is most important,” added Hermens.  

IAAF COMING TO LEIPZIG
LEIPZIG (GER):
German athletes are competing during this weekend National Indoor
Championships in Lepzig with added motivation. Open letter of top group
of competitors regarding live broadcast from Daegu in summer brought new
initiatives. Television ARD/ZDF is now saying they are ready to open
again the negotiations. For Sunday in Leipzig is a press conference
announced with participation of  IAAF Director of Communications Nick
Davies and IAAF Council member Helmut Digel is expected.
Leichtathletik.de is thinking that the TV rights issue will be one of
the themes of the conference. 

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