by Larry Eder
Mo Farah, 2011 European Indoor Champs, photo by PhotoRun.net
In another matter, Caster Semenya ran her personal best of 54.03 for the 400 meters. It seems that, no matter how much her team protests, that some type of treatment has been conducted so that Caster can compete as a women.
This is a busy weekend for indoor track & field, with the NCAA Indoor Champs this weekend,
and the New Balance Indoor Champs this weekend at the NB NYC Armory! We wish athletes in both venues the best of luck and thank both organizing committees, officials and sponsors to promoting our sport!
I have been in Orlando, Florida for the past two days, interviewing Jessica Ennis, Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner, Blanka Vlasic and Veronica Campbell-Brown (thanks adidas!). Watch for those interviews in upcoming runblogruns and certain magazines. Now, off to the airport!
SEMENYA 400 M PB
BELVILLE (RSA, Mar 10): Caster Semenya won the 400 m in 54.03 at the third
meet of South African Yellow Pages Series in Cape Town area. It was her first competition
at the distance registered. On a cold and windy evening she said she wants to
get ready for 800 m
at national championships to be held in April. Stephen Mokoka achieved good
quality 13:28.60 in the 5000
m. In the women race Zintle Xiniwe clocked personal best
15:53.53. Long jumpers suffered with strong wind. Young Luvo Manyonga won with
exactly 8 meters
over former world indoor champion Godfrey Mokoena 797. Healthy Mokoena was with
most of the jumps 30-40 cm
behind the board. High quality also Cornel Fredericks at 400 m hurdles with 49.33
concerning the weather conditions and no altitude. Steeple record holder Ruben
Ramolefi achieved sub 4 personal best over the mile 3:59.69. Javelin winners
were Hardus Pienaar (77.65) and Justine Robbeson (58.78).
BORZAKOVSKIY FOR JUNE
MOSCOW (RUS): Russian head coach Valentin Maslakov
said that he counts with Yuriy Borzakovskiy for summer. The 800 m 2004 olympic gold
medalist passed the indoor season due to his health difficulties end of last
year. Maslakov hopes that Borzakovskiy will be ready by European Team Championships
in June in Stockholm.
Maslakov also informed that pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva is in good
training, normal for this period of the year.
DE LOACH WITH DOYLE
ATLANTA (USA):
Janay DeLoach who surprised in Albuquerque with
her first US
title in the Long Jump with an impressive 6.99m win over World champion
Brittany Reese, has signed with Doyle Management. DeLoach, from her Colorado home said: “I
am really excited and blessed to have this opportunity. I’m looking forward to
the challenge of establishing myself against some of the most talented athletes
on the circuit. I feel that I have taken the first step towards that goal by
coming on board with Doyle Management.” Paul Doyle, who is no stranger to the
long jump and is the former coach of Dwight Phillips, said: “We are very
excited to have Janay on board. Having witnessed her performance in Albuquerque, I am very
impressed with Janay’s talent. I think she has the ability to fight for medals
for many years to come. She has appeared to come from out of nowhere but in
truth she has been working hard for many years to get to where she is. I think
we have just seen a glimpse of what Janay is capable of and I anxiously await
her development this outdoor season.”
OTHER NEWS
BERLIN (GER): World discus champion Robert Harting
has spoken up against the threat of not televising the IAAF World championships
in Daegu live on German television. On his facebook and website Harting
announced he supports a group against the blackout of the World Championships
on German television (www.kein-wm-blackout.org).
ARD and ZDF have said to remain open for more negotiations regarding the
subject and hope to have found a solution before March 25th.
LONDON (GBR): The British Olympic Association (BOA)
is to take its row over cash with London 2012 to the Court of Arbitration for
Sport (CAS) writes Insidethegames. The unprecedented decision to take the
matter to sport’s highest court is because the BOA fear that even if the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) do find in their favour in the dispute over the Joint
Marketing Agreement (JMA) between them and London 2012 it could still be
challenged. A CAS decision could take several months but would be final and
binding on the question whether the BOA is entitled to a share of the surplus
from the Olympic Games alone or the Games and the Paralympic Games combined.
TOKYO (JPN): Brett Larner informs that the top Japanese and 3rd place
overall finisher at the Tokyo Marathon Yuki Kawauchi (24, an administrative
assistant in a Saitama high school) gave his prize a hybrid car from race
sponsor BMW worth of around 70 000 USD to his mother. After the race he sent an
email to his mother, who drives a domestically-manufactured compact car, saying,
“I’m giving you the car. From now on you’re going to work in a BMW.”
LONDON (GBR): And another row is threatening to
engulf the British Olympic Association (BOA) after complaints from Northern Ireland’s Sports Minister Nelson
McCausland that “Team GB” is discriminatory and should be changed to “Team UK” reports
Insidethegames. The BOA have in recent Games established “Team GB” as a
powerful marketing brand, even though its official title is “Team GB and Northern Ireland”.
HARARE (ZIM): The Zimbabwe Olympic Committee (ZOC)
have appointed Stanley Mutoya as their new chief executive to replace Robert
Mutsauki. Mutsauki left ZOC, after having served six years at the ZOC, to take
up the post of technical director on a full-time basis at the Association of National
Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA). Mutoya joined ZOC in May 2006 as its
operations manager and overseeing business development, roles he held until his
promotion in 2008 to general manager reports Insidethegames.
PORTLAND (USA): Mo Farah, a longtime
Adidas-sponsored athlete, confirmed via his Twitter he is now an official
member of the Nike-backed Oregon Project. Farah already began training with
Alberto Salazar earlier this year and is planning a move to the United States.
Farah’s first race in his Nike Uniform will be the New York City Half Marathon
on March 20th.
BRESCIA (ITA): Winner of last year Mombasa
marathon in 2:08:05 James Mbugua who also clocked 2:11:30 in Ljubljana the same year is one of the
favorites for Sunday´s Brescia Art Marathon. Course record is 2:09:17 by
Matthew Sigei since 2003. Also running is Ethopian Abebe Negeno Degefa with
2:09:52 best from Vienna 2009.
In women race the top favorite is Ethiopian Abinet
Simegn Yashinbel who was third in Sevilla 2009 with 2:33:22. Italian 13th
placer from Barcelona Deborah Toniolo will run the half-marathon.
DUBLIN (IRL): British runner Charlotte Purdue who has
been a revelation on this winter’s cross country circuit will turn her
attention to road running when competing at the SPAR Great Ireland Run in Dublin on April 10.
Purdue who proved her vast ability for the future when lifting the European
Junior Cross Country title last December then showed her excellent potential
when winning the UK
senior trial for the fast approaching IAAF World Cross Country Championships
last weekend. Defending champion Freya Murray of Scotland or Irish favourites
Mary Cullen and Fioouala Britton will also be in action at the Phoenix Park
venue along with Ethiopian Berhane Adere one of the World’s greatest distance
runners.
LONDON (GBR): UK Athletics has confirmed that none of
its athletes will be available to take part in the parade of nations at the
Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games in which, according to Olympic
protocol, the host country has the honour of being the last to march. Instead
UK Athletics is keeping its squad well away from the festivities at holding
camps in Monte Gordo, Portugal,
and Font-Romeu in the French Pyrenees writes The Telegraph.
VANCOUVER (CAN): Canadian long jumper Ruky Abdulai is
aiming to break Jessica Zelinka’s national heptathlon record of 6490 points.
Abdulai so far only competed in one heptathlon but managed to score a solid
6086 points. Abdulai is currently training solely for the heptathlon and hopes
to make the Canadian team for the 2012 London Olympics reports the Vancouver Sun.
COLORADO SPRINGS (USA): Citigroup has signed a
sponsorship deal with the U.S. Olympic Committee. Monetary details of the
agreement were not disclosed, but the banking category has long been one of the
most lucrative in the USOC cache, traditionally worth 10 million dollar to 15
million dollar for four years. This agreement, which includes ad buys on NBC’s
telecasts at the London Games, goes through 2012.
RESULTS
SYDNEY (AUS, Mar 11): Tasmanian Kaitlin Morgan had the crowd on their
feet at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships second day, with the
16-year-old smashing her personal best to win the girl’s under 18 high jump
with 186 in
pouring rain and become overall leader on the 2011 Australian senior rankings.
In the boys U18 200 m
New Zealander Josh Hawkins won with 21.68 (+0.2) and is Oceanian champion.
XINTAI (CHN, Mar 11): East Asian Champion 2009 Yu Wei won the 20 km walk at national
walking GP meet in 1:20:43. The event is also qualifier for the 7th City Games.
In the junior category excellent 1:21:40 for Chen Ding and in the U18 section
the best was Yin Jiaxing with 1:25:59. Informs Tilastopaja.
SAD NEWS
KYIV (UKR): Ukrainian talented discus thrower Mariya Koshkaryova (20)
died after an heart-attack. She had problems already end of the year, in
January she underwent a major brain surgery at the Kyiv Institute of
Neurosurgery, which lasted almost 9 hours. She was two months in intensive care
under artificial ventilation lung machine. Doctors were fighting long for her
life, but her heart was against. She was fifth placer at World Youth
Championships 2007 in
Ostrava, in 2008 in Bydgoszcz
she was tenth at World Junior Championships and in 2009 fourth at European
Junior Championships in Novi Sad.
Her best was 54.45 from last year.
