by Larry Eder
photo by PhotoRun.net
Shalane Flanagan, 2010 USA Winter XC, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Jeremy Wariner, 2010 Lausanne,
photo by PhotoRun.net
In New York City on Sunday, Mo Farah and Galen Rupp will be racing over the half marathon distance. In Los Angleles, Wesley Korir will try to defend his 2010 victory at the Honda LA Marathon on Sunday as well. Joined by 25,000 of his closest friends, Korir will be treated to a great course and the resurrection of one of the country’s most important marathons….
TOP WEEKEND SUMMARY: RUDISHA, TADESE, PUNTA UMBRIA ETC.
WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS: David Rudisha
runs 800 m in Sydney on Saturday,
Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards-Ross are opening the season at 200 m
in Fort Worth. European Cup Winter Throws in Sofia mainly with strong
hammer throws. Rome
marathon will see defending champions Siraj Gena and Firehiwot Dado.
Half world
gold medalist Zersenay Tadese runs the 21st Lisbon Half Marathon on
Sunday with
the aim to attack his own world record. 50 000 USD is offered. Salina
Kosgei
and Rita Jeptoo are the women favorites. And mainly the IAAF World CC
Championships in Punta Umbria
with highly anticipated women clash of Masai, Cheruiyot against Melkamu.
NYC
Half will see debut of European double track gold medalist from
Barcelona Mo
Farah. Lidia Simon competes after Nagoya
was cancelled in Seoul Marathon.
ROACH CHANGES TEAMS
KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica’s upcoming sprint star
Kimmari Roach (10.13 last year) has changed training groups from MVP track club
to Racers Track club writes Trackalerts. MVP, coached by Stephen Francis,
considered Roach a top talent. Neither MVP track club nor Glen Mills from
Racers Track Club has commented on the change.
WARINER 400 M DEBUT
AUSTIN (USA):
Jeremy Wariner revealed that after this weekends 200 m at TCU Relays his 400 m seasonal debut is
planned for the Michael Johnson Classic in Waco on April 23rd reports The Star Telegram.
WITHOUT SCHWANITZ AND KLAAS
SOFIA (BUL): Germany
traveled to Sofia
for European Cup Winter Throwing without two of the top female names. Because
of illness shot put favorite Christina Schwanitz won´t be there and also hammer
current world leader Kathrin Klaas. But women hammer will still have a top
battle between reigning European Champion Betty Heidler and former world record
holder Tatyana Lysenko (she had already a press conference in Sofia).
PUNTA UMBRIA
NEWS
UGANDA: Uganda’s main medal hope and double
Commonwealth Games gold medalist Moses Kipsiro doesn’t feel he is in the right
shape to conquer a medal at the World Cross Country Championships this weekend.
Kipsiro has won medals in two previous editions of the event but will invest
himself in getting a better team ranking for his country rather than going for
an individual medal writes allafrica.com.
NAIROBI (KEN): Kenya Commercial Bank have promised
gold medallists from Sunday’s world cross country championships in Punta Umbria,
Spain Sh300,000
each (around 3600 USD). The bank’s chief executive officer Martin Otieno said
silver medals will be worth Sh200,000 and bronze Sh100,000. If Kenya win the
overall team title the team will share Sh300,000 equally amongst themselves, he
added. Kenya will be
defending the eight titles they won last year in Poland.
STATS: Some 10,512 athletes from 167 countries have competed in the IAAF
World Cross Country Championships, with athletes from six countries
participating in all previous 38 editions: Belgium,
France, Great Britain &
NI (ENG, GBR, NIR, SCO, WAL), Ireland,
Spain, and the United States.
All this countries are also competing in Punta Umbria. More in Mark Butler stats at IAAF
website. Interestingly in the senior races no one from previous indvidual
winners is competing.
OTHER NEWS
TWICKENHAM (GBR): Britain’s
anti-doping agency is stepping up intelligence operations to weed out drug
cheats ahead of the 2012 London Olympics writes Deseret News. Former police
officers have been employed by U.K. Anti-Doping (UKAD) to investigate networks
and individuals providing banned substances to athletes.”As our people get more
technically proficient, more sophisticated, then actually you will start to see
cases coming out that have been on the basis of intelligence rather than the
old-fashioned way of just tests,” said UKAD chairman David Kenworthy.
MOSCOW (RUS): The head of Russia’s Olympic Committee,
Alexander Zhukov, says his country is targeting a top-three overall performance
at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Zhukov stressed that Russia has been gaining
ground in many sports recently, singling out medal-rich disciplines such as
weightlifting, fencing, swimming and rowing, with Russia being a traditional
stronghold in boxing, gymnastics and athletics. A recent survey by the
Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) sees Russia as the favorites of the 2012
Summer Games.
LONDON (GBR): Former Olympic champion Jonathan
Edwards fears some British athletes could freeze on the London 2012 stage but
has said he doesn’t expect Phillips Idowu to be one of them. Idowu will be
hoping to emulate Edwards’ 2004 achievement of winning Olympic gold when the
Games come to London in 2012 however, Idowu was
disappointed after only claiming silver in Beijing three years ago. For Sportinglife.com
Edwards confirmed he expects Idowu to fulfil his potential in London.
MARRAKESH (MAR): Insidethegames writes that IOC President Jacques Rogge
has been urged to offer as much support to a bid from Africa for the Olympics
as Sepp Blatter gave to the continent’s staging of the World Cup in South
Africa last year. The success of the tournament won by Spain has raised hopes that an African city will
soon be able to successfuly bid to host the Olympcis and Paralympics, with Durban emerging as a
serious candidate to put itself forward for the 2020 Games. The subject was top
of the agenda at the Africa International Sports Convention (CISA) which opened
here, an event attended by several IOC members and high-powered delegations
from the three cities bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
There was backing for an African bid from Sergey Bubka, the world pole vault
record holder who is now a member of the IOC and a senior vice-president of the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). But he urged the
continent to try to urge more major events, such as the IAAF World Championships.
LOS ANGELES (USA):
Sunday is a great day for running. Universal Sports has live coverage of the
2011 Honda LA Marathon
presented by K-Swiss. Coverage will be live online and on Universal Sports
Network (except in Los Angeles,
CA). Leading into the marathon
will be the NYC Half Marathon. Coverage can be seen on the NYRR internet
channel or UniversalSports.com.
ORLANDO (USA): Jamaican 110m hurdles record
holder Dwight Thomas is part of Brooks Johnson training group (includes
Delloreen Ennis, Novlene Williams-Mills, Justin Gatlin, Xavier Carter, Tiana
Madison, Tiffany Ross-Williams and mainly David Oliver). “I feel really good
about this year as David has been pushing me and I’m looking forward to running
much faster,” he said for Jamaica Observer. Thomas plans to run at Jamaica
Invitational on May 7 (IAAF World Challenge) and will open the season earlier
at Florida Relays.
TALLINN (EST): 2009 European indoor champion in long
jump Ksenija Balta wants to concentrate on her knee treatment and will be suspended
for three months as Tallinn
city council member. “I do not want just get the money as council member and do
not attend the sessions,” she was quoted. After she missed the Paris European
Indoors she wants to concentrate on Daegu in summer.
MONACO (MON): The new event Monaco Run, replaced the
former Marathon of the Riviera.
This Sunday actually two races will be held in the municipality. The Riviera
Classic, 23.8km from Ventimiglia to Monaco going through the French cities of
Menton and Roquebrune Cap Martin, where the favorites will be on the women side
Italian Ornella Ferrara, who has a PB of 1:11:46 on half-marathon, but also the
local Ingrid Lopergolo, and the 3rd finisher of the previous half marathon of
Cannes, Paola Ventrella, who also won the 2010 edition of Imperia Marathon. For
the men, the 10km will have some army representants, with the French
legionnaire Lahcen Amguil, who recently finish 3rd in Cannes as well in 29:26,
but also Frederic Desplanques, 27th at the prestigious London Marathon last
year.
CORRECTION
TORONTO (CAN): Canadian distance runner Simon Bairu
will not debut next fall in marathon at Toronto
race. He ran the NYC marathon last year, but did not finish the race.
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