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SUPER DUELS FOR SHANGHAI

SHANGHAI (CHN): Sunday´s Dunlop
Shanghai Golden Grand Prix as second
meet of Samsung Diamond League will offer high calibre duels. In men
events 110 m hurdles will be
something special with David Oliver against Liu Xiang, but in shape
Aries
Merritt should not be underestimated. In the 100 m Asafa Powell runs his
first race of the year at the distance against US Mike Rodgers who
already
clocked twice 9.96 this year. In the steeple for first time top Kenyans
will be
meeting, olympic winner Brimin Kipruto with last year world number one
Paul
Kipsiele Koech and African Champ Richard Mateelong. In the 1500 m two
winners from Doha will meet, Nixon Chepseba and Asbel Kiprop, the
olympic winner at the distance who was the best in Qatar at 800 m. In
long jump world
champion Dwight Phillips opens his season against world leader Mitchell
Watt
from Australia.
Javelin is expecting another Thorkildsen vs. Pitkamäki duel, but Doha
winner Petr Frydrych
is also there. Top women duel is the 100 m when Carmelita Jeter (already
10.99 and
10.86 this year) runs against Veronica Campbell-Brown (her season opener
at the
distance). In the 5000 m
two Berlin
world champions Vivian Cheruiyot and Linet Masai will renew their
rivalry. Returning
former world champion Jana Pittman is at 400 m hurdles against reigning
world champion
Melaine Walker, Diamond Race winner Kaliese Spencer and world leader
Lashinda
Demus. High jump has season opener for Blanka Vlasic against her
old-time rival
Yelena Slesarenko who is slowly returning to the shape after years of
health
problems. In the triple jump top two from last year will clash, world
champion
Yargelis Savigne and Continental Cup winner Olga Rypakova. Last to
mention is
discus with European winner and current world leader Sandra Perkovic
against
world champion Dani Samuels and Diamond Race winner Yarelis Barrios from
Cuba,
not to speak about strong group of home discus throwers.

G. MUTAI AND KEITANY NO FOR DAEGU

NAIROBI (KEN): Kenya’s fastest marathon runners
Geoffrey Mutai and Mary Keitany will both skip the World Athletics Championship
in Daegu. Informs The Nation. On the other hand Berlin
winner Patrick Makau and New York winner Edna
Kiplagat accepted the invitation to run for Kenya. According to Athletics Kenya
Public relations Officer Peter Angwenyi, only those who will have put in a
formal confirmation and have the highest time would be considered in the final
five men and five women who will travel to Daegu, where Kenya will be seeking
to defend both the men’s and women’s crown which were won by Abel Kirui and
Catherine Ndereba respectively. Mutai and Keitany said they want to attack
world records in autumn. The announcement of final selection is expected by
Thursday.

WORLD CROSS RETURNS TO BYDGOSZCZ

MONTE CARLO (MON): The IAAF announced today that the
Polish city of Bydgoszcz
would be the site of the next IAAF World Cross Country Championships in 2013.
The decision to award the 40th edition of these championships to Bydgoszcz, which hosted the event in 2010, was unanimously
supported by the IAAF Council, and followed a meeting in Monaco on May 3, when the IAAF met
representatives of the Polish Athletics Federation, the city of Bydgoszcz, and the 2010
Local Organizing Committee. The event will be held in Sunday, March 24. “Bydgoszcz has been a
superb organizer of IAAF World Athletics Series events from the inaugural World
Youth Championships in 1999 through to the 2008 World Junior Championships and
most recently last year’s World Cross Country Championships,” commented IAAF
President Lamine Diack through a news release. “We are delighted that we will
again experience their warm welcome, dedication and experience as an event
organizer.” The IAAF World Cross Country Championships are now held every other
year, alternating with the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships. Polish
Federation website informs that Bydgoszcz
is also bidding for European Team Championships 2013 and European Championships
2016. The Polish city which is organising also the yearly EA Premium meeting
was interested to stage the IAAF Continental Cup 2014 which was awarded to Rabat. With help from
IAAF and RRW.

OTHER NEWS

ISTANBUL (TUR): Turkey will be represented at
European Cup Race Walking only by individuals. For the men´s 20 km Recep Celik with Kemal
Gelecek, in the women 20 km
Semiha Mutlu. Boys 10 km
representatives are Ozgur Ozan Pamuk and Sahin Senoduncu, on the girls side
Tugce Gunes with Gamze Ozgur.

ROMA (ITA): Italy
will send teams for all five competitions at European Race Walking Cup in Portugal later
this month. Men senior 20 km
will have Matteo Giupponi, Daniele Paris, Giorgio Rubino and Federico
Tontodonati. In the 50 km
the four representatives are Teodorico Caporaso, Marco De Luca, Lorenzo Dessi
and Jean Jacques Nkouloukidi. Women 20 km headler is returning olympic medalist
Elisa Rigaudo with Federica Ferraro, Eleonora Anna Giorgi and Antonella
Palmisano. Youth Olympic Games winner Anna Clemente leads the junior girls
squad at 10 km.

SOFIA (BUL): Top Bulgarian male athlete triple jumper Momchil Karailiev
is changing coaches. He is starting to work with former European junior silver
winner in long jump (1999) only 31 years old Krasimir Argirov. They started to
work last month in Sliven.
Karailiev who is Beijing and Berlin finalist worked last year with
Valeriy Tsvetkov and before that for more than 10 years with Atanas Ivanov.

NEW YORK (USA):
The New York Road Runners released their final invited field for the 7th annual
UAE Healthy Kidney 10-K, scheduled for Staturday, May 14, in Central
Park. The 18 athletes on the list will be running for a $60,000
prize money purse, with $25,000 going to the winner, the largest first place
prize of any road 10-K in the world. In addition, a $20,000 bonus is on offer
should the winner break the course and Central Park
record of 27:42 set by Ethiopian Gebre Gebremariam last year. Five men had road
10-K personal best times under 28 minutes, led by the two fastest men ever,
Leonard Patrick Komon (26:44) and Micah Kogo (27:01), both of Kenya. Writes
Race Results Weekly.

LISSE (NED): Dutch Heptathlete Yvonne Van Langen-Wisse will return to
competition on Saturday at the Ter Specke Bokaal meeting in Lisse. Van
Langen-Wisse injured her left knee in May 2010 during the Hypo Meeting in
Götzis and has since been unable to compete.

MONTE CARLO (MON): The IAAF has reaffirmed its commitment
to a greener environment at the 9th World Conference on Sport and the
Environment held in Doha, Qatar, from 30 April to 2 May.
Under the motto “Playing for a Greener Future,” the sports world, along with
the IAAF renewed its commitment to the environment by framing a clear agenda
for action. The so-called Doha Declaration defined three focus areas in which
to direct activities related to the economic, social and environmental aspects
of sustainable development in sport. Among the IAAF officials who took part
were IAAF Council Member Nawal El Moutawakel and IAAF Athletes Commission Vice
Chairman Frankie Fredericks reports the IAAF.

MONTE CARLO (MON): In his IAAF online diary pole vault
World champion Steve Hooker confirmed his training is going very well and he is
looking forward to competing as of June. Hooker has taken a 10 month break from
competing and has taken the time to rest his body and to focus on some
technical changes. The Australian athlete also reported he will be based in London this year in order
to get used to the climate and lifestyle of the city ahead of the London
Olympic Games.

CANBERRA (AUS): London Olympics chief Sebastian Coe says
he’d like to see Sydney’s
party atmosphere from 2000 repeated at the 2012 Olympic Games. Organizing
committee chairman Coe told a Parliament House breakfast on Wednesday that the
Sydney Games were “the high-water mark for a sporting event … party atmosphere
that was driven by athlete-led performance in the venues, and that permeated
the city and I think the whole country.” Coe said he’s also looking forward to
five-time gold medalist Ian Thorpe returning to the Olympic pool next year,
calling it a “fantastic prospect, his abilities and skills have inspired a
generation of young swimmers in London.” Writes Thestar.com.

CALGARY (CAN): 2008 Olympic heptathlon 5th placer
Jessica Zelinka is back in top shape after taking off more than 2 years from
the sport. Following the 2008 Olympic Games Zelinka took a year off to recover
and got pregnant. Zelinka will return to the heptathlon at the Hypo meeting in
Götzis and is aiming to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in Daegu.

MONTE CARLO (MON): The IAAF and the International
Paralympic Committee (IPC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to
further develop the sport of Athletics, both for able-bodied athletes and
athletes with a disability. Signed by IAAF President Lamine Diack and IPC
President Sir Philip Craven, during the International Forum on Sport, Peace and
Development in Geneva,
the MoU includes various areas of co-operation, such as sport rules, mutual
promotion, training of technical officials and sharing and exchanging knowledge
and resources. The IAAF will furthermore invite prospective Organising
Committees to bid to host the IPC Athletics World Championships in conjunction
with the IAAF World Championships.

WATTENSCHEID (GER): A salmonella poisoning stopped the preparation for
30 years old top German walker Sabine Krantz. She returned only this winter
after baby break with winning the national indoor championships. The
preparation continued well and Krantz travelled home from altitude training
camp in Flagstaff, Arizona with good results. Then after
returning the illness came and she was forced to stop the training for two
weeks. Last weekend she has already completed first slow workout. She only has
now two solid chances for Daegu standard. At national walking championships in
June and later that month at the meeting in Dublin.

PRAGUE (CZE): Bad luck for European indoor champion
Czech hurdler Petr Svoboda. He injured his left foot during a hurdles training
while at training camp in Lanzarote, Grand Canaria. During the same day he
traveled back home for examinations. The exact range of the injury is not fully
known yet, but his season is not in danger with view towards Daegu. But he must
postpone his season begin and cancelled first planned meetings in Ostrava, Bydgoszcz, Oslo and Prague.

KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican sprint queen and UNESCO
ambassador for gender equality, Veronica Campbell-Brown, delivered on her
promise, by launching her foundation at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston, pledging a
yearly contribution of $1.2 million to four local schoolgirls. Campbell-Brown,
who first made her intentions public after she received the RJR Foundation
Sportswoman of the Year award in January, announced the benefits and criteria
for selection and also announced that this year’s four recipients will come
from her alma mater Vere Technical, Troy High, St Andrew Technical High and
Irwin High schools. Next races for the Jamaican sprinter will be 100 m in Shanghai
this Sunday and in Ostrava
on May 31.

HOUSTON (USA): The Houston Marathon
Committee announced that they had revamped the course for next January’s USA
Olympic Marathon Trials. The original course, used for this year’s USA
Half-Marathon Championships, was modified to reduce the number of turns,
particularly U-turns. The course will open with a 2.2-mile inner loop followed
by an eight-mile loop traversed three times to complete the full marathon
distance. With only one broad U-turn on the eight-mile loop, faster marathon
times will be easier, organizers said. The course will finish with a 190m
straightaway. “We have now modified the route to minimize and reconfigure the
out-and-back sections, and we believe that the revised course will be very
positively received by athletes and spectators alike,” said race director Brant
Kotch through a statement. “Moreover, the new route should be even faster than
the (half-marathon) Champs version, which actually produced finishing times
that were faster than had been predicted by statisticians.” To-date, 109 U.S. men and 143 U.S. women have qualified for the
2012 Olympic Trials Marathon. From Race Results Weekly.

PASADENA (USA):
Competitor Group, Inc. (CGI) announced that their Rock ‘n’ Roll race series
would be adding Pasadena
to their portfolio with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Pasadena Half-Marathon on Sunday,
Feb. 19, 2012. Calling Pasadena “one of California’s most iconic
cities,” CGI officials said that the race would begin and end at the famed Rose
Bowl stadium. “We are very excited to be expanding our global marathon series
to one of California’s
most recognizable destinations,” said Peter Englehart, CEO of CGI, through a
statement. “With the vibrant and active running community here in Southern California, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Pasadena Half
Marathon is sure to be one of the premier stops on the 2012 tour.” Informs RRW.

NAIROBI (AUT): Kenyan newspaper The Nation informs
that Southern Sudan will make its distance running debut as an independent
nation at this weekend’s Salzburg Amref Marathon in Austria. Francis Ohisha (25) is the
man who will be flying high his new country’s flag at the marathon. It should
be noted that Southern Sudan is not recognised
by IAAF and thus formally he cannot represent the new country. The Kenyan squad
has Cyprian Kiogora – the winner of 2010 Hong Kong Marathon – Risper Kimaiyo
alongside rising stars Sylvia Kibyego, and Victor Cheloki.

RESULTS

NOUMEA (FRA, May 7): New Zealand Athletics informs
that shot put talent Jacko Gill added 2.51m to his national U17 discus record
with a throw of 59.15m in New
Caledonia. Gill was also out to 21.40m with the 5kg
shot, 49.82m with the 5kg hammer and 54.31m with the 700g javelin.

ERINO (RUS, May 9): Russian Walking Grand Prix winners at 10 km were Tatyana Korotkova
(44:11) and Sergey Sergachev (40:52). Second place for World Junior 2008 silver
medalist Elvira Alembekova (44:53).