Teddy McCook will now have a second term as President of the NACAC. He will also be IAAF Area representative during his tenure...the IAAF and adidas announced a new site for licensed products, featuring promotional products for the major IAAF championships with their apparel and footwear sponsor, adidas.

MIKHAN LEADS

OSTRAVA (CZE, Jul 15): Morning session of 2nd day of
European U23 Championships saw Briton Lawrence Clarke and Russian Aleksey
Dryomin clocking the fastest heat 110
m hurdles times 13.73. French last year world junior
champion Pascal Martinot Lagarde was out after 14.33. German Sophie Kleeberg
led the shot put women qualifiers with 17.39 m. In the women pole vault 415 (and first
attempt 410) were enough to qualify and in men´s high jump 211. No major
casualties are reported. Romanian favorite Bianca Perie was the best win women
hammer qualification 69.91. Poland´s Lukasz Oslizlo clocked the fastest steeple
heat time 8:38.28 also a lifetime best for him. Eduard Mikhan leads decathlon
after 7 events with 5881 ahead of Serbian Mihail Dudas 5823 and Czech Adam
Sebastian Helcelet 5762 who lost his lead in discus (37.77) after PB at 110 m hurdles (14.35). Best
at hurdles was Russian Artyom Lukyanenko (14.33) and in discus German Jan Felix
Knobel (49.09) but his hopes were damaged earlier when not finishing the
hurdles.

UKHOV AND VLASIC

EBERSTADT (GER): The 33rd special high jump meeting in Eberstadt starts
on Friday with U23 competitions, will have women with Blanka Vlasic, Ruth
Beitia, Emma Green-Tregaro and Svetlana Shkolina on Saturday. Men´s competition
on Sunday has Ivan Ukho, Raul Spank, Aleksey Dmitrik, Jaroslav Baba and Donald
Thomas. World leadings marks 237 and 200 will be under threat.

ISINBAYEVA IS BACK

HEUSDEN (BEL): Yelena Isinbayeva
will return to outdoor competitions for
first time since 2009. The multiple world record holder plans her season
opener
for Saturday´s 32nd KBC Nacht in Heusden (EA Premium). The home star
Borlee
twins will compete in the 4×400 m relay against Germany
and Botswana.
Another olympic winner from Beijing
competing is US Stephanie Trafton-Brown in discus and Portugal´s Nelson
Evora
in the triple jump. As usual top distance times are expected in men´s
800 m, steeple and 5000 m and women 5000 m (Goucher, Clitheroe).
South African Cornel Fredericks
runs the 400 m
hurdles against US Justin Gaymon.

JAMAICAN SPRINTERS

PADOVA (ITA): The 25th meeting Citta di Padova (EA Classic) will have on
Sunday excellent women 200 m
duel of Jamaicans Kerron Stewart against Sherone Simpson. In the 100 m again Jamaican Michael
Frater and Nesta Carter are the favorites. Bladu Runner Oscar Pistorius
continues here in his quest to qualify for Daegu at the 400 m. Cuban world record
holder Dayron Robles is the 110
m hurdles star. In the pole vault US Brad Walker, Briton
Steven Lewis and German Bjorn Otto. Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna is the top
name for discus. NCAA Champion Nia Ali runs the 100 m hurdles, Funmi Jimoh
competes in the long jump and Amber Campbell in hammer. Fast times are expected
in the 800 m  men (Wheating) and women (J. Simpson,
Rowbury) and 1500 m
(Wurth-Thomas, Vessey among others).

OTHER NEWS

LONDON (GBR): UK Athletics head coach Charles van
Commenee has claimed that his opinion on the British Olympic Association’s
(BOA) controversial lifetime Olympic ban for convicted drugs cheats is not
relevant simply because he has no jurisdiction over the matter. Sprint star
Dwain Chambers, one of Britain’s most high profile athletes, is back competing
for UK Athletics under van Commenee after serving a two-year ban in 2003 for
taking performance enhancing drugs but the BOA’s policy means that he is unable
to compete at the Olympics. This ruling is in contrast to other National
Olympic Committees, such as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), who allow
athletes that have returned from a drug ban, such as Athens 2004 Olympic 100 meter champion Justin
Gatlin, to compete at the Olympic Games. Van Commenee did not state
categorically whether or not he supported the ruling but claimed that these
athletes in the UK
such as Chambers have to obey the BOA ruling regardless of their thoughts on
it. Writes insidethegames.

DOHA (QAT): Doha still have to make up their minds about whether they
will bid for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics despite Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad
Al-Sabah, the head of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), claiming here that
they do plan to put themselves forward. Sheikh Ahmad, a Kuwaiti, had revealed
in an interview that he had been told they were going to bid but that nothing
had been officially announced yet. But a spokesman for the Qatar Olympic
Committee (QOC) insisted that the Sheikh’s claim on the eve of the OCA General
Assembly was premature, even though Doha
had promised as long ago as August 2008 that they would bid. Writes
Insidethegames. Doha
bid for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics but were controversially cut from the
short-list because their proposed dates were outside the window that the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) had published.

MAYAGUEZ (PUR): Jamaican Neville “Teddy” McCook has
been returned as President of the North America, Central
America and Caribbean (NACAC) Track & Field Association. At
the association’s election of officers here on Thursday, McCook defeated Keith
Joseph of St. Vincent and
The Grenadines 25-6 to take his second term
in office. The victory means McCook will return as IAAF Area Representative.
Joseph after losing to McCook returned to lose the vice presidency voting to
Barbadian Noel Lynch 18-13.