With just two weeks before the start of the World Champs, the IAAF announced that all athletes will be blood tested in Daegu. This is first time a group of this size has had blood-testing, in conjunction with WADA, the World Anti-Doping Association.

RBR is in Falmouth this weekend for the famed summer race, NB Falmouth Road Race. I hope to see some of you there! 

ALL ATHLETES WILL BE BLOOD-TESTED

MONACO (MON): 
The IAAF will collect blood samples from all athletes taking part in the
IAAF World Championships in Daegu in an unprecedented anti-doping programme.
This programme will be conducted in close co-operation with the Lausanne
WADA-accredited Anti-Doping Laboratory (LAD) and with the support of the World
Anti-Doping Agency and a number of local partners including the Daegu Local
Organising Committee, the Korean Anti-Doping Agency and the Doping Center
of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. The blood testing programme
in Daegu is being organized in addition to the regular doping controls that are
collected at a World Championships (in Daegu, approximately 500 urine samples
shall be collected in and out-of-competition combined). Informs IAAF in a
release. The samples will mainly be collected at a purpose-built doping control
station located in the Athlete’s village starting from 18 August 2011. The
analyses by the LAD will focus on measuring relevant parameters (biomarkers)
for individual profiling purposes within the framework of the Athlete
Biological Passport. It will be the first time that a heterogeneous population
of nearly 2000 elite athletes competing in a major sports event will be blood
tested under the same optimal conditions, within the same time period.
Suspicious results from the screening analyses performed on-site could, where
appropriate, trigger follow-up target tests in Daegu in urine (notably for EPO)
and/or further analyses for prohibited substances or prohibited methods in
blood in Lausanne.

JAVELIN THROWERS LEADING

RIGA (LAT): Latvian team for Daegu will have 15
athletes. Male headliners are both javelin throwers, second in the world lists
Vadim Vasilevskis and world junior record holder Zigismunds Sirmai. European
champion Ineta Radevica in the long jump is the women headliner. Team – men –
100 m: Arajs, 1500 m: Jurkevics, SP: Urtans, JT: Sirmais, Vasilevskis,
Rags,  HT: Sokolovs, 50kmw: Kazakevics,
dec: Erins Team – women – LJ: Radevica, L. Griva,  JT: Palameika, Ozolina-Kovala, 20 kmw:
Pastare, hep: Grabuste.

FOUR HIGH QUALITY BIDS FOR EURO
2016

LAUSANNE (SUI):  European
Athletics has completed its round of evaluation site visits of cities bidding
for the 2016 European Athletics Championships, with recent meetings held in
Amsterdam, Bydgoszcz, Istanbul and Split with the respective organising
committees. The Evaluation Commission, led by European Athletics Vice-President
Karel Pilný, visited the Croatian city of Split
and the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul last week
following visits to the Polish city of Bydgoszcz
in April and Amsterdam
in July. “We have been very impressed with the deep commitment and passion of
each of the four bid cities in wanting to deliver a memorable European
Athletics Championships in 2016,”
said Vice-President Pilný. “The cities now have a chance to improve their bids
following our discussions before submitting their final bids just after the
European Athletics Convention in October.” Following receipt of the final bids,
the Evaluation Commission will send its report to the European Athletics
Council before its members vote on which city will host the flagship
championships at the 3-5 November Council meeting in Helsinki. 2012 event will be held in Helsinki, 2014
in Zurich.

TAYLOR AND CLAYE TURNED PRO

GAINESVILLE (USA):
Talented jumper and recent DL London winner Christian Taylor is still up for
The Bowerman, but he won’t be returning to Florida. Taylor
and teammate Will Claye have both turned pro in order to train for the 2012
Olympics in London.
Local media are informing. “Christian Taylor and Will Claye have signed
contracts and are no longer on our roster,” said coach Mike Holloway. “We wish
them the best on their professional careers and are grateful for what they did
for our program. We are proud to call them Gators.”

AUSTRALIANS AS FIRST

DAEGU (KOR): Korean media are informing that Australian athletes will be
the first to arrive in South
Korea for the upcoming World Championships. Australia will
send 11 athletes and five officials as an advance team on Wednesday. Daegu
officials said Australia
hasn’t set up a training camp and its athletes will practice at training
facilities inside the athletes’ village and the warm-up stadium near the main
Daegu Stadium.

RUSSIANS IN VLADIVOSTOK

MOSCOW (RUS): Russian media are informing that double
pole vault olympic winner Yelena Isinbayeva will prepare for Daegu in Vladivostok from August
20. She wants to get ready for the time zone change in the eastern part of Russia. The
whole Russian Team will be in Vladivostok,
first biggest group will travel on Aug 15 (50-60 persons). And following groups
on Aug 18 and 20. There is no time difference between Vladivostok and Daegu and temperatures are
also similar.

BOLT NO FOR WELTKLASSE

ZURICH (SUI): Swiss media are informing that Usain
Bolt will not run at the Weltklasse meet this year on September 8. That was
confirmed by the organisation of the meet. Bolt wants to have a little break
after heavy schedule in Daegu (could be like this:  3 races in the 100 m, 4 races in the 200 m and one in relay). He
has now two meets confirmed for post-Daegu period, Zagreb
100 m on
Sep 13 and Brussels
200 m on
Sep 16.

PUSTERLA OK FOR DAEGU

ZURICH (SUI): Swiss long jump record holder Irene
Pusterla will at the end compete in Daegu. She was initially planning the
season without participation at the World Championships. Pusterla is studying
psychology at Lausanne
University and wanted to
have Weltklasse meet on September 8 as the main second part of the season goal.
On the other hand the fastest female Swiss sprinter Mujinga Kambundji injured
herself last weekend at the national championships and her participation in
Daegu is under question (hamstring injury). Kambundji will not travel to World
University Games in China
in order to be ready for Daegu.

GLEANER INFORMS ABOUT MULLINGS
POSITIVE

KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaica Gleaner informs that Jamaican
Daegu-bound sprinter Steve Mullings hangs in the balance after revelations that
he tested positive for a masking agent, two weeks before the start of the IAAF
World Championships in Athletics in Daegu,
South Korea.
Mullings now faces a minimum ban of four years and could be removed from the
sport for life. It is understood that the results of a test carried out by the
Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission during the Jamaica Athletics Administrative
Association (JAAA)/Supreme Ventures National Senior Championships, held between
June 23 and 26 this year, showed the presence of the substance, which is meant
to conceal the existence of banned substances or illegal drugs, such as
anabolic steroids or stimulants. Writes Gleaner. The athlete has reportedly
been notified and will now have to face a disciplinary hearing, effectively
ruling him out of the championships in Daegu, where he was seen as a strong
medal contender in the 100m and 200m. Mullings was also expected to feature on Jamaica’s
4x100m relay team. In case of confirmation he will be replaced in the 100 m by Nesta Carter and in
the 200 m
by Marvin Anderson as the next runners in the results of National
Championships. First Jamaican media informed about not naming the athlete,
later Gleaner came as only one also with the name. Mullings is currently third
in the 100 m
world list 2011 (9.80) and fifth in the 200 m (20.11). But as the result comes from
nationals end of June his 9.80 pb from early June Eugene will remain in the lists.

OTHER NEWS

DES MOINES (USA): Des Moines register
informs that olympic 100 m
hurdles finalist and world indoor champion Lolo Jones, a Des Moines Roosevelt
alum, is scheduled to undergo “microsurgery” on her spinal cord Thursday. Jones
Tweeted the news to her more than 29,000 followers around 5 p.m. Tuesday:
“Surgery on my spinal cord was postponed till Thursday. Weird, My running
career now depends upon if my surgeon cheated his way thru college.” The
surgery was originally scheduled for Monday – a year to the day of the 100
hurdles final at the 2012 Olympics in London
– according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

DAEGU (KOR): Korean media are informing that the city of Daegu will greet visitors
for the upcoming Daegu International Association of Athletics Federations
(IAAF) World Championships with festivals and cultural programs. These
festivals include a temple stay program at Donhwasa Temple,
an Oriental herbal medicine experience program, a media art show and the 2011
Colorful Daegu Festival. Those who join the one night, two day temple stay
program between Aug. 27 and Sept. 4 at Donhwasa
Temple will have the chance to
experience Korea’s
unique Buddhist culture, including temple food, meditation and a tea ceremony.
A traditional market for Buddhist monks will be held from Sep. 1 to 5 at the
temple on Palgong
Mountain where visitors
can enjoy Buddhist cultural displays, and experience traditional Buddhist
culture and performances. A media art show will be held at the Daegu
Metropolitan City Government complex from Aug. 28 to Sep. 3. Screened on the
outer wall of the complex, the show will feature video footage of athletes
symbolizing the analogue era and the beginning of the era of smart life. From
Aug. 29 to Sep. 3, a
musical festival will be held at EXCO with performances by popular Korean
singers like 2PM, CN Blue, No Brain and leading Korean DJs.

MANAUS (BRA): The Superior Tribunal of Sports Justice
(STJD) and the Brazilian Athletics Confederation (CBAt) meeting on Tuesday
decided to uphold the decision of the Disciplinary Commission (National CDN) in
case of world junior shot put champion Geisa Arcanjo. On 22 March, the CDN has
decided to punish the athlete with a warning that on July 20, 2010, in doping control
carried out during the World Youth in the Canadian city of Moncton, had tested positive for the banned
substance hydrochlorothiazide. Warning remains the ban in the case, that means
she will loose the gold medal, but can compete. So far she was not competing in
2011.

MINSK (BLR): Belarus team
for World University Games in China.
Men – 200 m: Linnik, SP: Bakhar, 800 m: Ananenko, 10 000 m and HM: Rogovtsov,
dec: Shubenok, HT: Kolomoets. Wom – 100mH: Poplavskaya, SP: Kopets, TJ:
Vyatkina, 10 000 m
and HM: Minina, hep: Maksimava, DT: Kashtanova.

NEWCASTLE (GBR):  European 5000 m and 10 000 m gold medalist Mo
Farah, who is the world’s leading runner at the distances this year, has
announced he will compete at next month’s Bupa Great North Run weekend. Farah
has revealed he is remaining flexible about taking part over two miles in the
Bupa Great North CityGames, a street athletics match between Great Britain and
the United States on 17 September or the following day’s Bupa Great North Run.
The 28-year-old will make his decision following the IAAF World Championships
which get underway in Daegu on 27 August and where he will chase the 10,000m
gold medal and possibly later in the programme over 5,000m, if sufficiently
recovered from the longer race.

RESULTS

BUCURESTI (ROU, Aug 9-10): Top mark at the Romanian Championships came
from Viorica Tigau who leaped to 671 (+0.6) long jump win. Solid also 70.72 of
Bianca Perie in hammer, Cristina Casandra qualified to Daegu in the steeple
with 9:38.42. Good depth also in triple jump where Adelina Gavrila achieved
14.23 (0.0) over Carmen Toma (14.07, +0.7) and Cristina Bujin (14.00, 0.0).
Veteran Nicoleta Grasu won the discus (62.58). Surprisingly European U23
Champion Esthera Petre cleared only 185 in the high jump and was beaten by Daniela
Stancu (also 185). Andrea Ograzeanu won the 100 m in 11.38 (+1.0) and 200 m in 23.65 (+1.2). Male
sprinte double for Catalin Cimpeanu (10.39 +0.7 and 21.13 +0.1). Sergiu Ursu
won men discus (62.02) and good high jump for Mihai Donisan (228, PB) over
veteran Stefan Vasilache (225).