STAR SPRINTERS STARTING ON TUESDAY

KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican Racers TC superstars Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake are starting their preparation towards Olympic Games in London on Tuesday. That was confirmed by their agents and also world record holder Bolt mentioned it on his twitter. Jamaican Championships which will serve as olympic trials are expected to be held during weekend of June 23-24 (not confirmed yet). The Jamaica Invitational meet in Kingston as IAAF World Challenge event is planned for May 5 next year. That is one week earlier that in the past and the clash with Samsung Diamond League opener in Doha, Qatar (May 11) will be avoided.

 

FAST SPRINTER FROM OMAN

MANAMA (BRN, Oct 17): Oman´s sprinter Barakat Al-Harthi won the 100 m during first day of athletics at the first Gulf Countries Games at the Khalifa City Stadium of Manama. He clocked new national record 10.17 (+1.8) after being fast also in the first round 10.25 (+1.8) what was first NR of the day for him. Second Qatar´s talent Femi Ogunode achieved 10.25. Reigning Asian Games winenr Mahboob Hasan won for the host country the 10 000 m in 28:37.91. Another sprint gold for Oman when Ahmed Al-Merjabi was the best in the 400 m (46.3, hand timed). In the 110 m hurdles Saudi Arabian favorite Ahmed Al-Moualed won in 13.81 (+1.5) ahead of 2008 world junior semifinalist Abdulaziz Al-Mandeel from Kuweit (13.87).

 

BELGIAN RELAY TO ICELAND

BRUSSELS (BEL) : The Belgian successful 4x400m team is set to leave for a team-building event to Iceland. The team, which includes the Borlée twins, will conquer an ice mountain during a four day trip in which none of the members will have access to his phone, internet or other ways of communication. Coach Jacques Borlée believes the trip will help build a real team out of individual athletes. He also informed after recieving a Coaching award in Arona last weekend that his sons are planning for European Championships in Helsinki to compete in the relay. Individual starts at 400 m are then planned for Olympic Games. Borlee wins are planning after Iceland adventure to be in Lanzarote on November 6-20, South Africa Dec 20-Jan 31 and USA Apr 15 until May 20. Belgium is planning to run relay at Penn Relays next April.

 

HARTING SURGERY NOT YET

BERLIN (GER): World discus champion Robert Harting has not been able to receive his surgery to the left knee. The surgery will be postponed to a later date reports leichtathletik.de.

 

UKA SUPPORT PROGRAMME

LONDON (GBR): After several weeks of consideration UK Athletics announced the names of the athletes who will be supported on the road to the home Olympics next year on the domestic governing body's Lottery-funded World Class Performance Programme. Most important name for this year's programme is sprint prodigy Jodie Williams. It is the second year in succession Williams, the reigning world junior 100m champion, has chosen to avoid contractual control by UK Athletics to pursue her own path and remains on the 'Futures' programme, which provides basic support for junior athletes. Other athletes, such as former heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, sprinter Mark Lewis Francis and high jumper Germaine Mason, will miss out on this year's funding opportunities according to The Independent. Mason is one of five British high jumpers to miss out on funding, along with European bronze medallist Martyn Bernard, Olympic finalist and UK indoor champion Tom Parsons, world indoor finalist Samson Oni and Robbie Grabarz. It is a stark contrast to the picture painted three years ago, when Great Britain had three Olympic high jump finalists. UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee after a highly successful IAAF World Championships in the summer has revealed eight medals including one gold as the target at next year's Olympic Games. Van Commenee will be looking towards Mo Farah and Dai Greene who won the 5,000 meters and 400 hurdles titles in Daegu to lead the challenge with support from the other medallists in Korea, Phillips Idowu (triple jump), Hannah England (800), Jessica Ennis (heptathlon) and Andy Turner (110h). In the crucial final countdown to London 2012, selection to Podium level funding is focused entirely on achieving medal success and top eight finishes at next summer's Games. Former Olympic heptathlon bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton will continue with her plans to compete in next year's Olympic Games despite losing her funding from UK Athletics.

 

KOMON PLANS HM DEBUT

BRUSSELS (BEL): Road world record holder Kenyan Leonard Patrick Komon plans a half-marathon debut next spring. That was confirmed by his management company Golazo. He is 10 and 15 km road world record holder and has also a medal from World CC Championships 2008 and 2006 as a junior. From his eighth road races (10 km, 10 miles, 15 km) he lost only once, this year in San Juan, Puerto-Rico.

 

 

 

OTHER NEWS

 

 

LONDON (GBR): UK media are informing that UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee has hinted Dwain Chambers could be part of the sprint relay team at London 2012 if he is successful in overturning his Olympic ban. Ahead of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Chambers unsuccessfully challenged the British Olympic Association bylaw that prohibits athletes guilty of serious doping offences from competing at future Games. Although Chambers has featured in British teams on an individual basis at other championships, he has not been part of the relay team for the past two years because of the desire to plan for London.

 

LONDON (GBR): Tottenham Hotspur's judicial review against the decision to award the Olympic Stadium to West Ham United after London 2012 will not be taking place as planned after the Premier League club withdrew. The dropping of the judicial review follows last week's decision that the venue would remain in public ownership rather than be handed over to the Championship club after London 2012. Tottenham confirmed to insidethegames that they would no longer be going ahead with the legal action.

 

MOSCOW (RUS): Another test before 2013 World Championships will be the Russian Walking Championships next June (10-11) held on the same course as planned for the 2013 event in Luzhinki area. It will be also final selection for Russian walkers for Olympic Games. As it is known walking is not part of 2012 European Championships in Helsinki.

 

KAMPALA (UGA): Every Ugandan winning a gold medal at next year's Olympic Games will receive a bonus of 5000 dollar according to Allafrica.com. Uganda Olympic Committee President Rogers Ddungu announced the bonus at a function to reward medalists from the All Africa Games in Maputo.

 

LONDON (GBR): British up and coming discus thrower Lawrence Okoye is speaking up to promote awareness of cardiac risk. Okoye, the European U23 champion and fourth on this year's world rankings, raised the debate about the importance of screening young athletes at 'grass roots' level. Lawrence has a strong affinity with issue after 16-year-old Oluwatobi Adeyemi, who was at Lawrence's former school, died suddenly earlier this year. The 20-year-old discus thrower has already been tipped for gold at the London 2012 Olympics reports The Croydon Guardian.

 

NEW YORK (USA): Race Results Weekly informs that Russian marathon record holder Liliya Shobukhova will not be able to record a world 30 km road record 1:38:23 (split during her marathon win in Chicago) because the event organizers didn't have the proper mechanisms in place to verify the time and distance. That means the record of Mizuki Noguchi 1:38:49 from Berlin 2005 will remain in the lists.

 

RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Maggie Sanchez, the Rio 2016 chief commercial and marketing director, has been fired from her position due to an "incompatibility of philosophies" between her and the rest of the Organising Committee. The American, a Harvard Business School graduate, joined Rio 2016 last year to lead the largest sponsorship programme ever launched in Brazil according to Insidethegames.

 

TORONTO (CAN): Two-Time Canadian Olympian and 2007 world silver medalist Gary Reed has launched the Reed Athletics Fund, a Track & Field Non-Profit organization. That is to provide financial and other support to Canadian men and women attempting to participate in the Olympics and World Championships. Reed wants to help them during the developmental phase of their sporting careers to assist them in reaching their full potential. Reed, now a real estate advisor in Vancouver, has committed to donate a portion of his income to the Fund and intends to support it for the rest of his life.

 

LONDON (GBR): London 2012 has set a record already with 193 countries signing up to approve the traditional United Nations call for an Olympic truce has LOCOG chairman Sebastien Coe announced. Syria and Iran were the last of the UN's 193 member states to reply to British diplomats just before Coe put the resolution to the UN General Assembly, where diplomats applauded loudly after it passed by consensus.

 

INDIANAPOLIS (USA): USA Track & Field (USATF) has engaged the services of Indianapolis-based Max Siegel Inc. (MSI) in a broad, fully integrated service agreement that will unite USATF's commercial ventures. The move is part of a USATF plan that streamlines its internal staff structure in marketing and communications. MSI will work with USATF staff to integrate and vastly expand USATF's commercial efforts in marketing, sponsorship, publicity, membership and broadcasting.

 

COLORADO SPRINGS (USA): The U.S. Olympic Committee has kicked off an online campaign featuring decathlete Bryan Clay and other American athletes touring London before next year's Summer Games. Over the coming months, the USOC will air Internet videos featuring Bryan Clay as well as the other selected athletes.

 

DOHA (QAT): Sprinter Veronica Campbell-Brown has shown her support for Doha's bid for the 2017 IAAF World Championships.""Doha is ready to bring new energy to the World Championships and set new standards for my sport. With their experience in hosting and their vision for a World Championships like never before, I am sure that 2017 will be a fantastic experience for all athletes, officials and especially the fans," Campbell-Brown was quoted The Peninsula Qatar.

 

GUADALAJARA (MEX): FIFA confirmed that urine samples taken from 19 of the 24 teams that competed at last summers Under 17 World Cup in Mexico tested positive for traces of the banned drug clebuterol,supposedly picked from contaminated meat. It is a revelation that not only confirms Mexico's public health issue but is also a major set back in the fight against doping in sport. With the Pan American Games currently underway in the Mexican city of Guadalajara are athletes competing there face the same problem: exposure to the illegal steroid?

 

BERLIN (GER): At noon on Thursday, October 20, online registration for the 39th BMW BERLIN MARATHON on September 30, 2012 will begin. The limit is set at 40,000 participants. The registration fee for the first 10,000 registrants is 60 Euros. The next 15,000 registrations will have a 80 Euro fee, and the remaining will have a 100 Euro fee. This year the participant limit was reached by February.

 

ATHENS (GRE): Greek media are informing that end of last week unknown persons entered the room of high jump world medalist Kyriacos Ioannou of Cyprus in a hostel at Agios Kosmas. They stole money and personal items from the jumper who was at that time at a training session. The above incident shows the lack of protection that exists for the athletes staying at the premises of St. Cosmas, where in recent months all seem to have been abandoned.

 

BEOGRAD (SRB): Serbian media are informing that former US top sprinter Marion Jones is visiting the country earlier this week. She was in Nis on Monday and Belgrade on Tuesday and she will talk to young people, coaches and citizens about the life lessons and the importance of making right decisions and overcome the consequences of mistakes made??. Jones founded the non-governmental programme "take a break" that guides young people before making important decisions in life. More on that programme at marionjones.org website.

 

 

 

RESULTS

 

 

ISTANBUL (TUR, Oct 16): 15 km winners from Eurasia Istanbul Marathon were Ethiopians Atsedu Tesfay 44:05 and Sosena Gezaw 50:45.

 

BIELLA (ITA, Oct 16): Kenyan Thomas Longosiwa who was 6th in Daegu 5000 m won the 41st Giro Podistico di Pettinengo with 27:00 at 9.6 km. Second young Ethiopian Fikadu Haftu 27:13 ahead of Miliyon Yehualashet 27:16 and Qatari former world medalist James Kwalia 27:27. Women 4 km winner was Kenyan Margaret Wangari in 12:17.

 

WOLFGANGSEE (AUT, Oct 16): Kenyan Hosea Tuei won the 27 km road race "Around the Wolfgang Sea" in 1:29:45. Nancy Koech was the best woman 1:46:25. New participation record with more than 3500 runners.

 

GEITHUS (NOR, Oct 15): Top Norwegian runners won the Furumomila 10 km on the road. Urige Buta with 29:34 and Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal in 33:56.