by Larry Eder
NDAMBIRI TO DEBUT ?
FUKUOKA
(JAP) :The Fukuoka marathon has released its list of elite athletes competing
in the marathon on December 4th. The Most intriguing runner in the field is
Josphat Ndambiri of Kenya who was fifth in the 2007 World Championships over
10.000m. Other names are Dmytro Baranovskyy (2:07:15), Russia’s Dmitriy
Safronov who ran 2:09:35 in London earlier this year and his compatriot Alexey
V. Sokolov (RUS) (2:09:07) as well as Moroccan Ridouane Harroufi (2:10:14).
DEGRANDE
BACK IN TRAINING
LANZAROTE
(ESP): European indoor 1500m 6th placer Lindsey Degrande is back in training
and hopes to qualify for the London Olympic Games. De Grande managed a 9th
place at the European U23 championships in July but was soon after her race
diagnosed with chronic Leukemia. Although the 22-year old athlete is undergoing
heavy treatment to bring the disease in remission, she is still able to do
small workouts and remains optimistic about competing professionally in 2012
she told Belgian Media.
EL
IDRISSI WANTS TO BE ITALIAN
ROME
(ITA): Moroccan born Ennaji El Idrissi,
after winning the 25th Turin Marathon on Sunday, has announced he intends
switching nationality to Italy where he has lived for over two decades. El
Idrissi who has been based in Genova since 1988, was an unexpected but fully
deserved winner in Turin on Sunday in a personal best time of 2:08.13.
Idrissi previously represented Morocco over 5000m at the 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games where he finished 11th in his heat.
REESE
PLANS FOR ISTANBUL
BALTIMORE
(USA): 2010 World Indoor Long Jump Champion Brittney Reese intends to defend
her title in 2012 at the IAAF World indoor championships in Istanbul. Reese and
her college coach have discussed indoors and will follow a similar plan in
2010 that led to her 1st indoor world title.
Reese is looking forward to traveling to Istanbul and hopes to produce a 700
mark to defend her title. This winter
Reese plans to run several 60m races and only jump in a couple of meets
prior to the US Indoor Championships announces her agency World Express
Athletic Management.
RESULTS
VIA FACEBOOK
NIJMEGEN
(NED): Participants of the ABN AMRO seven hills run on November 20th will be
able to receive their results live on their facebook page as soon as they cross
the finish line. This way, participants will be able to share their results
with facebook friends. The novelty is a first for a running event.
The race will also be streamed live on the website of the organizers www.zevenheuvelenloop.nl.
START
OF RELAY PREPARATION
PARIS
(FRA): France’s 4x100m relay team has gathered in Paris for the start of their
2012 Olympic mission. Apart from sprint stars Christophe Lemaitre and Jimmy
Vicaut, also Yannick Lesourd, Teddy Tinmar and Ronald Pognon are counting to be
on the team. Youngsters Guy-ElphÄge and Mickael Meba-Zeze have been added to
the group according to athle.com.
GABIUS
NO FOR EUROPEAN CC
BERLIN
(GER) : In form German Arne Gabius is not going to Velenje for the European
cross country championships. Gabius convincingly won in Pforzheim last Sunday
but has no aim to continue the cross country season. In January the German
wants to train in Kenya with the hopes of qualifying for the London Olympic
Games in the marathon he told leichtathletik.de.
W.
BLAKE NEW PRESIDENT
KINGSTON
(JAM): Jamaica’s 1976 Olympic 200m
champion, Donald Quarrie, has been elevated to 2nd Vice President of the
Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), which also elected Dr.
Warren Blake as its new president. The JAAA released the statement „pursuant to
Section 41 of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association constitution and
a special meeting held this evening at its headquarters, Dr. Warren Blake
was elected to serve as President of the Association.” Quarrie is replacing
Blake as the organisation’s number two.
OLYMPIC
COINS
LONDON
(GBR): Official Å5 coins for the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been unveiled, with the winners of the
competition to design the coins taking Å5,000 in prize money each. The Olympic
coin features a sweep of the London skyline with athletes running around
its edge, and the Paralympic coin is split into four features, including a wheel
for maneuverability, a target representing accuracy, a stopwatch for
speed and the face of Big Ben symbolising London and time itself writes
Insidethegames.
QATAR
LONG TERM STRATEGY
DOHA
(QAT): Qatar’s Olympic chief today outlined the Gulf state’s vision for
sporting excellence as the oil and gas-rich state signed their latest
investment deal. „This joint venture will play an important role in supporting
Qatar’s 2030 vision of being a global centre of sporting excellence,” said
Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, secretary general of the Qatar Olympic
Committee. The agreement will initially focus on providing integrated
facilities management services and property services to Government and private
sector clients across the country according to Insidethegames.
BOA
STANDPOINT EXPECTED
LONDON
(GBR): The British Olympic Association will decide this week whether to risk a potentially
bruising court battle with sprinter Dwain Chambers by sticking with its
lifetime Olympic ban for former drug cheats. The issue will be discussed on
Wednesday when the BOA’s executive board meets for the first time since
American athlete LaShawn Merritt, who served a 21-month drug ban,
overturned an International Olympic Committee rule that would have barred him
from the London Olympics confirms The Telegraph.
SOTHERTON IN FULL TRAINING FOR HEPTATHLON
LONDON
(GBR): British Kelly Sotherton is back in full training even though she is not
receiving any funding. Sotherton is confident to give her Olympic dream one
more chance and is back to focusing on the heptathlon. Most likely Sotherton
will start the 2012 at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Desenzano where she
wants to qualify for the Olympic Games. The 35-year old athlete believes she
can still score 6400 to 6500 points and even thinks about the world veteran
record held by Jane Frederick at 6533 points she told The Guardian.
