BOLT
THINKS ABOUT 2017

LONDON
(GBR): BBC informs that Athlete of the Year Usain Bolt confirmed he intends to
extend his career by a year to compete at the World Athletics
Championships in 2017 after London won the bid to host the event. Bolt who will
be 31 in 2017 said earlier he might retire after 2016 Olympic Games. „If this
Olympics goes as well as I want it to go then I will definitely stay
on. It will be a good look to run at a last World Championships and
then retire in London. We’ll see,” said Bolt for BBC. Asked what events he
would aim to compete in, he said: „I’ll just pick one – probably the 200m. It
depends on how my career goes. But I can’t worry about that right now.” In
another issue South African media reported about Usain Bolt coming to South
Africa for an event next week. Bolt´s agent Ricky Simms of Pace Sports
Management clarified that it is not true and there has been no contact from SA.

US
OPEN CONFIRMED

NEW YORK
(USA): As EME NEWS already reported US will have a new meet during the
indoor season at an old place. As RRW writes, USA Track and Field (USATF)
announced that the first edition of the U.S. Open would be held in Madison
Square Garden, and that double-Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat had committed to
the meet. The meet, which USATF said would include professional and high school
events, keeps elite track and field in the Garden after the decision by the
Armory Foundation earlier this year to move the Millrose Games out of that
venue and into the New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armory about seven
miles north of the Garden in Washington Heights. The Millrose Games, which will
be held on February 11 for the 105th time, is not part of USATF’s three-meet
Visa Championship Series, while the U.S. Open, New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in
Boston (Feb. 4), and USA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque (Feb. 25-26) are.
In holding the U.S. Open, USATF will face the same problems they did when they
funded the Millrose Games at the Garden: a quirky 145.5m banked track
which makes running fast times all but impossible, trying to fill over 16,000
seats, and finding sponsorship to offset some of the estimated „$1 million a year”
the New York Times said it cost to stage the meet at the Garden. Ray Flynn
directs the Millrose Games and Mark Wetmore the U.S. Open. The US Open has the
IAAF Permit status.

EVENTS
CONFIRMED FOR SDL 2012

MONACO
(MON): The Samsung Diamond League announced the distribution of event
disciplines for the 2012 season. Commencing on 11 May 2012 in Doha (QAT), the
third season of the Samsung Diamond League is composed of the same 14 of the
best invitational track and field meetings in the world as in 2011. The
meetings are spread across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA, and
compose the top tier of the IAAF’s global one-day meeting competition structure.
In each of the 32 event disciplines there is a “Diamond Race” with points
available throughout the 14 meeting season. Winners of each Diamond Race
receive a 40,000 USD cash prize and a spectacular Diamond Trophy but
more importantly, they will have shown season long consistency to earn the
unchallenged honour of being the World Number 1. The Race Winners will also
recieve wild cards for the World Championships 2013 in Moscow. For example
men´s 100 m with expected participation of top sprinters will be staged in
Shanghai, Rome, Oslo, Paris, London, Stockholm and Brussels. Another
interesting event men´s 800 m will be in Shanghai, Eugene, New York, Paris,
London, Stockholm and Zurich. Also highly anticipated are the high hurdles
duels for Shanghai, Eugene, New York, Monaco, Lausanne, Birmingham and
Brussels. Female AOY Sally Pearson can think about Doha, Rome, Oslo, Paris,
London, Stockholm and Zurich as these meets will stage women´s 100 m Hurdles.
Women pole vault will be in Doha, Eugene, New York, Monaco, Stockholm,
Birmingham and Brussels.

HAILE
READY FOR SUNDAY AND CONFIRMS TOKYO

NIJMEGEN
(NED): Legendary Haile Gebrselassie announced at the pressconference of the
28th Seven hills run (Zevenheuvelenloop) in Nijmegen, that he will run the
Tokyo marathon on the 26th of February 2012. The marathon will take place on
the 26th of February and Gebrselassie aims to qualify for the Olympic Games in
Londen. Gebrselassie tried to qualify before in September, during the Berlin
marathon, unfortunately a lungproblem made him to stop without finishing.
Now the lung problems are solved, he expects to go to Tokyo in a healthy
condition. In 2009 Gebrselassie also planned to run the Tokyo marathon, but he
had to cancel this race because of a fall during a training in Ethiopia.
After this disappointment he promised his Japanese fans to come back to Tokyo.
The Olympic Games of 2012 could be the fifth Olympics for Haile Gebrselassie.
This Sunday Haile Gebrselassie will run the Seven hills run in Nijmegen for the
fifth time. His management company Global Sports Communication says in a release.
„I am completely healthy again and look forward to the race Sunday. It is a great
atmosphere and course here in Nijmegen,” he said on his twitter. His main
rivals should be Kenyans Vincent Kipruto and David Barmasai. 2004 Olympic
winner in marathon Mizuki Noguchi of Japan is the main female entry. Kenyan
Elizabeth Cherono and Ethiopian Waganesh Mekasha are other names to mention.
The race has in its records both current IAAF World Road Records at 15 km.
Tirunesh Dibaba clocked here in 2009 46:28 and last year Leonard Komon men´s
course record 41:13.

MULLINGS
FACING LIFE-BAN

KINGSTON
(JAM): Jamaican sprinter Steve Mullings was found guilty by the Jamaica
Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel, at the Jamaica Conference Center. Informs
Trackalerts. Disciplinary panel chairman Lennox Gayle said they are satisfied
with the evidences given by JADCO witnesses and they agreed all the proper
procedures were followed in the case. Mullings’ team, they said, failed to
prove any breach had occured. Mullings tested positive for the masking agent
furosemide, at Jamaica’s National Senior Championships, in June of this year.
He had earlier received two set-backs in the hearing, which opened the case in
August, the first was a request by his lawyers to have the World
Anti-Doping Agency laboratory in Canada re-test the sample and then last week
the panel refused to have his affidavit, in his absence, entered into
testimony. Mullings is facing a lifetime ban.

MERGA
AND MERGIA

NEW
DELHI (IND): Times of India are informing that two-time winners from Ethiopia,
Deriba Merga and Aselefech Megia, will return to fight for the men’s and women’s
titles respectively in the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, which will be started
from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the capital on November 27. According to
Ian Ladbrooke, a consultant for the elite athlete field and Tim Hutchings,
a renowned commentator on long distance events, the men’s and women’s
fields promise to be the best and fastest yet, with a strong likelihood of
new course records being set. Another top Ethiopians in the race will be
Tilahun Regassa and Lelisa Desisa, Kenyan challenge will be headed by Sammy
Kitwara.

OTHER NEWS

LONDON
(GBR): Colin Moynihan has come under attack from the World Anti-Doping Agency
(WADA) after the British Olympic Association (BOA) referred its controversial
doping bylaw to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), fiercely disputing
his version of events which led to the decision. The chairman of the BOA has
launched a sustained attack on WADA this week, culminating yesterday in
claiming that they were „letting athletes down” as he insisted that Britain had
been asked by the Montreal-based organisation to drop its bylaw which prevents
any athletes with a doping offence against their name from competing for
TeamGB in the Olympics. Now John Fahey, the chairman of WADA, has claimed that
Moynihan has mis-represented the situation and that they have now asked the BOA
to drop the bylaw, which has been in place since 1992. Writes insidethegames.

CARDIFF
(GBR): Respected coach Malcolm Arnold, who guided Dai Greene to this year’s
world 400-meter hurdles title in Daegu, has been named High Performance Coach
of the Year at the annual Sport Wales Coach of the Year awards in Cardiff.
Greene, who also won the European title for Britain and the Commonwealth title
for Wales last year, has benefited from the coaching expertise that helped John
Akii-Bua of Uganda win the Olympic 400m hurdles title in 1972 and which steered
Colin Jackson to a wealth of 110m hurdles successes, including two world
titles and a world record. Greene’s younger training partner, Jack Green,
also made the semi-finals in Daegu in what was his first World Championship
experience.

INCHEON
(KOR): The Organisers of the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Korea have drawn a huge
budget of USD 1.62 Billion for the 17th edition of the games. The Incheon Asian
Games Organisers have already began construction on 16 of the 23 new venues
which will be put up for the games. Informs AIPS website.

SAN JOSE
(USA): Hammer world champion Koji Murofushi of Japan is coming to the WTC San
Jose City College Thanksgiving Clinic. The legendary Asian athlete along with
his coach Tore Gustafsson will be in attendance to teach attendees all about
the hammer. Informs John Godina on his facebook.

LOS
ANGELES (USA): US top athletes took a break from training to fly to
Hollywood for a promotional shoot with NBC Sports and the United States
Olympic Committee, as they get ready up for the upcoming Olympic Year. The group
includes in front of the camera Bryan Clay, Trey Hardee, Ashton Eaton, Jill
Camarena-Williams, Jesse Williams, Dwight Phillips, David Oliver, Lashinda
Demus, Dawn Harper, Bershawn Jackson, Carmelita Jeter, Lolo Jones, LaShawn
Merritt, Brittney Reese, Jason Richardson, Christian Taylor, Kellie Wells and
Allyson Felix.

YOKOHAMA
(JPN): Sunday´s Yokohama women marathon expects unseasonably warm weather,
possibly as high as 25 degrees. Top foreign runners are Briton Mara Yamauchi
and Kenyan Salina Kosgei with Ethiopian Robe Guta. Yoshimi Ozaki is the top
home entry. It is the first of the three domestic selection races for the
Japanese women’s Olympic marathon team. One of the Japan’s marathon favorites,
2:08:37 man Yuki Kawauchi is the invited star for Sunday’s Ageo City Half
Marathon, the world’s deepest half. Writes Brett Larner.

SORIA
(ESP): IAAF CC Permit series continues in Spain in Soria on Sunday. Kenyan
favorites are Vincent Chepkok and Prisca Jeptoo. The fields are not as strong
as week before in Atapuerca.

NEW YORK
(USA): Jack Pfeifer was re-elected as president of the Track and Field Writers
of America (TAFWA). Also re-elected Parker Morse as vice-president, Tom Casacky
is new treasurer and Don Kopriva new secretary.

ALM-ATY
(KZK): Olympic and world medalist in decathlon Dmitriy Karpov changed coaches
before the start of the olympic preparation. Local media are informing that he
ended the cooperation with Pavel Hamalainen and will be coached by his father
Vasiliy Karpov. His last big medal comes from 2008 World Indoor Championships
and was not satisfied with his 21st position in Daegu last summer.

ATHENS
(GRE): Bulgarian media are informing that on November 11 the Greek triple
jumper Paraskevi Papahristou was born for second time. The European U23 2011
champion ran into another athlete while training at the Olympic Stadium. She
fell with blood pouring down from her mouth and swallowed tongue. Only
immediate action of her coach Georgi Pomashki saved her life as he with great
efforts opened her mouth.