CHICHEROVA
TO OPEN IN BELGIUM

ANTWERP
(BEL): High jump world champion Russian Anna Chicherova confirmed her first
competition of the indoor season. She will compete at the Golden High Jump Gala
in Lotto Arena of Antwerp on January 28. This special women high jump meet will
be held to celebrate the come back of the home star and olympic winner Tia
Hellebaut after giving birth to her second child.

LAGAT
ON HIS WAY TO ISTANBUL

NEW YORK
(USA): Armory Foundation president Dr. Norb Sander announced that Bernard
Lagat, owner of a record eight Wanamaker Mile titles, will compete in the
5000m during the Millrose Games at the Armory New Balance Track & Field
Center on February 11. „The 5,000 meters at the Millrose Games at the Armory is
a race I’m really excited about,” Lagat said for armorytrack.com „Galen
(Rupp) broke my U.S. record so of course I have to try and get it back.”
Lagat previously broke the US two-mile record when running at The Armory. Lagat
plans later to continue to compete during the indoor season and try to defend
his World Indoor title from Doha 2010 at the 3000 m in Istanbul. He is also
announced for the mile at US Open in Madison Square Garden on January 28.

LAVILLENIE
INJURED

CLERMONT
FERRANDS (FRA): European indoor champion Renaud Lavillenie has fractured on
Tuesday his left hand in an accident in training. Lavillenie’s pole broke in
the middle of a training jump and smashed the athlete to the ground.
Fortunately the Frenchman has no other injuries besides his fractured hand.
Lavillenie will undergo emergency surgery and it remains unclear whether he
will be able to jump indoors reports athle.com. He is expected to be back in
training in mid-January.

KIPROP
GETS THE MEDAL

NAIROBI
(KEN): David Martin writes that Kenyan Asbel Kiprop the 2008 Olympic 1500
meters champion finally received his gold medal at a ceremony in Nairobi
on Wednesday morning. Kiprop who initially finished runner up to Rashid Ramzi
of Bahrain, was elevated to winner the following year after his rival was
confirmed as having failed a doping test at the Beijing Games. Kiprop who
added the IAAF World Championships 1500m title to his name in Daegu this summer
was presented with his award by legendary fellow countryman Kip Keino one of
the World’s greatest ever distance runners, prior to a luncheon in
Nairobi. Kiprop after his 2011 World Championships success in Daegu has along
with other Kenyan winners in Korea, already been pre-selected for next year’s
London Olympic Games.

PEARSON
TO START END OF JANUARY

MELBOURNE
(AUS): Dailytelegraph.com.au informs that World Athlete of the Year Sally
Pearson plans to open the season end of January in Adelaide. Before that she’s
about to embark on the toughest month of training ahead of the countdown to the
Olympics. So bad will December be on the training track that hurdle ace Pearson
described it as „vomit material”.

MILLS
PLEASED WITH LOWERED STANDARDS

KINGSTON
(JAM): Usain Bolt coach Glen Mills welcomed the changes of olympic standards
for London by IAAF. „I have always thought that the 400m standard was far too
high compared to some of the other events, so I am glad that they have
rethought the process,” Mills expressed to The Gleaner following the launch of
inaugural Racers Zenith Awards on Tuesday at the Spanish Court Hotel. „I think
what might have happened is that in the 400m they haven’t been able to fill a lot
of the early rounds, and based on what happened last season, it wasn’t a great
year in terms of 400 (meters) numbers,” he further reasoned. The awards
ceremony, which will take the form of a banquet, is slated to be held at
The Jamaica Pegasus on January 6. Lord Sebastian Coe, chairman of the
organising committee for the London Olympics and senior vice-president of the
IAAF, will be the keynote speaker. The audience will also be treated to a diverse
entertainment package headlined by Tarrus Riley. The six award categories for
the inaugural ceremony are: Racers Gold Medal Award, Racers Award of Merit,
Racers Award of Honour, Racers Award of Appreciation, President’s Awards and
Coaches Award. Informs The Gleaner.

OTHER NEWS

HAMBURG
(GER): Haspa Marathon Hamburg announced their partnership with Global Sports
Communication. Global Sports Communication (GSC) owned by Jos Hermens, will be
consulting partner of the Haspa Marathon Hamburg. The company will be responsible
for the elite field. Goals include; improvement of the course record,
improvement of the elite athlete services and to advice on new initiatives in
international marathon running. Haspa Marathon Hamburg has a rich
tradition, former winners include; Vanderlei Lima, Rodgers Rop, Julio Rey
(CR-Holder 2.06.52 in 2006) on the mens-side and Irina Timofeyeva (CR-Holder
2.24.14 in 2008), Edith Masai, Katrin Dörre among women.

BERLIN
(GER): Nestlé Waters is the new premium sponsor of the German athletics association
DLV with the aim of branding its water Vittel. The company has signed up with
DLV for three years and will be involved in all running projects launched by
the DLV.

ROTTERDAM
(NED): New Balance has become the fourth major sponsor for the ABN AMRO
Rotterdam marathon. The shoe company has signed a contract with organizers
for multiple years but no amounts have been released. New Balance takes over
from adidas who had been the main sponsor since 2001. The 32nd edition of the
ABN AMRO Rotterdam marathon is planned for April 12 2012.

LONDON
(GBR): British sprinter James Ellington (10.23 and 20.52 PB´s) reached his
target when opening on eBay his sponsorships quest. After less than seven hours
he was at the wanted level of 30 000 GBP.

LONDON
(GBR): Paula Radcliffe described the plan to more than double the budget for
the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for London 2012 to 94 million euro as „frivolous”.
Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics, claimed that a meeting
of the Prime Minister, the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and himself had
decided that they needed to maximise and promote London to the four billion
television viewers after being presented with a range of ceremonial
components across the ceremonies.

ARNSTADT
(GER): Leichtathletik.de writes that the top German high jump fixture in
Arnstadt on February 4 counts with the participation of European medalist and
top home jumper Ariane Friedrich. After her achilles surgery a year ago
she hopes to compete in winter 2012.

NAIROBI
(KEN): Athletes dominate the shortlist for this year’s Sports Personality of
the Year Awards (Soya) in Kenya with winners lined-up to be feted at the annual
black-tie Gala on December 14. On Wednesday, organisers released the selected
final five that will be whittled down to three who will contest the awards next
week. In the main male category from top six five are from athletics (Rudisha,
Makau, G. Mutai, Mosop, J. Yego javelin), from women selection three are
athletes (V. Cheruiyot, E. Kiplagat, Keitany). Kenyan media are informing.

LONDON
(GBR): British newspaper The Sun was given a first look at the apartments
and townhouses which will accommodate up to 17,000 Olympic athletes next year
before becoming a ready-made new neighborhood for East Londoners. The
newly-named East Village will be the base from more than 200 countries. Workers
are now handing out the finishing touches, while furnishings will be moved in
by The LOCOG early next year.

DOHA
(QAT): The 6000 athletes from 22 Arab nations competing in the 12th edition of
the Arab Games starting on Friday have every reason to win, with substantial
financial rewards introduced by the Arab Games Organising Committee (AGOC) and
host, the Qatar Olympic Committee. Informs AIPS website. It is the first time
in the history of the games that cash incentives have been introduced. Cash
rewards will be presented to athletes who break Arab records, individual and
team sport medal winners. The individual who wins the most medals will also
take home a bundle of cash. Not only will the athletes walk away from Doha
richer but their NOC’s will also be rewarded. For every record broken the
athlete and his/her National Olympic Committee will both receive $5,000. Each
gold medalist will receive $5,000, silver medal winners $3,000 and bronze medal
winners $2,000. The individual with the most medals and his or her NOC will
each receive $70,000. Gold medal winning teams and their NOC’s will receive
$50,000, silver $30,000 and bronze $10,000. Syrian athletes will be absent
after the country boycotted an Arab League decision to suspend the country’s
membership. Teams from Libya and Iraq will be present. Al Emadi Enterprises
will sponsor the prestigious International Sports Press Association (AIPS)
Executive Committee meeting in Doha. The AIPS meeting is scheduled to be held
from December 9 – 12. Athletics in Khalifa Stadium will be held Dec 15-17 and
19-20.

STOCKHOLM
(SWE): Nordic Sport have been choosen to be a supplier of full set
Athletics Euipment to European Athletics Championship in Helsinki, Finland
2012. During the European Championship in Helsinki Nordic Sport will introduce
many new products, such as new Telescopic High Jump stands, new Electronic Pole
Vault stands (with possibility to change to manual control in 30 seconds),
worlds biggest Landing Pits for High Jump and Pole Vault.

LAUSANNE
(SUI): The month of November saw a crossover between the end of the road
running season and the increase in the number of cross country races which made
for a busy month. Many nations held trials for the SPAR European Cross
Country Championships which will take place in Velenje, Slovenia, on Sunday 11
December. Following this, European Athletics is pleased to announce that
athletes from 13 countries have been nominated for the European Athlete of the
Month award for November. The voting will close on Monday 19 December at noon.

LAUSANNE
(SUI): European Olympic Committees President Patrick Hickey has been nominated
to replace Mexican Mario Vazquez Rana on IOC Executive Board. The nomination
was made by the executive council of the Association of National Olympic
Committees. In another issue ASOIF sent five-point letter to federations and
IOC President Jacques Rogge opposing the European Olympic Committees plan to
stage European Games.

RESULTS

MELBOURNE
(AUS, Dec 3): In warm-up for Zatopek 10 Kenyans Rueben Kosgei (14:02.5, former
steeple olympic winner) and Luke Kipkosgei (14:36.4) tested their shape at 5000
m.

MALAGA
(ESP, Dec 6): Morrocan Abdelhadi El Mouaziz won the 2nd Maratón Ciudad de
Málaga in 2:19:22. Third was former world champion Martin Fiz (2:27:39). Best
woman Gemma Alcazar achieved 2:57:16.