News from Velenje: European Cross Country Championships, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

Bett over Karoki
MELBOURNE (AUS, Dec 10): Zatopek:10 ended at Lakeside Stadium in
Albert Park with fast times for Kenyans. Emmanuel Bett clocked
27:39.33 after thrilling finish with Bitan Karoki 27:40.11. Bett
achieved under 27 last September in Brussels. Third place for
Olympic medalist Micah Kogo 27:50.50. Fourth Ben St. Lawrence is
Australian champion 28:01.68 (unfortunately no olympic qualifier).
National record holder Craig Mottram got 28:52.20 as 7th. In the
women race Kenyan champs 1500 m medalist and sub 1:10 half-marathon
runner Joyce Chepkirui in her first track 10 000 m got 31:26.10.
Second 2008 World CC Champion Emily Chebet improved her PB to
31:30.22. Third Emily Brichacek won the national title in 33:02.55.
The stadium was oficially opened for the public with the meet. From
other events to note steeple of former olympic winner Reuben Kosgei
8:39.38, discus by world champion Dani Samuels (59.10). In the women
1500 m Bridey Delaney achieved 4:15.76 ahead of Lisa Corrigan
4:16.90. In non-traditional events Joshua Ross got 9.79 (-0.3) at
100 yards and Tim Sayer 33.85 at 300 m.
 
 

NEWS FROM VELENJE


BIRTHDAYS: Three runners will have something more to celebrate on Sunday
than just competing. It’s also the birthday of Great Britain’s Elle
Baker (who turns 28 and runs in the senior women’s race), The
Netherlands’ Edwin de Vries (19, junior men) and Austria’s Tanja
Eberhart (22, U23 women).

OLDEST/YOUNGEST: Oldest male competitor is French Moktar Benhari aged
37and oldest female Spain´s  Elena Maria Espeso who is 39 years old. On
the other side the youngest in junior categories are 16 years old
Croatian Ivan Malic and Turkish girl Emine Hatun Tuna.

ERDOGAN: Title defender in the U23 category Meryem Erdogan from Turkey
is not competing because of the injury. She had also difficulties during
the summer when she did not finish the races at the European U23
Championships.

NUMBERS: Final start list has record number of 489 participants from 33
countries. The biggest number is in junior men´s race 114 from 26
countries, junior women 93 from 23. In the U23 races women are 44 from
18 countries and men 99 from 27 and in the senior races 55 women from 17
countries and 77 men from 26 countries.

WIRZ: At the official European Athletics and Velenje 2011 Local
Organising Committee press-conference on the eve of the 18th SPAR
European Cross Country Championships the President of European
Athletics, Hansjörg Wirz, stressed just how important cross country is
for athletes: “If athletes want to be good at track, they have to
practice cross country. Road does not help much. Cross country is
essential to success.” In recent years, the President felt that this
equation had been lost sight of, but now he stressed that the connection
between the two branches of athletics is as valid as ever.  Informs
European Athletics.

LEBID: Ukrainian CC king Sergiy Lebid said for IAAF: “I missed one month
of training last month, I was in the Russian mountains and there was
lots of snow, so we couldn’t train. So because of that I don’t know what
kind of shape I’m really in. I won’t really now until the race
tomorrow.” He is the only athlete to compete in all 18 editions of the
event.

OTHER NEWS 

 
KINGSTON (JAM):  The man who ruled the world in sprint hurdling in
the late 40’s and early 50’s, Harrison Dillard will be coming to
Jamaica this week for a 7 day visit. The Cleveland born, Dillard
inspired by the great Jesse Owens, also from that state and attended
the same high school, will be accompanied to Jamaica by former
Calabar High School athlete, Michael McIntosh who is his senior
advisor and the author of a book on Dillard’s life.

NEW YORK (USA): Race Results Weekly informs that total of 383
athletes have qualified for the 2012 USA Olympic Marathon Trials
next month in Houston, despite tighter qualifying standards when
compared to 2008.  Website MarathonGuide.com counts 158 men and 225
women as qualifying for the 2012 race, compared to 179 men and 181
women who had qualified for the 2008 Trials, an increase of 6%.

LAUSANNE (SUI): Insidethegames informs that Lamine Diack, President
of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF),
continued to insist that he had done nothing wrong despite receiving
a warning from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Ethics
Commission for receiving money from marketing company ISL. 

CORRECTION


FRANKFURT (GER): Correct the information from EME NEWS (DEC 9, 2011)
about German Championships in 2012. The combined events championships
will be held for U20 and U18 categories, the only one missing will be
U16 event.