GREAT
WOMEN HURDLES, ASAFA AND VCB WILL RUN 50 M

NEW YORK
(USA): Four possible 2012 Olympic finalists will contest the women’s 50-meter
hurdles at the U.S. Open Track & Field event January 28 at Madison Square
Garden reports USATF. Defending Olympic gold medalist Dawn Harper, two-time
defending world indoor champion Lolo Jones, USA Indoor and Outdoor champion
Kellie Wells and British national record-holder Tiffany Ofili Porter will go
head-to-head in a hurdling showcase. Porter can attack the UK record 6.94
by Diane Allahgreen from 2000. Also in other sprints 50 m are scheduled, that
means Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown will run their first ever 50 m
races.

VIVIAN
CHERUIYOT CLOSE SECOND, DAEGU PRESS THE BEST

LAUSANNE
(SUI): Serbian Novak Djokovic and Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjoergen
were voted best male and female sports persons of 2011 by the International Sports
Press Association, AIPS. In total 379 journalists from 82 countries
participated in the vote. From track athletes Usain Bolt is third, Yohan Blake
is 8th. On the women side Vivian Cheruiyot is even second with 566 votes what
was very close to the Norwegian winner (576 votes). Sally Pearson ended as 5th.
The expansive and well-equipped media Centre and press tribune in Daegu, South
Korea that hosted the IAAF World Championships got the best press facility
award with 633 votes. Wimbledon was second favorite with 616 votes while the
press facility offered by the world cup-hosting nation of New Zealand was voted
third best at 326. Informs AIPS.

CHICHEROVA
AND BORCHIN

MOSCOW
(RUS): Russian sports journalists elected as top athletes in the country in
2011 high jumper Anna Chicherova and walker Valeriy Borchin. Chicherova got 53
points ahead of Mariya Savinova (41) and Mariya Abakumova (39). Borchin was
more ahead with 66 against of 48 by another walking world champion Sergey
Bakulin (48) and Yuriy Borzakovskiy (34). Already earlier two other polls were
organised. By the officials of Russian Athletics federation the top positions
went to Chicherova and Borzakovskiy and by the fans of rusathletics.com to
Savinova and Borzakovskiy.

BRAZIL
NAMED 14 ATHLETES

SAO
PAULO (BRA): Brazilian Athletics Federation named 14 athletes with standards
for the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. They all can compete in Turkey
but must prove the fitness and results level in January or February (until the
19th). From this group three athletes already said they are not planning to
compete in Istanbul. Among them current world champion and indoor title
defender Fabiana Murer, male pole vaulter Fabio Gomes and female sprinter
Rosangela Santos. Others remaining are sprinter Nilson Andre, middle distance
runners Kleberson Davide, Leandro Prates de Oliveira and Hudson de Souza, long
jumper Mauro Vinicius and triple jumper Jefferson Sabino. On the women side
sprinter Ana Claudia Lemos, 400 m runner Geisa Coutinho, jumpers olympic winner
Maurren Maggi, Keila Costa and Gisele de Oliveira.

CHEMA
FOR BARCELONA MARATHON

BARCELONA
(ESP): Chema Martinez, the European marathon silver medalist from Barcelona
2010 will return to the Catalan capital city on March 25 next year to run the
34th edition of Zurich Marato de Barcelona. “I have always said that I had
an outstanding debt with Marató de Barcelona since in 2008 the organization
trusted me and finally I couldn’t come. It is a consolidated event
that just now is the best one in Spain, it has a very fast circuit in
which good records can be done, and I also have good memories of the
support of the people in Barcelona when in 2010 I ran the European
Championship”, assures Chema Martínez, who in the streets of Barcelona will
dispute his 20th marathon since he made his debut in this category in 2002.

OTHER NEWS

MONTEVIDEO
(URU): Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius made a visit on behalf of Nike to
Argentina and Uruguay in the company of all-time hero Carl Lewis. He posted on
his twitter.

STELLENBOSCH
(RSA): British stars headed by 400 m hurdles world champion Dai Greene started
their training stay in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It should last one month,
Greene is saying on his twitter.

BRATISLAVA
(SVK): Slovakia already has one competitor confirmed for the World Indoor
Championships in Istanbul. The recent Athlete of the Year and Daegu finalist
Dana Veldakova got a wild card from the national federation and is already
selected for the March event. The triple jump specialist will go to her third
world indoors, being always in the finals, 8th in Moscow 2006 and 6th in Doha
2010.

TALLINN
(EST): Estonian Sportsman of the year is discus world medalist Gerd Kanter,
best young athlete in the country from all sports is European U23 heptathlon
winner Grit Sadeiko and one of the top three best sports organizations (every
years three are selected) is the Estonian Athletics Federation (with voleyball
and football) headed by Erich Teigamagi.

BERLIN
(GER) : German marathoner André Pollmächer is back in training after a minor
stroke occured while he is on a training camp in Portugal. Pollmächer had
headaches after arriving in Portugal, which later caused a small stroke.
The 28-year old now is cleared to run again and will continue his training camp
and preparation for the London Olympic Games reports leichtathletik.de.

EGMOND
(NED):Dutch athletes Khalid Choukoud and Jesper van der Wielen have been
confirmed to run at the 40th edition of the PWN Egmond Halve Marathon on
January 8th. The duo joins Michel Butter and represent the top of Dutch
running. Among other top runners are also Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot, Samuel
Tsegay and Wilfred Kirwa confirm organisers.

GENT
(BEL): Dwain Chambers will complete a full indoor season and is aiming to
run well at the IAAF World indoor championships in Istanbul. Organizers of the
IFAM indoor meeting in Gent on January 18th have confirmed Chambers will run
the 60m in the build up to Istanbul.

KINGSTON
(JAM): Yohan Blake doesn’t fully agree with Maurice Greene’s analyses that he
will be the one to win Olympic Gold in London. Blake believes it’s going to
take more than that to beat the world’s fastest man to take the victory and
pointed out that it will be all about execution. He added that the one to be
out of the blocks first, will most likely win the race writes trackalerts.com.

CHRISTCHURCH
(NZL): The New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) have announced the recipients
of the Christchurch Athlete Hardship Grant which have been made available to
support athletes in the wake of the devastating earthquakes that hit the city
earlier this year. The grants will see eight athletes share a pot of just
under 40,000 dollar. Among the athletes awarded is also heptathlete Rebecca
Wardell writes insidethegames.

BEIJING
(CHN): Among China’s top 10 athletes of the year 2011 are also two athletes.
Discus world champion Li Yanfeng is ranked 5th on the list while hurdler Liu
Xiang is ranked 10th thanks to his world silver medal in Daegu writes China
Daily.

MELBOURNE
(AUS): Australia’s two-time world champion hurdler Jana Pittman has suffered
another injury setback. Pittman has been ruled out after rolling her ankle. The
athlete has battled a series of foot and leg complaints since winning gold
at the World Championships in Osaka in 2007 reports abc.net.au. It is very
unfortunate for her, just recently she posted on her twitter positive messages
about the training.

SAN JOSE
(USA): Mastertrack.com gives an update on Lee Evans situation from his sister.
He’s doing well, no longer in pain, says his sister. Still waiting on the
surgery.

MELBOURNE
(AUS): Australian media are informing that Commonwealth Games javelin gold
medallist Jarrod Bannister has been slapped with an Australia-wide ban by every
institute of sport for a code of conduct breach. The controversy threatens
to cost Bannister his place on the Olympic team under a new ethics and
behaviour rule introduced by the Australian Olympic Committee since the 2008
Beijing Games. A review of the suspension will take place end of April.
His breach of conduct is related to alleged anomolies involving support funding
and services.

RESULTS

FUNCHAL
(POR, Dec 28): Home runner Jose Cunha won the 53rd edition of Corrida de Săo
Silveste do Funchal. His winning time was 17:13 ahead of Belgian Mats Lunders
17:25. Ugandan Rebecca Cheptegei was the women winner with 20:46 at the 6 km
distance.