TADESE
FOR ANOTHER FAST TIME

LISBON
(POR): World record holder Zersenay Tadese will return on Sunday, March 25 to
the 22nd edition of Lisbon Half Marathon and will try for his third win in a row.
He won here in 2010 with current world record 58:23 and returned in 2011 with
another fast time of 58:30. Other top names include from Eritrea Teklemariam
Mehdin and Kidane Tadese, from Ethiopia Dino Sefir and from Kenyans Lucas
Rotich, Peter Kamais, Titus Masai, Gideon Ngatuny and John Mwangangi. Home
runners will be headed by Youssef El Kalai and Manuel Damiao. Winner from 2010
Peninah Arusei, Rita Jeptoo (winner here in 2007), Lineth Chepkurui, world
medalist Priscah Jeptoo, Joyce Chepkirui and Pauline Njeri are the top women.
Ethiopian top name is Aselefech Mergia. US Olympic 10k medalist and marathon
trials winner Shalane Flanagan is leading the non-African entries, also there
Italian Nadia Ejaffini and Dutch Lornah Kiplagat. Group of home runners with
Dulce Felix, Analia Rosa, Ines Monteiro and Leonor Carneiro. The race has since
2008 new course which is according to the rules. And on that the fastest women
time is 1:08:28 by Aberu Kebede last year. But in 2001 at the former course
(considered excessive aided by the drop and possibly tail winds) Susan
Chepkemei achieved 1:05:44.

JETER
PLANS FIRST 100 M FOR MTSAC

LOS
ANGELES (USA): The 100 m world champion Carmelita Jeter plans her first 100 m
race of the season for the MtSAC meet in Walnut on April 21. She did not
compete during the indoor season, but she regularly informs on her twitter that
the training is going well. Jeter will also compete in relays in US spring
season. Last year she also opened in Walnut with high quality 10.99.

JELIMO
FOR OSTRAVA

OSTRAVA
(CZE): Fresh world indoor champion Pamela Jelimo confirmed her attendance at
51st Ostrava Golden Spike meeting on May 25 in the Czech Republic (IAAF World
Challenge). The Kenyan olympic winner from Beijing competed this winter for
first time indoors and confirmed she regained international level after some
years of difficulties after her olympic gold medal. Jelimo may well attack the
meet record of another legend Maria Mutola who clocked in Ostrava 1:57.72 back
in 2004. It will be her first meet of the summer season in Europe.

ROGOWSKA
TO OPEN AT HOME

SOPOT
(POL): 2009 World champion Anna Rogowska will open the summer season at home.
Special pole vault meet „Tyczka na molo” which means Pole Vault on the Pier
will be held near to the beach of her home town Sopot on May 26. She competed
during the indoor season (471) but was not at World Indoors in Istanbul.

SEMENYA
FOR FIRST 800 M ON SATURDAY

POTCHEFSTROOM
(RSA): Yellow Pages series continues on Saturday in Potchefstroom. World
champion 2009 Caster Semenya plans to run her first 800 m of the year. It will
be actually her first 800 under new coach Maria Mutola. Athletics South Africa
also informed that 400 m hurdler and 2011 world bronze medallist L.J. van Zyl
will line up in the 400. Sunette Viljoen, the South African who won bronze in
the women’s javelin at the worlds, also will compete on Saturday. Mbulaeni
Mulaudzi, a former world champion and 2004 Olympic silver medallist, will
run in the men’s 800 and target 1:45.6, the olympic standard.

OTHER NEWS

FRANKFURT
(GER): German top female walkers will compete soon during early spring walking
season. Two possible olympic starters are clear. Melanie Seeger achieved the
standard already last September with 1:29:20 and will travel end of March to
Chinese leg of IAAF Challenge in Taicang. She must confirm her olympic
nomination with 1:33 time. For German record holder Sabine Krantz the standard
should not be a problem (1:31:15). Her competition for that is Rio Maior
on April 14 in Portugal. On the men side Andre Höhne, Carsten Schmidt, Maik
Berger and Nils Christopher Gloger will fight in Dudince on Saturday to
achieved the German standard for London 3:53 at the 50 km distance. Gloger will
debut at the distance.

SYDNEY
(AUS): Athletics Australia announced an initial Australian Spark team of 57 for
the IAAF world junior championships to be held in Barcelona from July 10-15.
The team is on track to become the biggest ever.

BERLIN
(GER): German sprinting legend Armin Hary is celebrating his 75th birthday on
Thursday. He is not organizing a party for his birthday but talked to
leichtathletik.de about his double Olympic victory and his career in which he
went from playing handball, to being a decathlete to becoming the first
athlete to run 10.0 seconds over 100m.

BERLIN
(GER): World half marathon champion Wilson Kiprop is the strongest athlete to
start in the Berlin half marathon on April 1st. After an injury had slowed
Kiprop down, he is now back in top shape and happy to take on fellow Kenyan
athletes Denis Koech and Gideon Kipketer as well as Ethiopian Habtamu Fikadu.
German hopes are represented by Stefan Koch and Robert Krebs. Kenyan Philes
Ongori (1:07:38) could possibly attack the course record of Edith Masai from
2006. 30.000 athletes will be running the Berlin half marathon this year and
the event will be live streamed on the internet.

LAUSANNE
(SUI): The activities of the newly constituted Education Commission and Clubs
Commission will be among the main topics for discussion when the European
Athletics Development Committee meets in Amsterdam this weekend. The commission
will also discuss the European Athletics Education Programme, European
Athletics Awards System, the upcoming Communication Seminar to be held in
Geneva, Switzerland, 29-30 March and the CEO Conference in Neusiedl am See,
Austria, 20-22 April writes European Athletics.

AUCKLAND
(NZL): Defending Olympic silver medallist Nick Willis is eyeing double glory in
London as he considers adding the 5000m to his schedule. The 1500m specialist
will only race the longer distance at this weekend’s New Zealand athletics
championships in Auckland and said adding it to his schedule would provide the
perfect pressure release at the Olympics reports stuff.co.nz.

MADRID
(ESP): Spanish police have arrested 10 suspects in Madrid and Barcelona and
smashed an international sports doping ring allegedly linked to the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games. Police said the network was implicated in competitors’
positive doping tests at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, cycling’s 2010 Tour of
Spain and 2009 Tour of Portugal, as well as the 2010 Spanish athletics
championships while adding they swooped on the group ahead of the 2012 Olympic
Games in London. The operation began last year when police were investigating a shop
in Mataro, near Barcelona, that sold anabolic steroids to sportspeople. The
shop was allegedly linked to a Catalan athlete’s positive test for EPO in
the 2010 Spanish athletics championships writes The Daily Telegraph.

NAIROBI
(KEN): Kenyan runners scheduled for the London Marathon next month will also
participate in another charity competition organized by the Kenyan community in
Bedfordshire. The London Marathon takes place on April 22 and the Bedfordshire
community run the following day, where Kenya marathon runners and Kenyan
community have established a close relationship since 2010, when the
athletes participated in a similar event reports The Standard.

NAIROBI
(KEN): Athletics Kenya received support from National Bank of Kenya worth of
Sh33 million. The sponsorship is Sh3 million more than last year. The
sponsorship will cover both the Junior and youth teams, which are slated to
grace various events on the continent and world arena. The donation will cater
for the Olympic preparations for the London 2012 Olympics Games, Eastern branch
track and field meeting and AK Gala dinner to fete Kenya’s top athletes.

MELBOURNE
(AUS): Speaking at her old primary school at Arundel on the Gold Coast,
25-year-old Sally Pearson said she feared no rival as she strives to go one better
than her silver medal from Beijing four years ago. „I’m so far ahead of the
other girls at the moment,” she said. „If they want to beat me they have a lot
of catching up to do.” According to Courier Mail.

PERTH
(AUS): Steve Hooker is considering putting his rebuilt confidence and reworked
technique to the test in a self-made pole vault competition in a Perth
eastern suburbs warehouse in May to score a qualifying mark for the London
Olympics. Athletics WA has been asked by Hooker’s camp to sanction a three-man
competition at an undetermined time in May in an effort for the Olympic
champion to clear the London qualifying mark of 572. The 29-year-old previously
announced he was taking time away from competition to work on his technique and
confidence according to The West.

GLASGOW
(SCO): Glasgow 2014 faces key risks in delivering some of the major
developments for the Commonwealth Games, including the Athletes’ Village,
according to a major report published by independent public spending
watchdog Audit Scotland. Although suggesting that Glasgow 2014 are on track and
within their 830 million dollar budget, reports also showed the Athletes’
Village is due to be completed less than five months before the Games begin on
July 23 and that if difficulties arise, more money may be needed to ensure it
is ready in time reports Insidethegames.

LONDON
(GBR): London 2012 organizers have launched an objection to Indian opposition
to Dow Chemical’s controversial sponsorship of the Olympics, the country’s
Sports Minister Ajay Maken has admitted writes Insidethegames. The Indian
Olympic Association (IOA) have been involved in a campaign for the
American company to be dropped as an Olympic sponsor because of its link to
Union Carbide, whose Indian subsidiary ran a pesticide plant in Bhopal at
which a gas leak allegedly killed up to 25,000 people in 1984.

DUDINCE
(SVK): The organizers of EA Permit walking meet in Dudince on Saturday will
provide live stream from the competition at the federation website. That will
be for first time in the country from a walking event.

BILBAO
(ESP): According to the preliminary entries, 108 athletes including 57 men and
51 women from 27 European Athletics Member Federation nations will participate
at the 2012 European Cup 10 000 m in Bilbao on June 3. The Royal Spanish
Athletics Federation (RFEA) will host the event, in co-operation with the City
of Bilbao and Atletismo Santutxu club, on 3 June 2012.

MONACO
(MON): Dai Greene the 400 m hurdles world champion revealed for IAAF also his
plans for the summer opening race: „As for competition plans I’m going to sit
down with my coach, Malcolm Arnold, in the next week or so and draw up a schedule
for the season ahead. This is not confirmed yet but I’m likely to start my
season at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Rome on May 31. I may take
a look at one international competition the week before, but Rome is the
likeliest option for my first competition of Olympic year.”

MOSCOW
(RUS): Rusathletics.com informs that IAAF confirmed the time table for the 2013
IAAF World Championships in Moscow. Also first set of standards was approved.
For 10 000 m races (27:40 and 28:05 for men and 31:45 and 32:05 for women),
marathons (2:17 and 2:43), decathlon (8200/8000), heptathlon (6100/5950), 20 km
walk (1:24/1:26 and for women 1:36 and 1:38), 50 km walk (4:02 and 4:16). In
the relays 39.20 and 44.00 and for the longer one 3:05 and 3:33.

ABIDJAN
(CIV): AIPS informs that the end of March 2012 will herald a new chapter
for African female athletes as the continent’s Women Sports Reporters
congregate in the Ivorian capital Abidjan to reward and recognise the achievers
of the year 2011. The historical awards ceremony which will be held under the
auspices of the Union of African women sports reporters,UFRESA will seek to
celebrate the achievements of its talented African female athletes like the
three times African football of the year Nigerian Perpetua Nkwocha, Kenyan
track star Vivian Cheruiyot, Malian basketballer Djenebou Sissoko among others
nominated for the award.