TIRUNESH
FOR 10 000 AT PRE

EUGENE
(USA): Already the host of Kenya’s Olympic trials selection race in the men’s
10,000 meters, the Friday portion of the 38th Prefontaine Classic (June 1),
named in honor of the late Geoff Hollister, has added reigning double Olympic
gold medalist Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia to the women’s 10 000 m. She won on
Sunday the Carlsbad 5K road race. The entry list shows it will be like
Ethiopian women trials for Olympics. Also in the race her team-mates Sule
Utura, Wude Ayalew, Belaynesh Oljira, Tigist Kiros, Aheza Kiros, Worknesh
Kidane and Aberu Kebede. For Ethiopians the olympic selection is based on best
results. Layes Abdullayeva of Azerbaijan will give European participation into
the race (but she is Ethiopian born). Kenyans in the competition will be
Pauline Korikwiang, Lineth Chepkurui, Lucy Kabuu, Pauline Njeri and Margaret
Wangari. Amy Yoder Begley represents US runners. Organizers are informing.

HEIDLER
VS. WLODARCZYK

OSTRAVA
(CZE): First clash this year of last two world record holders in women hammer
will happen at 51st Ostrava Golden Spike Meeting (IAAF World Challenge).
Current world record holder (79.42) and European Champion Betty Heidler will
meet with 2009 World champion and former record holder (78.30) Anita Wlodarczyk
of Poland. The hammer events are staged the day before the main programme on
May 24 and will be part of IAAF Hammer Challenge. Heidler is meet record holder
(77.22 last year) and won in Ostrava also back in 2007 (that year she became
also the world champion) and Wlodarczyk is the winner here in 2009 and 2010.
The women hammer is staged also as Kamila Skolimowska Trophy to remember the
Polish Olympic winner from 2000 who died unexpectedly in February 2009. Another
new initiative by the organisers is that the children competition Chocolate
Spike which was organised only in Ostrava so far will be spread into other 5
cities and races will be held in April and May for kids from 3 to 11 years of
age. The best from each city will qualify for the finals during the
pre-programme of the meeting on May 25.

AWARD
FOR VIVIAN

ABIDJAN
(CIV): Kenyan double track world champion Vivian Cheruiyot who just recently
was confirmed to have her opening race of the season in Doha on May 11 at 3000
m (Samsung Diamond League) was crowned in absentia by the Union of African
women sports reporters (UFRESA) and a public online voting as the
continent’s finest during the inaugural Africa Female Athlete of the Year
awards ceremony. After she was crowned Kenya’s top athlete of the just ended
season she piped Nigerian football star, N’Kwocha Perpetua who took the
runners-up position and Senegalese wrestler, Isabelle Sambou,second runners-up,
who qualified for the Olympics for the first time. The trophy for „Peace and
Sport” for her peace messages in Northern Kenya through the annual peace run
belonged to former half marathon world champion Kenyan Tegla Loroupe. Informs
AIPS. Cheruiyot also in an interview said she is still undecided about the
double in London. Xinhua also informs she is busy making plans for her
traditional engagement to her sweetheart Moses Kiplagat Kirui. The two are set
to formalize their union on April 14 in Eldoret. „I will be having
a ceremony at my place where I will be introducing my husband to my
parents.” she added.

SEGAS
STOPS ITS OPERATIONS

ATHENS
(GRE): SEGAS, the Greek Athletics Federation, suspended all athletic operations
Wednesday due to severe spending cuts – a major embarrassment for the
nation that hosted the Summer Olympics only eight years ago. Athletics is the
first of national federations to do so. It immediately halts all domestic track
and field competitions. The decision will not affect the May 10 flame-lighting
ceremony at Ancient Olympia, in southern Greece, for the 2012 London Olympics,
or have any immediate effect on the selection of Greek athletes for those
games. The Federation hopes that the cuts in funding will be reviewed in the
mean-time. Under threat is the participation at European Championships in Helsinki,
federation says. Agencies are informing. There is press conference planned by
SEGAS for Thursday.

OTHER NEWS

CAPETOWN
(RSA): When George Ntshiliza won the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon last
Easter, he became the first South African since 2007 to do so. If he can win
again this Saturday, he will become the first South African since Zithulele
Sinqe in 1997 to repeat. The Cape Town race over a gruelling 56 km route
will be held for the 43rd time, while the accompanying half-marathon sees its
15th running (the race always occurs on the Saturday before Easter). The
half-marathon, the largest in the country, has again broken all entry records,
with just over 16,000 runners entered. The ultramarathon has just over 9000
entrants. For the first time in the event’s history the top ten men and women
in both the ultramarathon and half-marathon will be tested for prohibited
substances by Drug Free Sport SA. In previous years random testing of the top
ten was done. In addition to Ntshiliza, the other nine gold medalists (top-10
finishers) of 2011 have all entered again. The women’s race will be unusual:
for the first time since 2006 only one of the Russian Nurgalieva twins will be
running. It should be noted that on that occasion Elena, running without the company
of her sister, was beaten by Tatyana Zhirkova. This year defending champion
Olesya is injured, so Elena will be on her own again. Informs Race Results
Weekly.

NEW YORK
(USA): The New York Road Runners announced that United States Olympians Meb
Keflezighi, Ryan Hall, and Abdi Abdirahman will all be competing at the UAE
Healthy Kidney 10-K on Saturday, May 12, in New York’s Central Park. The trio,
all of whom qualified for USA Olympic Team at the USA Olympic Marathon Trials
last January, will compete in the eighth edition of the popular and fast
10-kilometer race before gearing up for the Olympic Marathon in London in
August. The UAE Healthy Kidney 10-K has the largest first prize of any
10-kilometer road race in the world: 25 000 USD. The one-loop course around
Central Park has produced fast times. Four men have run sub-27:50 (six
sub-28:00), despite the Park’s rolling hills, including the course record of
27:35 by Kenya’s Leonard Patrick Komon last year. The race is sponsored by the
embassy of the United Arab Emirates in honor of late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al
Nahyan, the first president of the UAE, who underwent a kidney transplant
at the Cleveland Clinic in 2000.

KYIV
(UKR): Ukraine is welcoming the sporting world. Certainly with EURO 2012 in
football that will be the event, infrastructure is improved and the country can
also bid for future events in athletics. NOC President and IAAF Vice President
Sergey Bubka said at sponsors seminar of UEFA EURO 2012 that „Ukraine opens its
doors for participants and guests of the tournament. Im sure this will be
a unique event and a memorable festivity.” First top athletics event
will be the IAAF World Youth Championships 2013 in Bubka´s hometown of Donetsk.

LONDON
(GBR): Agencies are informing that a representative of specially
commissioned Olympic Legends Underground Map apologised on Wednesday for the
omission of arguably the greatest woman athlete in history–Fanny Blankers-Koen
of Netherlands. Embarrassed officials said the winner of four gold medals at
the 1948 London Games would appear in a reprinted version. US runner Mary
Decker and Britain’s Zola Budd, whose dreams of an Olympic medal were dashed
when they infamously collided in the 3,000 metres final at the 1984 Los Angeles
Olympics, will be moved to ‚share’ a Tube station, creating space for
Blankers-Koen.

COLORADO
SPRINGS (USA): The United States Olympic Committee and the NBC Sports Group
announced the television schedule for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
A record 67˝ hours of event coverage – 43 on NBC Sports Network and 24˝ on
NBC – will feature 10 sports, including live primetime coverage of trials for
diving, swimming, gymnastics and track & field, as well as events for water
polo and field hockey.

DUBLIN
(IRE): Irish hurdler Derval O’Rourke might consider competing at the European
Championships in Helsinki in June. Previously the former world indoor champion
had decided to miss the championships and focus completely on the Londen
Olympic Games reports The Irish Examiner.

DES
MOINES (USA): World 1500 m champion Jenny Simpson will return to Des Moines to
run in the Drake Relays on Saturday, April 28 in a special invitational
1500 m race. She will return as title defender from 2011 (4:09.56). “This is an
Olympic year so I think it’s only appropriate that coming back as reigning
world champion that I would open up my outdoor season with this event,”
Simpson said in a Drake press release. “It is at a place where
I consider myself to be from, and a lot of my family will be there,
so it’s a really exciting thing.”

KINGSTON
(USA): Next weekends UTech Invitational meet at the National Stadium on April
14 will have several top athletes from Racers TC and MVP competing. In the
entries mentioned also world champion Yohan Blake (100 m and relay). As
competing announced another star sprinter is Asafa Powell who recently
mentioned he wants to run a 400 m before the main season. Also expected to
compete are Kaliese Spencer, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter and Sherone Simpson.
Based on informations from Jamaica Observer.

GAINESVILLE
(USA): This weekends Florida Relays will see the 100 m debut of the year by
fourth best from World Indoors at 60 m Barbara Pierre. Quarter miler Natasha
Hastings is also scheduled for the 100 m, Tiffany Ross-Williams for her
specialty 400 m hurdles and Francena McCorory also for her top event, the 400
m. After false starting at Texas Relays another try at men´s 110 m hurdles for
world indoor leader 2012 Dexter Faulk.

NAIROBI
(KEN): Berlin marathon champion Florence Kiplagat says she wants to improve on
her personal best time at the London Marathon later this month as well as earn
a place in the final team for the Olympic Games. The 24-year-old clocked
2:19:14 to win in Berlin last year and believes she can bring it down even further.
She is among the six women marathoners who have been named in the provisional
team for the London games writes The Standard.

ATLANTA
(USA): Hurdles world indoor champion Aries Merritt told fastlifeshow.com he is
very close to realizing his goal of breaking the 13 second barrier and join the
12-second club. Merritt’s early 2012 indoor season, which saw him realize
a string of consistent 7.4 to 7.5 performances, suggests that “sub-club”
membership privileges should arrive this outdoor season. “Outdoors has always
been my stronger suit … so me perfecting the first half of my race is only just
a snippet of what’s to come ….I’m ready to do something deadly,” projects
Merritt, who confirmed he has changed his run up to the first hurdles to seven
steps after watching his competitors successfully make the same move. The
ultimate race for him will be the US Trials end of June in Eugene.

JOHANNESBURG
(RSA): Legendary 800 m world champion Maria Mutola has predicted her new
protege Caster Semenya can smash the women’s 800m world record. Mutola said
Semenya would have smashed the women’s 800m world record had it not been for
the gender controversy which erupted after her world title win at Berlin in
2009. „She ran 1min 55.45 when she was 18″ Mutola, who won Mozambique’s first
Olympic gold when she won the 800m in Sydney, told South Africa’s Sunday Times
newspaper. „If there wasn’t that (gender) problem she had there, she probably
would have been 1:51, 1:52 right now.”

MELBOURNE
(AUS): Jamaican sub 10 sprinter and relay gold medalist Michael Frater, who is
in Australia to run in the Stawell Gift at the weekend, agreed it was harder to
make the Jamaican team than winning an Olympic medal. „We are not thinking
about Olympics now, we know we have to get through the Olympic trials and it is
going to be a tough one. But I think we are again hands down to win
the gold medal and again break the world record.” The Jamaican sprinter told
The Age.

PARIS
(FRA): French world class steeplechaser Bouabdellah Tahri told L’Equipe he is
back in full training and is again hopefull for the London Olympic Games. Tahri
has suffered with an injury to the tibia in 2011 and had surgery last
september. After it was first doubtfull whether he would be able to continue
his career, Tahri now is optimistic he could get back in top shape. He was 4th
in Daegu, but second in Barcelona and third in Berlin 2009.

SOFIA
(BUL): Track agent and organiser Georgi Pavlov was promoted to be commercial
director of the one of the top football clubs in the country CSKA Sofia. He
started in the club as fitness coach. His main track meet „Pavel Pavlov” will
be staged on June 9.

RESULTS

CASTELLON
(ESP, Apr 3): Frank Casanas achieved at a local meet world leading discus
mark 66.25 m. Cuban Loy Maikel Martinez (30) was second 63.69, he is soon to
get Spanish citizenship.

SANTA
BARBARA (USA, Apr 3): Sharon Day ended the Sam Adams Multis with world leading
personal best in heptathlon 6337 points. She will be so realistically targeting
the spot in the US Olympic Team. Chris Randolph was the best in the decathlon
(7840). Ashton Eaton was doing discus 43.34 and close to PB javelin 56.15. His
best is 56.19 from last year.

PORT
HARCOURT (NGR, Mar 31): Taiwo Bamidele (29) won the 100 m at the local meet
with 10.36 (-0.6).

SAD NEWS

MONACO
(MON): IAAF informs that Xenia Stad-de Jong, an Olympic sprint relay gold
medallist passed away on April 3. She was 90. Born in Semarang in the former
Dutch East Indies on 4 March 1922, Stad-de Jong’s greatest success came at the 1948
Summer Olympics in London when she won the gold medal as the first runner in
the 4x100m Relay, teaming with Netty Witziers-Timmer, Gerda van der
Kade-Koudijs and IAAF Hall of Fame member Fanny Blankers-Koen. Stad-de Jong
also competed in the 100m and reached the semi-finals.