YEGO
NEARLY 80 M

NAIROBI
(KEN, Apr 17): Kenyan media are informing that Julius Yego improved the
national javelin record to 79.95 what is olympic B standard during the 10 000 m
Olympics Pre-Trial meet. The main event of the day was won by Moses Masai in
28:10.3. Top 15 were suppose to qualify from the 10k for the trials race at
Prefontaine Classic in Eugene (June 1, one day before the main programme).
Second was former 5k world champion Eliud Kipchoge 28:11.0 ahead of Lucas
Rotich 28:12.0 and Mark Kiptoo 28:17.4. Missing the race were for example 2007
Osaka World Championship 10 000 m bronze medallist Martin Mathathi, last year’s
national champion Peter Kirui, 2008 World Cross Country Championships silver
medallist Leonard Komon or last year sub 27 runner Mathew Kisorio. Mark Mutai
clocked 46.0 at the 400 m in another additional event.

RUDISHA,
SANYA AND TOP JAVELIN FIELDS

OSTRAVA
(CZE): World record holder David Rudisha will return to Ostrava for the 51st
Golden Spike Meeting (IAAF World Challenge, May 25) for the fourth time. He won
here in 2009 and 2010 and was second in 2008. But for first time he will run at
the Czech meet as world record holder and world champion. It will be his third
800 m of the year after Melbourne and Doha. „Ostrava has always been one of my
favourite meets. I’ve won and lost there and always had good competition. I was
disappointed to miss Ostrava last year because of injury and i’m very happy to
be coming back. I hope to run a strong race for the great public this
year, „ says Rudisha. Another top highlight will be women´s 400 m as this years
World Indoor Champion Sanya Richards-Ross will return after last years 3rd
place in top shape. Organizers are hoping the 2009 World Champion will attack
one of the oldest meet records 49.67 by Tana Kocembova in 1983. „Tatiana
Kocembova is a legend in the 400m so it’s great to see Denisa Rosolova
carrying on the tradition in Ostrava. She has shown great promise. She ran well
against me last year. I am looking forward to the rematch,” the US
Champion said. Meet director Jan Zelezny was able at today´s press conference
confirm great javelin fields. For the women competition a Daegu rematch
between Russian world champion Mariya Abakumova and home star and world record
holder Barbora Spotakova. „”It has been always a pleasure competing in
Czech republic. I am glad I may come to Ostrava this year, where I am
always lucky,” said Abakumova who so far in Ostrava always beat Spotakova.
Men´s field will have not only Jan Zelezny training group but also Norway´s
olympic winner Andreas Thorkildsen and last year Ostrava winner and later World
Champion Matthias De Zordo of Germany. „I am very much looking forward to come
to Ostrava, especially as I had to cancel last year. The Golden Spike will
be my second meet of the year and I am sure all throwers will do their
best to please the crowd and the Meet Director and world recordholder,” said
Thorkildsen for the organisers.

YELENA
THINKS 510

MONACO
(MON): Yelena Isinbaeva again confirmed what she said earlier, she wants to
compete only in 2012 and 2013 and then retire. Speaking in an interview with
Laureus.com in Monaco, where she lives and trains, Isinbayeva said: “In London,
my main competitors will be myself, because I know how high I can
jump and I know that height is almost impossible for my rivals. I am
not worrying about the Olympics. I am confident because I know that
right now everything is fine in my life.” Her current outdoors world record is
5.06 meters, so how high can she go to win the gold medal? She said: “My coach
says that my potential is 5.10 and higher, so that right now and with my
present preparation, I am able to jump 5.10.” In the interview, the
two-time winner of the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award also said
that before the retirement  she hopes to
break Sergey Bubka’s record of 35 world records before then. She has currently
set 30 world records herself.

PLS
TO OPEN IN GUADELOUPE

EDMONTON
(CAN): The women’s 100 m hurdles will be one of the most anticipated races at
the Donovan Bailey Invitational in Edmonton on June 16. The addition of
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep has made it the main event. In the race also other
Canadian hurdles olympic hopefuls Perdita Felicien, Nikkita Holder, Phylicia
George and Angela Whyte. „I’m very 
excited to compete in front of a home crowd that has meant so much
to me over my career. The people of Edmonton will be in for a real treat
with great fields and excellent performances,” said Lopes-Schliep. “The
organizing committee is working hard to ensure world class fields across the
board.” Lopes-Schliep who has competed in just one race since giving birth to
her daughter in September 2011 will open her season on May 1 in Guadeloupe .

HAILE
FOR MANCHESTER

MANCHESTER
(GBR): Running legend Haile Gebrselassie still in great shape although no
longer intending to represent Ethiopia in this summer’s Olympic Marathon will
bid for a fifth win in next month’s Bupa Great Manchester Run. As he said
right after Vienna City Half Marathon he acknowledges Manchester’s 10
kilometers course one of the fastest in the world. „That was a good
victory for me and considering I was running on my own for virtually the
whole race my time was good,” said Gebrselassie who passed Radcliffe after 15.3
kilometers and finished in a time of 60 minutes 52 seconds. The Bupa Great
Manchester Run which will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary after being first
staged in 2003 as a legacy to the City’s magnificent hosting of the
previous year’s Commonwealth Games, has accepted a record 40,000 entries
for this year’s race. Mara Yamauchi who has already been named to represent
Team GB in the London Olympic Marathon will be joined by several other top
Britons in the women’s race including 20-year-old Charlotte Purdue who
returning from injury narrowly failed to defend her title in last Sunday’s SPAR
Great Ireland Run.

OTHER NEWS

BRUSSELS
(BEL) : Belgian national team member Kevin Rans had ended his career as a pole
vaulter. Rans managed to reach the final of the 2005 and 2009 IAAF world
championships and is national record holder with a jump of 570 (indoor and
outdoor). Rans had tested positive for cortisone at the Turin European indoor
championships but later managed to proof his innocence. Rans told Belgian media
he has never been able to recover from the false doping accusation and is now
officially ending his athletics career.

PARIS
(FRA): The French athletics association has announced its selection for the
IAAF World race walking cup in Russia’s city Saransk on May 12th and 13th.
Yohan Diniz will lead the men’s team when competing in the 20km. Sylwia
Korzeniowska leads the women’s team in the 20km race.

BERLIN
(GER): German athletics is welcoming a new, completely mobile structure
that combines both a pole vault pit with a long jump area. The
concept is based on the Austrian popular street meeting ‘Golden roof challenge’
and will allow several German cities to host similar events. So far Munich
(June 5th) and Koln (June 24th) will use the IAAF certified structure to host a street
event.

LONDON
(GBR): More than 200 Pre-Games Training Camp agreements across Britain,
representing 93 countries, have been signed for the London 2012 Olympics and
Paralympics, Sebastian Coe has revealed according to Insidethegames. The camps
are arranged through formal agreements between facilities in the UK and
National Olympic and Paralympic Committees (NOC/ NPC) and international teams.

LONDON
(GBR): Latest Pat Butcher´s blog at www.globerunner.org:
Coe & Ovett Book Reissued, Film Delayed.

ISTANBUL
(TUR): The Turkish Football Federation confirmed that it had submitted a bid
to UEFA to host football’s 2020 European Championship, leaving a fresh
question mark over Istanbul’s bid to stage the Olympics and Paralympics in the
same year.

RESULTS

DUNCANVILLE
(USA, Apr 12): Fastest 400 m by a US High School Athlete this year was the
46.18 by Aldrich Bailey, his personal best.