Ostrava, Hengelo, Roma, Eugene: a week of amazing athletics! by Alfons Juck,note by Larry Eder

BOLT EXPECTS TO RUN FAST
OSTRAVA
(CZE): Triple Olympic champion from Beijing 2008 Jamaican top sprinter
Usain Bolt had his press conference in Ostrava. The biggest star of 2012
Ostrava Golden Spike received his start number. “I have to work as well
as before Beijing, I have to stay focused. I´m glad I continue well in
the preparation, my coach is also satisfied. I expect to run fast,
continue the way I started the season. I hope the weather will be as
nice as this, I have never seen such a sunny weather in Ostrava. I
remember bad weather, perfect fans, and the all the photographers
shooting all the time. It is going to be a very good season. I´m never
worried about others, as long I´m in a good shape. But it is good for
the sport.”

AK TO INVESTIGATE
NAIROBI
(KENA): Athletics Kenya has defended the country’s athletes against
doping allegations made by German national broadcaster ARD and said on
Wednesday it would investigate the claims. Last weekend’s “Sportschau”
program, under the headline ‘Kenyan runners under doping suspicion’,
claimed widespread abuse of banned substances by some of Kenya’s elite
runners. Writes Reuters.

TOP HAMMER THROWING
OSTRAVA
(CZE): Both hammer competitions, part of the IAAF Hammer Throw
Challenge, will be held in Ostrava on Thursday. Specially women one will
have a stellar field with world record holder Betty Heidler, 2009 world
champ Anita Wlodarczyk and former world champ Yipsi Moreno. Among men,
Krisztián Pars of Hungary will try to break meet record and world
leading mark. 51st Ostrava Golden Spike will be broadcast to more than
150 countries all over the world. Mainly to mention live transmissions
by Eurosport, Al Jazeera, Fox Sports in Australia, ESPN Star in Asia,
CCTV 5 in China, Band Sports in Brazil, Sport Plus of France, PCTV in
Mexico, Sportmax in Caribbean region, Supersport in South Africa, TV4
Sport in Sweden and Sport TV stations in Portugal and Turkey. TBS of
Japan will show the meet delayed. Follow the meet website www.zlatatretra.cz with all the latest infos, including video-interviews.

OTHER NEWS

NEW
YORK (USA): Tirunesh Dibaba, the defending Olympic gold medalist at
5000m and 10,000m, and American middle distance ace Robby Andrews have
both been added to the adidas Grand Prix elite fields, according to a
statement released yesterday by the meet’s organizers. Ethiopia’s Dibaba
will run the 5000m at the June 9th meeting, the same event at which she
holds the current world record at 14:11.15.

EUGENE (USA): World champions Brittney Reese and Christian
Taylor are the latest jumping stars for the 38th annual Prefontaine
Classic on June 2 in Eugene. In women field also reigning olympic winner
Maurren Maggi, European champion Ineta Radevica, Briton Shara Proctor.
In men´s triple Will Claye the world indoor champion should be the main
rival with Cubans Alexis Copello and David Girat.

QUEBEC CITY (CAN): Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo were today put
on the shortlist to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics as Baku and
Doha were axed. Informs insidethegames.

HENGELO
(NED) : European 800m silver medalist Yvonne Hak cancelled her
participation at the FBK-Games on May 27th because of pain in her
Achilles tendon. Hak confirmed there is an inflammation of the Achilles
tendon but explained she is still in the running for Olympic
qualification according to RTV NoordHolland.

AMSTERDAM (NED): Dutch sprinter Churandy Martina confirmed he
will compete at this year’s European championships in Helsinki but is
undecided about the event. Martina, who arrived in The Netherlands for
the FBK-Games, will compete for his new country in both Helsinki and
London.

BRUSSELS (BEL): Olympic winner Tia Hellebaut believes she is
now in much better shape than this winter and told Belgian media she is
excited about competing this summer. Hellebaut said she is stronger and
fitter but is still lacking competition to be in top shape. She will
start her Olympic campaign at the IAAF World challenge meeting of Rabat.

BERLIN (GER): German hurlder Carolyn Nytra has canceled her
first competitive appearances of the season. Nytra was set to start her
Olympic campaign at the IAAF World challenge meeting of Ostrava and the
Pfingstsportfest in Rehlingen but has withdrawn with a minor muscle
injury reports leichtathletik.de.

LONDON (GBR): Usain Bolt now has his own dedicated watch made
by Hublot. The watch, called the King Power Usain Bolt, has a gold
bracelet and holds the logo of Usain Bolt.

NEW YORK
(USA): 1500m runner Leo Manzano told USA Today he has had what he calls
his “best training in a very long time.” Manzano will face two of the
USA’s top 1,500 runners at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York on June 9.
Lagat, a two-time Olympic medalist in the event, and Matthew Centrowitz,
who won bronze at last year’s world championships, are scheduled to
race. Then Manzano will compete in the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene.

QUEBEC CITY (USA): International and U.S. Olympic leaders are
close to finalizing a deal to settle the long-running financial dispute
that has soured relations and undermined recent American bids for the
games, a senior official said to ESPN. The International Olympic
Committee and U.S. Olympic Committee are nearing agreement on a new
revenue-sharing deal that would clear the way for U.S. cities to bid
again for future games, IOC executive board member Denis Oswald told The
Associated Press.

LAUSANNE (SUI): The race to host the 2020 Summer Olympics
reached the first hurdle with five cities trying to avoid being dropped
from the bidding marathon by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Istanbul, Madrid, Tokyo, Doha and Azerbaijan’s Baku will try to convince
an evaluation committee they are ready to stage the world’s biggest
sporting spectacle and remain in the high stakes runoff that will not
conclude until September 2013 when the IOC will vote on a host in Buenos
Aires reports Reuters.

LONDON (GBR): The high volume of drugs tests to be conducted
at London 2012 provides no guarantee that cheats will not win medals,
according to a blood doping expert. Much has been made of the level of
testing planned for this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics, with around
6,000 samples set to be analysed, more than at any previous Games.nYet
Professor Carsten Lundby (pictured below) of the Zurich Centre for
Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP), has told insidethegames that he
thinks it “unlikely” that doped athletes will not claim medals.”I do not
think that the large number of tests conducted during the Games is a
valid guarantee that a doped athlete will not win a medal,” Lundby said.

ISTANBUL (TUR): Istanbul is still on target to host the 2020
Olympics and Paralympics, insisting that staging the event is still more
important to Turkey than football’s European Championships reports
Insidethegames. The country’s financial capital remain many people’s
favourites for the Olympics but have seen their candidature undermined
by the Turkish Football Federation’s decision to submit a bid for the
European Championships in the same year.

MONTE CARLO (MON): The IAAF and the Diamond League AG anounced
the 2013 Meeting Calendar for the Samsung Diamond League, the premier
series of invitational track and field meetings in the world. The 2013
season will be composed of 14 meetings taking place from May to
September across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA.

BRISBANE (AUS): The Australian and Oceania long jump record
holder Mitchell Watt is ready for his first hit-out since winning the
Samsung Diamond League in Zurich (SUI) last September, and will compete
at Meet 2 of the Queensland Athletics Winter Series. The Gold Coast
International Athletics Track on May 26th is Watt’s last home
competition before traveling overseas announces athletics.au.

ALBANY (USA): Two historic all-women’s road races, held on the
same weekend next month 6800 kilometers apart and on different
continents, boast top-notch fields. In Albany, N.Y., the capital of New
York State about 240 kilometers north of New York City, the 34th
Freihofer’s Run for Women will be held on Saturday, June 2. Organizers
announced yesterday that the IAAF Silver Label road race will feature a
diverse and strong international field led by Kenyans Joyce Chepkirui
and Emily Chebet, Ethiopian Mamitu Daska, and Australian Benita Willis.
In Vienna, Austria, on the following day, the 25th Vienna Women’s Run
will take place. A record 30,100 women have signed up for both the 5-K
and 10-K events, and a trio of top athletes will lead the invited field
for the 5-K: Portugal’s Ana Dulce Félix, Latvia’s Jelena Prokopcuka, and
Hungary’s Krisztina Papp. Informs Race Results Weekly.

RESULTS

RECKLINGHAUSEN
(GER, May 23): Bjorn Otto cleared at square jumping here world leading
583 in the pole vault. In women competition a tie for Norways Cathrine
Larsasen and Belgian record holder Fanny Smets with 430. World medalist
Martina Strutz did not jump because of achilles worries.

ZIELONA GORA (POL, May 23): Wojciech Praczyk improved here the
national junior record with 1.75 kg implement in discus to 63.22 m.

KOBLENZ
(GER, May 23): Maren Kock clocked 15:27.65 Helsinki standard in the
women 5000 m at the meet here. Second Simret Restle-Apel also with
15:28.71 as second.