by Larry Eder
Top hurdlers at Athletissima
Athletissima is planning for Thursday top sprints but also the 110 m hurdles is promising something very special. In Athletissima history already once world record was broken. In 2006 Liu Xiang clocked 12.88, still the second fastest ever time. This year all olympic medalists will run and specially in-shape Aries Merritt well rested in his first race since olympic win. Also Jason Richardson and Jamaican promise for the future Hansle Parchment. In the field also European champion Sergey Shubenkov who runs fast after the Games and US David Oliver who last week improved his season best in France to 13.07. Not missing in the field third US Olympian Jeff Porter. The best healthy ones are in this race as Liu Xiang and Dayron Robles are not running due to injuries or even subsequent surgeries as in the Chinese case.
OTHER NEWS
LONDON (GBR) : Virgin Media has landed Olympic star Mo Farah to front a new ad campaign. The 5,000 and 10,000 metres champion from London 2012 sports a blond goatee beard – similar to that worn by Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson – in a print and advertising campaign launched across a number of national newspapers. The Team GB ace joins film and television stars Stephen Fry, David Tennant, Samuel L Jackson and Uma Thurman in appearing in adverts for Virgin Media. Usain Bolt, will also return to television screens to promote Virgin products reports Insidethegames.
LONDON (GBR): YouTube, which streamed the IOC feed of London 2012 in 65 nations and provided streaming services for NBC in the United States, registered more than 231 million streams in total, the company has announced. At its peak YouTube provided more than 500,000 live streams at the same time. In the US alone, online coverage from NBCOlympics.com was also viewed more than 159 million total streams according to Insidethegames.
LONDON (GBR): Athletics clubs have been “inundated” with enquiries from young people wanting to take up sport since Team GB came third in the Olympics medal table. Over the weekend an estimated 250,000 people turned up at open days at 6,000 sports events across Britain. Bill Adcocks, secretary of the Coventry Godiva Harriers athletics club, said that for the first time in the club’s 133-year history it has had to introduce a waiting list for young athletes reports The Guardian.
EUGENE (USA): American distance runner German Fernandez confirmed he has signed a professional contract with Nike and will train near Nike headquarters in Portland to be coached by Jerry Schumacher reports modbee.com.
KINGSTON (JAM): Fitzalbert Coleman, the man behind the success of Jamaican sprint hurdler Hansle Parchment, says he is not surprised the 22 year-old won a historic bronze at the Olympic Games in London and says he can run much faster. Parchment’s medal was the first for a Jamaican male sprint hurdler at the Olympics. Since his groundbreaking run, Parchment has signed a professional contract with German sports goods company Puma writes The Jamaica Observer.
MELBOURNE (AUS): Sally Pearson’s agent Robert Joske confirmed he is working on commercializing Pearson’s recent Olympic success. Joske told The Herald Sun there are commercial deals in place with Acer, Mitsubishi and AMP. Coles, Qantas and Omega also are in the stable, while the big one is global sportswear giant adidas. They will seek to renew contracts rather than find new sponsors.
LAUSANNE (SUI): Russian javelin thrower Maria Abakumova told European Athletics she is still in shock about not winning an Olympic medal in London. Abakumova cannot explain why she underperformed so heavily when her training was going very well. The only thing that can lift the gloom is Abakumova’s forthcoming marriage to her fellow javelin thrower, Dmitriy Tarabin, due to take place in October while adding she has yet to pick up a javelin since returning from London.
LAUSANNE (SUI): European Athletics announced that Russian duo of high jumper Ivan Ukhov and hurdler Natalya Antyukh have been voted as the European Athletes of the Month for July. Double European 100m champion Christophe Lemaitre clocked a European-leading 200m time of 19.91 at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in London on 14 July, and for his superb run the Frenchman was voted second in the men’s poll. The British sprint prodigy Adam Gemili ran a national junior record and championships record of 10.05 at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona and was voted third behind Lemaitre. Incidentally Gemili’s 10.05 is the second fastest time ever by a European junior after Lemaitre’s 10.04 the Frenchman ran at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Novi Sad in 2009. Former European 3000m steeplechase champion and reigning world champion Yuliya Zaripova of Russia, who ran a European season-leading time of 9:09:99 at the National Championships in Cheboksary, was voted second ahead of Turkish 100m hurdler Nevin Yanit.
AMSTERDAM (NED): Peter Kirui will be at the start of the TCS Amsterdam Marathon on Sunday, 21 October, but it won’t be as a pace setter. Informs IAAF. He helped Patrick Makau break the World record (2:03:38) in Berlin last year. His personal record in the Marathon is 2:06:31, when he acted as pacer for Wilson Kipsang last fall in Frankfurt where he finished sixth. The promising 24-year-old Kenyan is now focusing on his own fast time in Amsterdam, an IAAF Silver Label Road Race. The enthusiasm for the race is once again on a high this year with remarkable growth expected in the event. Organiser Le Champion expects 37,000 runners at the start of the various distances on 21 October. The expectation is that 12,000 participants will take part in the Marathon, an increase on previous years.
NAIROBI (KEN): Starafrica.com informs that the Government and Athletics Kenya (AK) have been asked to put in place measures of restricting foreign athletes training in Kenya. Team Kenya athletics head coach Julius Kirwa said this will protect the country’s runners from learning Kenya’s tactics. Kirwa said some of the gold medals Kenyas lost were clinched by athletes who have been training in Kenya ahead of the olympics.
RESULTS
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA, Aug 19): The 16th Ro Half Marathon saw the fastest ever women half marathon in South America by Kenyan Pasalia Kipkoech Chepkorir in 1:07:17. Second Eunice Kirwa 1:09:52. Best male was Wilson Loyanae in 1:01:46 ahead of Mark Korir 1:01:48. From RRW.
PITTSBURGH (USA, Aug 17): Craig Miller in 3:58.4 and Heather Kampf 4:35.8 got victories at the inaugural edition here of road mile. From RRW.
AMATRICE (ITA, Aug 19): Kenyan William Kibor won the 35th Amatrice-Configno 8.5 km road race in 24:57 in close finish over Zelalem Regasa also 24:57. Viktoriya Pohyrelskaya of Ukraine beat in 29:05 Kenyan Hellen Jepkurgat 29:07. From RRW.
MEDELLIN (COL, Aug 18-19): At Colombian U23 Championships Bernardo Valoyes clocked impressive national junior record 46.07 in the 400 m and then even continental top mark 20.48 (0.0) in the 200
