Grand Stade de Marrekech, courtesy of Marrakech2014

The Continental Cup is a great idea: Four continental teams, representing the best in the world, two athletes per team, per event, for team pride, individual pride, and oh, and about $2.9 million in prize money.

MARRAKECH NEWS

MARRAKECH (MAR): Team captains are Gloria Asumnu and Chris Harmse for Africa, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Bernard Lagat for Americas, Jo Pavey with Renaud Lavillenie for Europe and Valerie Adams with Dilshod Nazarov for Asia-Pacific teams.

MARRAKECH (MAR): French Christophe Lemaitre will be the anchor for European 4×100 m team. Before him three Brits will run (Ellington, Aikines-Aryeetey and Kilty).

MARRAKECH (MAR): IAAF President Lamine Diack has been involved in the World/Continental Cup since its first event in 1977, and he feels sad that this weekend’s edition will be his last as IAAF President. He is happy that there are two good candidates in Bydgoszcz (Poland) and Ostrava (Czech Republic) for the 2018 edition, and he aims to attend the event as a spectator.

MARRAKECH (MAR): Abbdelsaalem Ahizoune, President of the Royal Moroccan Athletics Federation and head of the Marrakech 2014 LOC, said that he expects good attendance at the two day meet, despite the poor spectator figures at the recent African Championships. “For this Cup I am expecting a good attendance. For the African Championships (in August) there were some problems attracting the public, it was the holiday season and athletics is not football. However, this event has a higher profile.” Marrakech’s Grande Stade has a capacity of 41,325. Inform IAAF.

MARRAKECH (MAR): Three of the last four men to hold the 800m world record in the 800m have competed at the World/Continental Cup. Wilson Kipketer is the odd one out, having missed the 1998 World Cup after finishing last in the European Championships after falling ill with malaria. Now, the 43 year old is present in Marrakech as an IAAF ambassador for the IAAF’s ‘Athletics for a Better World’ programme. Asked what events he is particularly looking forward to over the weekend, he said the men’s high jump, the men’s pole vault and, of course, the 800m.

MARRAKECH (MAR): World and Olympic high jump bronze medallist and 240 performer Derek Drouin was a front row spectator in Brussels as Bohdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Essa Barshim attempted to break the world record. He admits that he was surprised that the record didn’t fall on that day. “(Brussels) was definitely the first time that I thought there was a very real possibility that we were going to see a world record. I think in previous meets when Barshim and Bondarenko were trying for the world record, their timing was a little off and they didn’t find the same form they had early on. But Barshim was really on that day. That was the best that I had ever seen him. I was a little bit surprised to not have seen the world record.”

MARRAKECH (MAR): French pole vault star Renaud Lavillenie would be happy to end his season on a high note on Sunday in Marrakech. It will be his last competition this year, no more Club League or decathlon. Next weekend he will take part at Le Mans motocycling competition. He still wants to attack the 6 meters on Sunday and hopes for good weather. His world lead from Brussels is 593. Last time he ended the season on a similar note was in 2011 with 590.

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys.

Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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