by Larry Eder
World Champions Allyson Felix & Kerron Clement are on US team in Doha, here to run in the women’s and men’s 4 x 400m!
DOHA NEWS
TV: Starting on Friday and for a three-day action packed weekend the IAAF will offer extensive coverage of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar. Live coverage will include event by event reports, live results, live radio, live competition blog, action images and live and VOD broadcast (available in certain countries only) thanks to the latest broadcasting agreement for complete coverage of the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, on 12-14 March.
GREAT BRITAIN: Dwain Chambers career appears to have steered a full circle and is now looking more positive compared to two years ago when he was controversially chosen for the World Indoor Championships in Valencia. Chambers in a change of fortune will travel to this weekend‘s championships in Doha with the full support of UK Athletics behind him in his challenge to fetch home the 60 meters gold medal. That wasn‘t the case in 2008 when his relationship with UKA was at its lowest ebb since returning to the sport for a second time following a two years suspension after testing positive for the steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) five years earlier. Writes David Martin.
RUSSIA: The captain of Russian Team was named Pole Vaulter Svetlana Feofanova. That happened at a team meeting in Doha. Her team-mate in pole vault Yelena Isinbayeva said at the official press conference that her main goal is to jump a world record here.
IRELAND: David Gillick after recently equaling his Irish 400 meters record and having seen himself thrust into the limelight as a possible gold medallist is upbeat about his chances at this weekend‘s World Indoor Championships in Doha. „The indoor season wasn‘t a goal for the year, all my training is geared for the outdoor season,“ said Gillick who shares the same coach Nick Dakin as British Number One Martyn Rooney at Loughborough High Performance Centre. Gillick stressed despite the lure of the US$40,000 winner‘s purse that after being the first European finisher when sixth at last summer‘s World Championships in Berlin, his outdoor campaign remains top priority.
USA: Two Berlin world champions came to Doha to run only in relay. Allyson Felix and Kerron Clement supervised by Bobby Kersee had their training on Thursday in Aspire Dome. “The Russians have always done well in the World Indoor Championships and this time too it will be a tough battle against them. Hopefully this time we can put together a good performance (and win),†Felix told The Peninsula in an exclusive interview. Felix also said that she wants to concentrate more on running 400m races this season.
BELGIUM: Belgium remains for the relay only with four runners (Nils Durinck, Antoine Gillet, Kevin Borlee and Jonathan Borlee) after Arnaud Ghislain got an injury.
OTHER NEWS
AMSTERDAM (NED): Former European CC gold medalist Hilda Kibet will be the only Netherland´s representative at World CC Championships later this month in Bydgoszcz.
STOCKHOLM (SWE): Folksam Challenge Series in Sweden will consist in 2010 of three meetings. Savedalen on June 6, Eskilstuna on June 8 and Malmo on August 3.
FRANKFURT (GER): European indoor high jump champion Ariane Friedrich will not need an surgery at her injured knee. That was announced by her doctors. She just needs two weeks of rest and then plans to return to training.
LUGANO (SUI): The annual Lugano European Athletics Race Walking will kick off on sunday March 14th. Tatyana Korotkova from Russia is the main favorite in the women‘s 20 km event with a PB of 1:27.35 followed by Portugese Ana Cabecinha (1:27.46) and Chinese Yanfei Li (1:28.57). Last PB to stay under 1:30 is Russians Olga Povalyayeva (1:29.58). The men are headed by Andrei Talashka from Belarus who holds a PB of 1:19.12. Second on the list is Irish Robert Heffernan (1:19.22) followed by Ivan Trotski from Belarus (1:19.40) and Aleksandr Yargunkin from Russia (1:19.57).
DOHA (QAT): IAAF confirmed at press conference in Doha that there is no further progress in Caster Semenya case. „The IAAF and Caster Semenya‘s representatives are still in discussions with a view to resolving the issues surrounding her participation in athletics,“ said Nick Davies, the IAAF communications director. „As a result no further comments will be made on this subject by the IAAF until further notice.“
ABU DHABI (UAE): 400 m world champion Sanya Richards said for Runners World that : Yes, we’ve been honeymooning, but we must be the only couple that’s worked out every day on our honeymoon. Both Aaron and I have trained every day that we’ve been here. The first couple of days, we got to run on the beach. We had a beautiful hotel in Abu Dhabi. We lifted weights in the weight room. We went to the desert for the next few days, and we didn’t run there, but I did get to run on the treadmill and I did my lifts and my core and all that stuff so I’ve still been training every day. Coach Hart just told me not to lose anything over this 10-day period, but I had been training hard prior to it, so as soon as I get back out it will be at a very high level.†She plans opening race at Texas Relays in Austin in 4×400 m and maybe 4×100 m. For individual opener Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco and she is signed to IAAF Diamond League to start on May 14 in Doha where she will compete. Richards admitted she might travel to Doha to see the competition.
MELBOURNE (AUS): Double olympic medallist Jared Tallent and former world champion and world record-holder Nathan Deakes will lead an 18-strong Australian team into action at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Chihuahua, Mexico, in May. Tallent will be joined over the senior men’s 50km course by a resurgent Nathan Deakes, who made his return to competition in Hobart last month following a serious hamstring injury that forced him out of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and 2009 world championships. In Chihuahua Deakes will contest his first major race on international soil since taking out the 50km world title in Osaka (JPN) in 2007. Tallent and Deakes will share the start line at the May 15-16 meet with two-time Olympic, four-time world championships and five-time World Race Walking Cup representative Luke Adams, fellow Olympic, world championships and World Race Walking Cup representative Chris Erickson and 2009 World University Games contender Tom Barnes. Flying the flag for Australia in the senior men’s 20km event will be Australian Flame athlete Adam Rutter and 2009 World University Games representative Ian Rayson. The senior women’s 20km team will be fronted by Australian Flame athletes Jessica Rothwell,Claire Tallent and Cheryl Webb, the world championships trio to be joined on the start line by Beijing Olympian Kellie Wapshott and 2009 World University Games representative Jillian Hosking. Writes Athletics Australia.
ROME (ITA): Elisa Riguado, Beijing Olympic bronze medalist in the 20 km walking, will take a break from training as she has announced her pregnancy. Riguado is over the moon with the news: „When I received confirmation of my pregnancy I was on cloud nine, I think for a woman to bring a child into the world is the greatest thing. For me it‘s another dream come true. I always wanted to have a family and this was the right year to do it“ Riguado was quoted. She will go back to training as soon as possible after the pregnancy and has her aim set at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics.
RESULTS
NANJING (CHN, Mar 11): Chinese Su Xionfeng leaped to sensational 827 in long jump during second day of National Indoor GP Meet. It is not only 2010 world lead but also Asian indoor record. He was 4th at last National Games in 2009 and his previous best was 808 outdoors in 2008.
OOSTENDE (BEL): Kenya was on top of the world at the Military World Championships Cross Country in Oostende, Belgium. The Kenyan women participated in this event for the first time in history and swept away all the medals in the 4,5 km race. Nancy Chebet crossed the line first (14:22) followed by Veronica Nyaruai (14:36) and Mercy Njoroge (14:53). German Sabrina Mockenhaupt was fourth and first European (14:58). In the men‘s 11,5 km long race all medals went to Kenya again with first place Josephat Menjo (33:34) before Vincent Kiprop (33:41) and Kimutai Kiplimo (33:50). In the short race at 4.5 km the Kenyan hegemony was broken by Italian Andrea Lalli (13:08) before Algerian Mounir Miout (13:10) and Moroccan Abdelkader Hachlaf (13:12). In the team rankings Kenya was clear number one.
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Championships in Doha, please bookmark: http://runningnetwork.com/RNW/index.php/features/featured-events/615-iaaf-world-indoor-championships
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