2 SPRINTERS, 2 RUNNERS, 1 THROWER

MONTE CARLO (MON): IAAF announced male
finalists for the 2010 World Athlete of the Year award. Following a three-week
poll which combined online votes from track and field fans around the world on the
one hand and email votes from the recognized IAAF Family on the other hand in
the top five are US sprinter Tyson Gay, hurdler David Oliver, 800 m world record holder
David Rudisha, Eritrean World half marathon record holder Zersenay Tadese and
as only European the javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen. The winners of the
2010 World Athlete of the Year Awards will be announced live, on stage, during
the 2010 World Athletics Gala, which will take place in Monaco, on 21
November. Women finalists will be announced on Wednesday.

EUROPE IS
UNITED

LISBON (POR): The continent’s best athletes
will compete at the 2012 European Athletics Championships following a renewed
and unanimous commitment from all 50 of European Athletics’ Member Federations.
Leaders of the national federations from across Europe gave their full support
to the 2012 Championships, which will take place in Helsinki
between 27 June and 1 July, at the recent European Athletics Convention held in
Belgrade.
Informs European Athletics.

OTHER NEWS

LONDON (GBR): Media are
speculating that Haile Gebrselassie could reverse his decision to retire from
competitive racing once the high emotion of his dramatic New York exit have
subsided, according to close confidants of the Ethiopian. Informs Daily Telegraph.
Many observers are thinking it could be the case that the retirement will be
changed. Olympic winner Samuel Wanjiru said for universalsports he will miss
Haile but plans to attack his world record. “I have to go to Berlin
to do it,” said Wanjiru, who has won on flat courses in London
and Chicago but
came nowhere near the record in doing so. “Berlin
is a very fast, very flat course, better than London
or Chicago. It
is also where Haile broke the record. Next year, if I get in good training I
say let’s try to go to Berlin
and maybe try to break the record.”

AMSTERDAM (NED): Yvonne Wisse-Van Langen
confirms in an interview with Losseveter.nl that she is training for a
comeback. The Dutch heptathlete injured her knee while competing in Gotzis
earlier this year and was forced to use crutches for 8 weeks following surgery.
Van Langen anticipates to return to competition for the 2011 outdoor season,
while her main goal is to compete at the 2012 Olympic Games.

NEW YORK (USA): Swiss European
marathon champion Viktor Rothlin who did not finish on Sunday the NYC Marathon
said for Swiss media his next target will be London Marathon in April next
year.

LONDON (GBR): Allyson Felix has stated for
the BBC that the current world records are out of reach and suggested it is
worth looking into the possibility of scrapping certain world records in
women’s athletics.

KINGSTON (JAM): Jamaican coach Stephen
Francis has been issued with a strong reprimand by the Jamaican Amateur
Athletics Federation writes trackalerts.com. Francis admitted and apologized
for his involvement in giving his athlete Shelly-An Fraser a painkiller which
was followed by a positive test result of the athlete.

RIO
DE JANAIRO (BRA): Following an attempted
robbery on Formula one driver Jens Button a Brazilian official has confirmed
there is still a lot to improve to secure the security of athletes during the
2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio De Janeiro. Brazil usually doesn’t suffer from
terrorist threats but street crime is a heavy problem in the country. The IOC
has stated it has confidence that the Brazilian government will provide a
secure and safe Games in 2016 Universal sports writes.

LONDON (GBR): Paula Radcliffe
confirmed she was back in training only one week after giving birth to her son
Raphael. Radcliffe went through a traumatic labour where Raphael had to be
resuscitated after the umbilical court was wrapped around his neck. In Hello!
Magazine Radcliffe was quoted “I probably had a week completely off. I started
doing a bit of cross training, walking and pelvic floor exercises, things like
that. I’m hoping to do some running by Christmas and be back to doing normal
training in January.”

NAIROBI (KEN): Olympic 800 m gold medalist Pamela
Jelimo confirmed she believes she can make a strong comeback after career
threatening injuries pulled her down for the last two years. Jelimo will
restart by running a couple of cross country races to how she performs in
endurance, china.org.cn writes in an elaborate interview on the athlete. Jelimo
also was quoted that she draws inspiration from athletes such as Sanya Richards
and Kenenisa Bekele who have also coming back from injuries.

KINGSTON (JAM): TrackAlerts writes there are
growing concerns that a number of major track and field events for next year
could be jeopardised because of the state of the track inside the National
Stadium. The May 7 International Invitational meet, which has been upgraded to
IAAF World Challenge long with Boys and Girls Champs as well as the Gibson
Relays are among the events which could be affected. The upgrading work on the
track and that of Stadium East, the warm-up area, was scheduled to begin in
February after the Government was reported to have secured US one million
dollars from the Singapore.
This was later rescheduled to July of this year after Jamaica’s National Championships.

KYIV (UKR): Top Ukrainian
female combined eventers, olympic gold medalist Natalya Dobrynska and Lyudmyla
Yosypenko are unlikely to compete at the European Athletics Indoor Championships
in Paris.
Writes Ukrainian federaiton website. They will be invited by EA based on their
positions in the 2010 lists. Also not competing mainly in women pentathlon are
expected Jessica Ennis and Jennifer Oeser.

VIENNA (AUT): Marathon runner
and Mountain running world champion Andrea Mayr was 9th in the Austrian
Sportswoman of the Year vote what is a great result considering all other
sports.

RIO DE
JANEIRO (BRA): IMG Worldwide, the sports and entertainment force
active also in athletics, has formed a joint venture with the Brazilian EBX
Group to develop sports businesses in Brazil, the latest in a series of
moves by IMG to push into the world’s fastest-growing economies. Writes New
York Times.

NEW YORK
(USA):
Two more interesting results from NYC marathon from tennis department. In her
debut Amélie Mauresmo, 31, who retired last year, ran 3:40:20. She finished
ahead Roland-Garros 1983 winner Yannick Noah, 50, who clocked 4:01:38.

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