by Larry EderCongratulations to Stephanie Hightower and Ian Stewart, who were married in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, December 28. Stephanie Hightower is the President of USA Track & Field, and former elite hurdler (ranked #1 US, 1980-81) and Ian Stewart is head of UK Athletics endurance program and manager for fields of the AVIVA series in the UK, as well as bronze Olympic medalist (5,000 meters). In 1975, Stewart won the World Cross Country title, ten days after winning the European Indoor champs title at 3,000 meters, a feat not repeated in UK athletics.
EME NEWS (DEC 29, 2010)
LEMAITRE FOR HIS INTERNATIONAL MEETING INDOOR DEBUT
(FRA): Top European Athlete of 2010 French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre
will have as main goal for the coming indoor season the European Indoor
Championships in his home country early March. Interestingly he only
twice so far competed indoors outside of France. In 2008 at junior match
with Germany in Halle and in 2009 at European Indoor Championships in
Torino (made it to the semifinals). His non-France international meeting
debut is expected for February 5 in Stuttgart at the Sparkassen Cup
meet. His 60 m best is 6.55 from last winter.
LOPES-SCHLIEP FOR LIEVIN
LIEVIN
(FRA): World´s number one hurdler in 2010 Canadian Priscilla
Lopes-Schliep confirmed her participation at Lievin IAAF Indoor Permit
meet on February 8. The meet director added a hurdles race which fills a
gap for Lopes-Schliep in her European plans.
BOLT IN 2010
KINGSTON
(JAM): TrackAlerts tries to summarize the year 2010 for Usain Bolt. He
continued to break records in 2010 – the off year for track and field.
It was the year he renewed his contract with PUMA; added Hublot to his
list of sponsors and electrified track and field fans at the 116th
renewal of the Penn Relays in April. Also in 2010 he penned his
illustrated autobiography, unveiled the Berlin Wall in Kingston and
helped to re-open the Sherwood Content Health Centre; while Facebook
fans passed three millions fans. He also partnered with KLE to launch
Usain Bolt Tracks and Records. The announcement by PUMA in August
reached 14,090,653,162 people with 419 articles across 28 countries. The
estimated advertising spend would have been equivalent to over €2
billion. Bolt also shot a few commercials and did photo shoots to honour
his commitments during the year. He tried to break the 300 m world best
in rainy Ostrava and ended with low-altitude top ever mark 30.97.
OTHER NEWS
KINGSTON
(JAM) : Less than four months ahead of the 2011 Carifta Games there is
still no venue confirmed reports Trackalerts. Originally St. Kitts and
Nevis was awarded the Games but they withdrew due to a lack of
government commitment. Jamaica declined the offer to host the Games
while the Bahamas has expressed interest but is worried about the
financial obligations of taking on the Games just a few months before
its start.
LONDON
(GBR): London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton has called their
ticketing strategy a huge success after two million people have
pre-registered to buy a ticket for the London Olympic and Paralympic
Games. Deighton expects another 500,000 people to pre-register before
the 8,8 million tickets go on sale in March writes Morethanthegames.co.uk.
RIO DE
JANEIRO (BRA): The 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizing
committee will unveil its logo at a New Year’s eve party on the
Copacabana beach. Two million people are expected to attend the beach
party, where IOC President Jacques Rogge will be a guest of honour. A
total of 139 firms presented bids for the logo of the 2016 Olympics.
Eight were chosen as finalists, but the winner and the design remain a
secret until New Year’s eve writes monstersandcritics.com.
LONDON
(GBR): Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May has promised that Government
spending cuts will not lead to security at the London 2012 Olympics and
Paralympics being compromised writes Insidethegames.biz. It was earlier
announced the security budget of the 2012 Olympics would be reduced
with about 198 million dollar but May confirmed the focus still is on
delivering a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic Games.
AMSTERDAM
(NED): Former Olympic winner and current agent and meet organizer Ellen
Van Langen has commented on the location of the IAAF World Championships
in Daegu later this year. In her column in the Dutch newspaper De
Telegraaf Van Langen expressed her concern about the political situation
in South Korea and the isolated location of Daegu. She also mentioned
the problem of television rights for the World championships in Europe
as in many European countries it is still uncertain whether the
competition will be aired on television.
EUGENE
(USA): Top Nike runners are in training also in the rainy conditions in
Oregon. Coach Alberto Salazar brings them to the second floor of the Mia
Hamm Building. There is a long, interrupted corridor here — long enough
to run 200-meter intervals on carpet while staying dry. Galen Rupp has
run here since he was in high school. On Tuesday, he was joined by Alan
Webb. And later, sprinter Ryan Bailey appeared with his coach, John
Parks, and workout partners Jordan Boase and DeEric Crockett. Rupp is
just 11 days out from a cross country meet in Edinburgh, Scotland. Webb
is putting together an indoor season that begins in less than a month.
Writes trackfocus.com blog.
KRASNODAR
(RUS): World Indoor 2008 pole vault gold medalist Yevgeniy Lukyanenko is
set for a comeback. He should jump for first time since June 2009 at
4th Gubernator Cup indoor meeting in Krasnodar on January 29.
Interesting entries also in women long jump with heptathlon olympic
medalist Tatyana Chernova and former European Champion Tatyana Kotova.
RIGA (LAT):
European long jump champion Ineta Radevica was voted the Sports Woman
2010 in her Latvia. On the men side the title went to silver olympic
medalist from Vancouver in skeleton Martins Dukurs.
TOKYO (JPN): Brett Larner named on his blog Kayoko Fukushi as the top Japanese female runner of 2010.
BEOGRAD
(SRB): Serbian Athletics federation website informs that Balkan CC
Championships will be held in Kragujevac, Serbia on March 12. Also
cities of Arandelovec, Zrenjanin and Nis were interested.
ROMA (ITA):
The 17th Maratona di Roma is having for March 21 already now record
entry of foreign runners. In total 6512 is new Italian record in this
category, with home runners the total number is 15 346.
CONGRATULATIONS
COLUMBUS
(USA): On Tuesday former successful British long distance runner and
current meet director and UK Athletics head coach for long distances Ian
Stewart (61) married with former great US hurdler and current USATF
Board of Directors President and Chair Stephanie Hightower (52). She
will remain Ms. Hightower, was ranked number one in USA in 1980-82 at
100 m hurdles. Stewart won world CC title in 1975, was third at Munich
Olympic Games 1972 and won European golds outdoors in 1969 and indoors
in 1975.
