by Larry Eder
Meseret Defar winning 2010 World Indoor 3,000m title, by PhotoRun.net
Defar & Kaki are shooting for the 3,000m womens and 1,000m mens WR at the XL-Galen meet in Stockholm, Sweden on Saturday night. Also on Saturday, in Boston, MA, the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will have three hours of top competition.
Watch for a sizzling womens 3,000 meters, and the final event being the men’s mile, with Nick Willis, WC silver medalist, Alan Webb, AR record holder. Also watch Lukas Verzbicas, the Gatorade 2010-11 XC Boys athlete of the year, with a personal best of 4:04.34, to come very close to breaking four minutes for the mile.
At the NB press conference, Alan Webb was asked what he thought of Lukas chances at getting his indoor high school record for the mile. ” I would like to see him get it, he is tough, and new records are good for the sport.” noted Webb.
DEFAR
AND KAKI FOR WORLD RECORDS
STOCKHOLM
(SWE): Two world record attempts are announced for the XL-Galan meeting in Stockholm (IAAF Indoor
Permit on Feb 22). Meseret Defar will try to improve her own 3000 m mark and Abubaker
Kaki the 2:14.96 of Wilson Kipketer from 2000 at 1000 m. Already earlier also
the participation of Yelena Isinbayeva in women´s pole vault was confirmed.
LAGAT
AND LAGAT
NEW YORK/MELBOURNE (USA/AUS):
Former world champion Bernard Lagat is in the spotlight. First Athletics
Australia announced that he will take on US distance duo Chris Solinsky and
Matt Tegenkamp at the 5000 m
during the IAAF Melbourne Track Classic (IAAF World Challenge) at Melbourne
Olympic Park next month (Mar 3). In other development on Saturday, February 12,
Lagat will get his wish. In a joint effort between the New York Road Runners
and the Armory Foundation, a special two-mile race will be held there called
the NYRR Deuce Record Challenge in which Lagat will take a shot at Doug Padilla’s
American record of 8:15.02 set nearly 21 years ago at the Forum in Los Angeles.
Remarkably, Padilla’s time was set on a plywood track which required 11 laps to
cover one mile. “It’s going to be my first time running competitively at the
Armory,” Lagat said from his home in Tucson.
“It’s going to be my first-ever indoor two-mile race.” Informs RRW.
CHAMBERS
RETURNS
BIRMINGHAM (GBR): World indoor champion at 60 m Dwain Chambers returns to
competition this Saturday at Birmingham Indoor Games. Athletics Weekly writes,
that he might be in the shape of his life. Chambers after some years was part
of UK Athletics training camp in South Africa. His main rivals
during the weekend will be Craig Pickering, Leon Baptiste and Harry
Aikinees-Aryetey.
STUTTGART IS SOLD OUT
STUTTGART
(GER): Saturday´s 25th Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgart
(IAAF Indoor Permit) is sold out. Top names are Christophe Lemaitre, Dayron
Robles, David Oliver, Renaud Lavillenie, Fabiana Murer. German channel Sport1
will broadcast the event live and also live-stream will be available at the
meeting website. Sensation of the meeting could be the 1500 m outing of Silas
Kiplagat who is promising fast times. Abubaker Kaki runs the 800 m, Eliud Kipchoge the 3000 m and Sentayehu Ejigu
the women´s 3000 m.
French European champion Myriam Soumare is the star of women´s 60 m. Interesting duel is
expected in non-traditional indoor relay Germany
vs. France
4×100 m.
WITHDRAWALS DEPARTMENT
MOSCOW (RUS): World champion
Yaroslav Rybakov is out from high jump duel of titans at Russian Winter on
Sunday due to small back injury.
TALLINN
(EST): Barcelona decathlon medalist Eelco
Sintnicolaas from Netherlands
is already two days sick with fever and will not compete in Tallinn at International combined events
meetings over the weekend. He is now concentrating for European event in Paris, palsn to do pole
vault and long jump at national championships next weekend (Feb 12-13).
STUTTGART:
European 100 m
winner Verena Sailer is out from Sparkassen Cup in Stuttgart this Saturday because of back
problems.
OTHER NEWS
KINGSTON (JAM): The Fastest Man in the World
Usain Bolt and his teammates will be attacking their bests in true Jamaican
fashion during the 2012 Olympics. Informs Track Alerts. PUMA and Cedella
Marley, Bob Marley’s eldest daughter, just announced she will be designing the
Jamaican Track and Field Team’s Olympic uniform, podium and ceremony wear.
Cedella describes the partnership as legendary. Bolt likes the partnership as
well. “I can’t think of a better person to design our Olympic outfits than
Cedella. PUMA got that right…hooking up with a legendary Jamaican. She’s a
great designer but also carries on the spirit of our nation through the legacy
of the Marley family. It’s going to be inspirational to run in London with that energy surrounding me,” he
was quoted. Informs TrackAlerts.
LAUSANNE
(SUI): The indoor arenas around Europe came alive in January, with a number of
athletes already showing their form after winter training and ready to lay
claim to top honours at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris. Following this,
European Athletics is pleased to announce the nominations for the European
Athlete of the Month for January representing 10 countries. The voting will
close on Tuesday 15 February at noon CET.
BRUSSELS (BEL): European 400m champion Kevin
Borlée and European bronze triple jump medalist Svetlana Bolshakova have
received the ‘Golden spike’ trophee for the best Belgian athlete of the year.
The 4x400m relay team was named the best team, 400m athlete Cédric Van
Branteghem won an award for his outstanding career. The Borlée twins also
confirmed they will be competing in 2 competitions before heading to the
European indoor championships in Paris.
They will both run a 300m in Lievin and will continue to run the 600m at the
IAAF indoor permit meeting in Ghent
writes sporza.be.
KYIV (UKR): Ukrainian Athlete
of the Year is triple jump European winner Olga Saladukha and on the men side
nine-time European CC Champion Sergiy Lebid. The ceremony was held on Tuesday
at ACCO International exhibition center. The surprise of the year award went to
the 4×100 m women relay team which won gold at European Championships in Barcelona. Vladimir
Fedorets who is guiding the preparation of one of the team members Yelizaveta
Bryzgina got the coach of the year award. Award at the end of succesfull career
was given to shot put olympic winner Yuriy Belonog.
KINGSTON
(JAM): After months of uncertainty, The Gleaner understands that Jamaica will, after all, host this year’s
troubled Carifta Games, in the second city of Montego Bay between April 23-25. The annual
track and field championships, which is the first real international exposure
for the region’s top junior athletes, was in danger of being cancelled for the first
time in its 39-year history, after original host St Kitts backed out of its
original bid to host the meet. Writes The Gleaner.
MALMO (SWE): Emma Green needs rest for some
weeks. That is the verdict after examinations of her injury (strained achilles
tendon) during the first competition jump in Hustopece, Czech Republic
at the special high jump meeting. “The pain will determin when I will be back.
I will absolutely not take any risks and take chances if it does not feel good,
“she was quoted. The Barcelona
silver medalist still did not rule out the national championships last February
weekend and Paris European Indoor Championships. There is also a possibility
she will be already ready for the XL-Galan indoor meet of Stockholm (February 22).
LONDON (GBR): England Athletics, the official
representative for all English athletics clubs, has attacked the endorsement of
Tottenham Hotspur’s bid for the Olympic Stadium by the Association of British
Athletics Clubs (ABAC). English athletics has claimed that retaining a running
track at the stadium would not provide a useful legacy for the sport and has
instead backed Spurs, who want to redevelop the Crystal Palace
athletics stadium and build a dedicated football stadium in the Olympic Park.
UK Athletics favors West Ham’s bid, maintaining that London 2012’s promise to
the International Olympic Committee to maintain athletics at the stadium.
LONDON
(GBR): The executive chief of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics in London, Sir Keith Mills,
will oversee the proposed merger between UK Sport and Sport England. He will be
working with the Department for Culture, Media and sport (DCMS). Sport England
and UK Sport need to be united into one organisation till April 1st 2013.
RIO DE
JANEIRO (GBR): Henrique Meirelles, Brazil’s
former Central Bank President, became a president of the new agency overseeing
the building preparations for the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. It is
expected to be fully set-up next month when the Brazilian Congress passes a law
to establish a rubber-stamp.
ZURICH (SUI): European marathon champion
Viktor Röthlin and his main sponsor Raiffeisen extend their cooperation for a
further six years. Röthlin had successfully finished his training camp in Eldoret, Kenya.
He trained for four weeks with Duncan Kibet, James Kwambai and Robert
Cheruiyot, also with Italian Ruggero Pertile, who joined the group as fourth.
RESULTS
ST. PETERBURG (RUS, Feb 1): In
the Sports School Cup meeting Yelena Ivanova leaped to 14.13 in the triple jump.
Aleksandr Khyutte won the 60 m
(6.76) and Aleksandra Kiryashova cleared 440 in the pole vault.
