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BOLT VS POWELL NUMBER ONE OF 2011

ROMA (ITA): First clash of top sprinters in 2011 is now confirmed. Usain
Bolt will run against Asafa Powell the 100 m at Rome Golden Gala Samsung Diamond
League meeting on May 26. They met in direct clash nine-times so far and the
score is 8:1 in favor of world record holder and world champion Bolt. The
programme of Powell before Rome is not known,
Bolt will most probably run the Jamaica Invitational on May 7 in Kingston as his season opener. There will be
not too many possibilities for this clash as their programmes will go different
ways during the season. Possibly again in Daegu at World Championships or
before that during Bolt´s 100
m appearances, the only one in July so far confirmed is
Monaco. Another top clash at Golden Gala will be the women´s 400 m when current world
champions will met. Allyson Felix with Sanya Richards-Ross. They last time met
at 400 m
at 2009 Zurich Weltklasse meet, the score is 4:1 in favor of Richards-Ross. The
same year of 2009 they already had one clash in Rome and Richards-Ross was the winner with
Felix 5th. Already earlier announced was also the appearance of world record
holder David Rudisha at 800 m
at Rome´s Olympic stadium.

GAY AND WARINER FOR TEXAS RELAYS

AUSTIN (USA): Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner
will compete at the 2011 Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays as part of a 4x400m
relay team on Saturday, April 9. Joining them on the mile-relay will be Reggie
Witherspoon and Lionel Larry. Organizers are writing on their website. The pair
are no stranger to the Texas Relays as Wariner was the 4x400m relay that set
the then-meet record in 2004 (3:00.04). Gay ran a leg of USA Red’s 4x100m relay
that won the invitational event in 2006 and also competed in 2002 for Barton County
where he won the 100m in 10.35. The 84th running of the Relays will be held
Wednesday-Saturday, April 6-9 at Mike A. Myers Stadium.

PISTORIUS HUGE 45.61 AT 400 M

PRETORIA (RSA, Mar 23): Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius
clocked a huge 400 m
45.61 personal best at the Provincial Championships in Pretoria. He had a clean race with massive
last 150 meters.
Willie de Beer came second with 46.12 and South African Junior Champion Jacques
de Swardt third with 46.55. De Swardt was leading until 250 meters (first 200 in 21.7), but then
Pistorious found another gear and just took off. His previous best was 46.02
from last year in Italy
(Celle Ligure on July 8). Pistorius who is multiple paralympic gold medalist
achieved so the B-standard for individual race at Daegu World Championships and
also most probably for the Olympic Games 2012 B-standard (standards not yet
officially confirmed by IAAF). Estie Wittstock won the women race with 52.68 in her first race of
the season.

FERNANDEZ IN DUDINCE

DUDINCE (SVK): Another top addition into the Dudince EA Walking permit
this Saturday in Slovakia
is the former European Champion Francisco “Paquillo” Fernandez. He will compete
in the 50 km
against former Australian world champion Nathan Deakes, Berlin medalist at 20 km Eder Sanchez of Mexico
and Slovakian IAAF World Cup winner Matej Toth. For Fernandez it will be the
second competition after one year ban and the second 50 km in his career. The
first one was in San Pedro del Pinatar (Murcia) in 2009 (Spanish Race
Walking Championships) with 3:41:02.

GYULAI MEMORIAL IN BUDAPEST

BUDAPEST (HUN): IAAF informs that just days after the
passing of the five year anniversary of the death of Istvan Gyulai, it was
announced that the 1st edition of the “István Gyulai Memorial -Hungarian
Athletics Grand Prix 2011”
will take place on 30 July in the Ferenc Puskás Stadium, in Budapest. The event is named after one of the
most recognised and most popular Hungarian sports diplomats, the former General
Secretary of both the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) and the
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The press conference
announcing the event saw the presence of Attila Czene, the State Secretary for
Sports in Hungary,
Tibor Gécsek, 1998 Hammer Throw European Champion and László Szalma, double
Long Jump European Indoor Champion, both of whom competed regularly at the
famous Budapest Grand Prix in 1980s in front of a capacity crowd of over 40,000
spectators. The guests were also greeted by a personal video-welcome message by
IAAF President Lamine Diack, who wished the organisers all the best and
recognised the achievements of Gyulai. While Czene assured the guests that the
event enjoys the full support of the government, Gécsek and Szalma shared
memories of their competitive careers under the international guidance and
often commentary of Gyulai. The Ostrava Golden Spike meeting is organizing
since 2006 every year one sprinting male event as Istvan Gyulai Memorial.

JAPANESE MARATHON RUNNERS FOR LONDON AND BOSTON

LONDON (GBR): The
earthquake and tsunami in Japan has seen the Japan Association of
Athletics Federations (JAAF) relocate its World Championships women’s
trial
race to Europe. Nine athletes have been added
to the elite field for the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday April 17
where they
will chase selection for the World Championships in Daegu in August.
Informs
David Martin. Virgin London Marathon race director David Bedford said:
“We have
all watched with horror the devastating scenes from Japan and we send
our sympathies
and condolences to our friends and colleagues there.” Yuri Kano, winner
of the Nagoya marathon last year, who has a personal best of
2:24:27, Mizuho Nasukawa, a former Tokyo
marathon champion, and Yurika Nakamura, the Nagoya champion in 2008 will
be amongst the
visitors. With only Yoshimi Ozaki, this year’s Yokohama
marathon winner, already selected for Japan’s Daegu team, there are
still
four places up for grabs. Ken Nakamura adds that Hiromi Ominami
indicated that
she will run Boston,
and Yuko Machida and Seika Iwamura will run Daegu. The exact qualifying
standard along with part of the World Championships marathon team (all
the men
and part of women, Yoshimi Ozaki has qualified automatically in
Yokohama) will be
announced on March 31.

OTHER NEWS

UTRECHT (NED) : Kenyan Lydia Kurgat has confirmed she
will return to Utrecht
for the Jaarbeurs Utrecht Marathon on April 25th. Kurgat won in Utrecht two years ago and
holds the course record of 2:34.28. Also in the race are Dutch Mariska Kramer
and Kenyan Viola Kimetto. Goal is to run under 2:35.

LAUSANNE (SUI): European indoor 3000m champion Helen
Clitheroe confirmed to European Athletics she has run her last steeplechase
race last year at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Despite finishing 4th in Delhi and holding the
British national record in the event Clitheroe admits the hurdling is too
difficult and frustrating. She will focus on the 5000m for the next two years.

MADRID (ESP): Spanish marathoner Chema Martinez,
along with football player David Villa, is the face of a new promotional
campaign set up by the Spanish athletics federation and supported by Divina
Pastora Seguros. The campaign will travel through Spain’s
major cities under the theme ‘united by a passion’ and should help raise funds
for the UNICEF project ‘schools for Africa’.

RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Following a visit to Brazil by the US
President Barack Obama, the United States Export-Import Bank launched a 1
billion dollar incentive scheme for Brazilian companies involved in projects
for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro reports Insidethegames.

ROTTERDAM (NED): The ABN AMRO Rotterdam marathon has
closed its entries and will welcome over 22.000 runners in different distances.
12.647 athletes will take part in the marathon.

CHICAGO (USA): Not only is the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle 8K a
popular rite of spring amongst tens of thousands of recreational runners in
Chicago, but the world’s largest 8K is also a desirable event for some of the
most promising distance runners in North America. Two of those elite athletes –
U.S. Olympian Amy Yoder Begley and Canadian national record holder Simon Bairu
– officially announced plans to compete in the 2011 Bank of America Shamrock
Shuffle 8K on April 10. For Begley and Bairu, Chicago’s festive kick-off to the outdoor
running season will ignite their spring and summer racing campaigns as they
prepare for the IAAF World Track & Field Championships in August.
Organizers are informing in a release.

JOHANNESBURG (RSA): Reigning 800 m world champion Mbulaeni
Mulaudzi informed media that: “I will be back at training before the end of
this month, most likely on Thursday.” He will miss the new Yellow Pages
interprovincial series, which was launched by Athletics South Africa in Johannesburg this week.
The last time Mulaudzi competed was at the African senior track and field
championships in Kenya
in June last year, where he withdrew in the first round due to the injury. The
first leg of the interprovincial championships will take place at Germiston
Stadium on Saturday. Top athletes who will take part include world champion
Caster Semenya and current 400
m hurdles world leader LJ van Zyl.

MANAUS (BRA): World junior championships shot put winner Geisa Arcanjo
of Brazil recieved a warning from her national federation CBAt after testing
positive for hydrochlorothiazide. The test came from her winning competition on
July 20 in
Moncton and
that means she will lose the gold medal. The National Disciplinary Committee of
Brazilian federation (CBAt) voted for smallest possible ban. Warning does not
mean any more bans, but disqualification from the competition when the sample
was taken. She was provisionally suspended from October 20 when IAAF confirmed
that both A and B analysis confirmed the presence of the prohibited substance.
Gold medal will most probably now go to Chinese Meng Qianqian with other two
medalist to her team-mate Cui Shuang and Russian Yevgeniya Smirnova.

LAWRENCE (USA):
The city of Lawrence
will help showcase a unique portion of the 2011 Kansas Relays, as city
commissioners gave their stamp of approval on three downtown events. Downtown
Lawrence will now be the stage for the elite men’s shot put, elite men’s long
jump and the street mile events. The shot put will kick things off Wednesday,
April 20, with the street mile and long jump being contested the following day.
Top names for shot put should be reigning world champion Christian Cantwell,
former world champion Reese Hoffa and Cory Martin. Along with them Canadian record
holder Dylan Armstrong, Jamaican record holder Dorian Scott. Main invitiational
events will be held on Saturday April 23.

SAO CAETANO DO SUL (BRA): Top pole vault coach Vitaliy Petrov who
no longer coaches Yelena Isinbayeva will have now more time to support his
event worldwide. First activity is announced from Brazil
where Petrov is staging a coaching clinic this week in Sao Paulo. Brazilian federation would be
interested to sign him for helping the national athletes until Rio Olympic
Games 2016. Petrov is not able to take this offer at least until 2012 when his
commitment runs with IAAF training center in Formia.

NAIROBI (KEN): Former multiple world champion Paul Tergat has
congratulated the national cross country team for winning six out of eight titles
at the global event last Sunday in Spain, but added that they could have done
better. Informs East Standard. Tergat said without the 12km men’s title, the
performance is not complete. “The boys did well, but they should have done
better. Without Joseph Ebuya and Leonard Komon, the team was lacking the
much-needed experience,” said Tergat, who won the title from 1995 to 1999.
Perhaps, Tergat said, selectors should have reviewed the matter of Komon.
Tergat’s sentiments were supported by John Nguugi, another former five-time
winner (1985-1989, 1992), who averred that without the men’s 12km title, it was
like killing the animal but not bringing home the most important parts of the
carcass.

LAUSANNE (SUI): European Athletics organised a bidding
seminar in Lausanne
for 2014 European Team Championships. Present were Italy
and Russia, also mentioned Great Britain, Czech
Republic and Ukraine.

CORRECTION

ROTTERDAM (NED): Please correct that Fyles Ongori is
Kenyan and not Ethiopian.

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