KENYAN
DAY,  BUT TOO WARM

BOSTON
(USA, Apr 16): The sun was hot and Kenya dominated the oldest marathon in the
world. Sharon Cherop’s face was beaded with sweat, her red adidas uniform
completely soaked.  She and compatriot
Jemima Jelagat had managed to shed all of their other rivals in one of the
hottest editions of the Boston Marathon on record, and Cherop knew she had both
her training and experience on her side. They clocked 2:31:50 and 2:31:52. „One
advantage was where we started slowly,” Cherop said.  „We did not start faster like last year.”
Title defender Caroline Kilel after collision at water station drop out after
30 km. Third Georgina Rono in 2:33:09 ahead of best Ethiopian of the day
Firehiwot Dado 2:34:56. Best European was Russian Nadezhda Leontieva in 2:40:40
as 8th. Cherop’s victory has raised her to the top of the World Marathon Majors
leaderboard with 45 points. She’s leading Russia’s Liliya Shobukhova by a slim
five points. Tied for third are Kenyans Mary Keitany and Edna Kiplagat; they
will look to improve their WMM positions at the Virgin London Marathon on
Sunday, April 22. Wesley Korir of Kenya took the lead in the final mile of men
contest and held on to win the race in a time of 2:12:40. Korir led a Kenyan
podium sweep, with Levy Matebo finishing second in a time of 2:13:06 and
Bernard Kipyego finishing third seven seconds later in 2:13:13. Defending
Boston Marathon champion Geoffrey Mutai dropped out of the race at 30K due to
cramping.  Fourth was best non-Kenyan US
Jason Hartmann in 2:14:31. Best European Dutch Michel Butter 2:16:38 as 7th. He
remains in first place on the WMM leaderboard. Korir’s win has landed him in
second place in the standings, tied with fellow Kenyans Moses Mosop and
Emmanuel Mutai. Out of the 26,716 athletes who entered the race, 22,853 picked
up their numbers, and 22,426 started, organizers said.  That meant that only a maximum of 427
runners took advantage of the Boston Athletic Association’s program to defer
their entry until next year. Temperatures hit a high of 89 degrees (32C)
during the race, organizers said. With the help from RRW and WMM.

OTHER NEWS

MONACO
(MON): The IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona, which will take place
from 10 to 15 July 2012 are on course to become the biggest gathering in terms
of participating national IAAF Member Federations in the history of these
championships. With the deadline for the Preliminary Entries now closed, IAAF
announced that no fewer than 186 IAAF National Member Federation have signalled
their interest in participating in these Championships; the most attended
edition was Beijing 2006 where 176 countries gathered in the Chinese capital,
followed by Annecy 1998 with 170 countries. With a total of 1856 athletes
entered, the record of participating men and women is also on course to be
broken as the previously most attended Championships in terms of athletes was
Bydgoszcz 2008 with 1413. IAAF is informing.

FRANKFURT
(GER): The European Athletics Competition Committee concluded its three-day
meeting in Frankfurt on Sunday. The committee, led by European Athletics First
Vice President José Luis De Carlos, reviewed and analysed the progress of
European Athletics’ events and European Athletics’ cross country and indoor
permit circuits for 2011-2012. The committee also studied the applications for
the 2012-2013 European Athletics cross country permit circuit. The appointed
working groups on the topics of the 2012-2015 European Athletics Calendar,
2012-2016 officiating persons’ appointments and panels, review of regulations
and guidelines, European Athletics permit system, and evaluations and bidding
procedures presented their reports and recommendations to the committee.
Informs EA.

ROTTERDAM
(NED) : During the Rotterdam Marathon a 14-year old boy passed away due to
cardiac arrest. The boy was entered in a 10K event with his school and
felt sick right after finishing, he was brought to the hospital where he later
died. The boy had previously suffered from the same symptoms when playing
hockey but was medically cleared to run in Rotterdam.

ROTTERDAM
(NED): Dutch Olympic Committee announced that they will not be more flexible
towards Dutch marathoners Miranda Boonstra and Koen Raymaekers who just
narrowly missed out on the Dutch qualifying standard for the London Marathon on
Sunday. Boonstra missed the standard with 8 seconds while Raymaekers came 34
seconds short over the marathon. Raymaekers has already replied that he aims at
breaking the standard of 2:10 later this year even though that might be after
the Olympics. Boonstra is hoping she will be still selected. They clearly
fulfilled IAAF criterias but Dutch NOC has far more tougher norms.

NEW
DELHI (IND):  The Annual General Meeting
of Athletics Federation of India (AFI) was attended by 67 Delegates from
various States and Boards recognized & affiliated to it.  It is for the first time that an Olympian
Adille J. Sumariwalla, has taken the reign of AFI and was unanimously elected
as President.  C.K.Valson, Ex-Athlete,
International Technical Official, Technical Delegate for Guangzhou Asian Games
and Competition Manager for Commonwealth Games 2010 was unanimously elected as
Honorary Secretary and Satyanarayana, Ex-International Athlete was elected as
Treasurer unanimously.

HENGELO
(NED): Organizers of 30th FBK Games of Hengelo (May 27, IAAF World Challenge)
confirmed what was said on Sunday in Vienna. Legendary Haile Gebrselassie will
run his last 10 000 m on the track at their meeting. It will be his first 10k
on the track since Beijing Olympics 2008 (6th, 27:06.68).

MADRID
(ESP): Spanish long distance runner Alessandra Aguilar will return to the
competition in June. She will end then her 3 months ban. That means she could
still compete at London Olympic Games. She tested positive after CC race on
December 2011 in Segovia. Her ban was set for 3 months because of human error.
She achieved the qualifier last year in Rotterdam Marathon with 2:27:00.

RESULTS

CORAL
GABLES (USA, Apr 14): To add that former world champion French Ladji Doucoure
competed here and was 5th in 14.05 (+2.1) at 110 m hurdles.