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Athletics News - 16.03. |
Weekend previews
DURBAN: South African Championships will be the climax of their season. Watch out for Morne Nagel in sprints, great 400 m Hurdles duel, Khotso Mokoena in jumps or female throwers.
YALTA: In Ukraine city at Black Sea the 6th edition of Winter Throwing European Cup will be held. 203 throwers from 26 countries will be competing. Top athletes entered are three current European Champions from Goteborg. Both hammer champions Ivan Tikhon (BLR) and Tatyana Lysenko (RUS) along with javelin gold medallist Steffi Nerius (GER). Top entry is also world discus champion Franka Dietzsch (GER). Italian European Indoor champion Assunta Legnante is the top female shot putter, on the men shot side the silver medallist from Birmingham Pavel Lyzhyn (BLR).
ON THE ROAD: Top event is for sure Rome Marathon with record entry 15 187 runners. Kenyan favourites Frederick Cherono, Jonathan Kosgei and Hillary Korir will be added by Spain´s Jose Manuel (Chema) Martinez and local favourite Alberico Di Cecco. In Den Haag halfmarathon the world record holder at this distance is scheduled to compete. Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya achieved early february 58:53 in United Arab Emirates. On Sunday he plans to attack this mark. Another strong half-marathon will be organised in Lisbon as IAAF reports. The main contender is double world marathon champion Jaouad Gharib (MAR) with Kenyans headed by Paul Kosgei with best of 59:07. Fast times are also expected from Seoul Marathon.
Briefs:
MOMBASA: GBR team has a miss. Commonwealth silver medallist Jo Pavey will not go to Mombasa and will remain at her training base in South Africa. She got a flu before Birmingham Europeans and is not feeling to be in right shape for the tough CC competition. First teams to arrive are Russia on Saturday and New Zealand and Australia on Sunday. Last to arrive are United Arab Emirates and Somalia just day before the event. Poland is sending junior champions Lukasz Kusawski and Izabela Trzaskalska. Meanwhile former steeple world record holder Moses Kiptanui said for Kenyan media, that the home team has the ability to achieve success, but they need more mental preparation and there should be less pressure on them.
OSAKA: Organisers of Osaka IAAF World Athletics Tour GP Meet (May 5) announced three top stars to compete – olympic champions Liu Xiang at 110 mHurdles and Jeremy Wariner at 400 m and former champion Maurice Greene at 100 m.
BARCELONA: The latest bulletin of Barcelona World Championships 2013 bid shows the support of popular soccer player Samuel E´to (FC Barcelona) and 800 m world record holder Wilson Kipketer (Denmark).
BRUSSELS: Top belgian female stars and fresh european champions Tia Hellebaut and Kim Gevaert were invited by King Albert after their recent success.
GOLDEN LEAGUE: GL organisers agreed that they will limit this season the number of competitors in technical events to 8. In the GL 2007 programme this decision affects men triple jump and javelin and women pole vault and high jump.
FORT DE FRANCE: The Caribbean end of April fixture in Fort de France (FRA) will not be held this year, as it was announced by the organisers. In past it was part of IAAF Grand Prix II series. Also cancelled is another American fixture, the mexican meet in Veracruz (scheduled for May 5).
INDIANAPOLIS: USATF announced already now the coaching staff for Olympic Games 2008 athletics Team. Head coaches will be Bubba Thornton and former sprinter Jeanette Bolden. Head managers will be James Li and Rich Torrellas. Assistant coaches list includes former greats like Harvey Glance, Chandra Cheeseborough and Connie Price-Smith. Relay coaches will be Brooks Johnson and Orich Richburg.
BERLIN: Berlin Halfmarathon organisers announced that Kenyan Edith Masai will compete on April 1 at the 27th Vattenfall race. She will come to defend her title from last year in 1:07:16 which was the fastest time of 2006. Australian Benita Johnson should be her main rival.
LONDON: One from businness world – as website of Wales informs - Former Olympians Alan Pascoe, Edward Leask and Jon Ridgeon sold the sports marketing agency they founded nine years ago to Lord Bell's PR and advertising group, Chime Communications, in a deal worth up to £43m. The agency Fast Track is behind the top british meets and recent sponsorship success for athletics in the country. As per this website all three founding partners, together with managing director Jim Glover, are contracted to remain at Fast Track for at least five years following the sale.
SHANGHAI: At National Indoor GP Meet new Asian indoor record was registered in women pole vault. Zhao Yingzhu (born 1988, so still a junior) achieved 446 cm. Sensational improvement for another junior Gong Li Jiao in women shot with 19.07. She is only 16 and her mark is new asian junior indoor record ans also second best mark in the season (together with Legnante and Khudoroshkina). Another chinese junior record was achieved by Zhang Xiaoyi in Long Jump with 803 cm. New chinese senior record by Yang Quan in Pole Vault with 561 cm. New strong name emerged at 60mHurdles. Wu Youjia (outdoors so far 13.55) clocked 7.68 in his race and was faster then chinese number two behind Liu Xiang Shi Dongpeng who got 7.71 in another race.
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Alfons Juck
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