|
|
Athletics News - 29.03. |
AZUSA (USA): Back in training after beeing ill is decatlon world champion Bryan Clay from USA. He had lungs infection, but now is back in training and plans to do some events at MtSAC Relays in Walnut in April. His plan is currently clear with three main decathlons of the season – Gotzis (Austria) IAAF World Combined Events Challenge in May, then US Nationals in June and World Championships in Osaka. His agent Paul Doyle also adds that he might consider also the September event in Talance, France.
THESSALONIKI (GRE): Second edition of Alexander the Great Marathon will be held this Sunday in Greek city Thessaloniki. Nearly 500 runners for marathon and more than 400 for 10 km Health Race from about 15 countries should compete. Last years results in first edition were very promising. Kenyan Moses Kimeli won in 2:11:35 and Algerian Souad Ait Salem debuted with national record 2:28:22 (in the meantime she won this year Rome Marathon with another NR) on the women side. The fast course (starts at 41 m altitude and is finishing at 1,5 m, nearly sea level) and cloudy 14 Degrees weather forecast are promising for this Sunday again good marks. General Secretary of LOC Georgios Constantopoulos (also EAA Council Member in his other capacity) hopes to attack the fastest marathon time in Greece 2:10:54 by Stefano Baldini while winning the Olympics in 2004. Historical is also the fact that the course from City of Pella (birth place of Alexander The Great) to the statue of Alexander in Thessaloniki is exactly 42 km, so the organisers really needed to add only one circle of about 195 m to have the right distance. Live transmition by Greek TV will see about 28 invited men and 12 women mainly from African countries. Last year Enschede winner Sammy Rotich (2:12:05) is entered along with Philip Tarus (twice in career under 2:10, but last time 2:09:24 in 2003), Henry Cherono (2:10:26 in 2004), Henry Serem (2:10:07), David Kosgei (2:11:03), all Kenya. On the women side Elizabeth Chemweno has 2:28:55 from last year Hamburg Marathon. First place bonuses are 6500 E for men and 4500 for women. In case of winning with sub 2:10 or 2:30 for women it is another 4000 E.
ROTTERDAM (NED): One of the best european marathons in Rotterdam added three more high quality runners to its roster for April 15 race. In total they have now 15 runners with bests under 2:09. The latest additions are Kenyans Joshua Chelanga (2:07:05) and David Kipkorir (2:08:38). Ambesse Tolosa from Ethopia has 2:08:56.
BRUNSSUM (NED): For Sundays race it is now clear after Mombasa difficulties that Boniface Kiprop from Uganda will not run. The favourites for breaking the 10 km world road record are Kenyans Micah Kogo and Abraham Chebii.
MOSCOW (RUS): Interesting fact from Moscow succesfull bid for worlds 2013. They plan to stage opening and closing ceremonies at the famous Red Square.
ZURICH (SUI): The Weltklasse Meet announced that they will start with public ticket sales on April 10th for sitting places. It is also because the new stadium which is currently in building (you can see live Webcam at their webpage www.weltklasse.ch) offers more sitting places that the old Letzigrund version.
NEUNKIRCHEN (GER): The annual book of National Athletics Records for all countries in the world was published. Four renowned statisticians covering their areas Fouad Habash, Heinrich Hubbeling, Winfried Kramer and Yves Pinaud are continuing in their great work and the latest book covers all changes and updates until end of 2006. It is coming in good time before the outdoor season starts as the book covers outdoors marks only. Did you know that Ethiopean shot put men national record is 15.98 m? You can order from Winfried Kramer at kramer@saar.de.
FERRARA (ITA): For the European 10 000 m Cup on April 7 Great Britain announced four names. Only man will be Mike Skinner after Mohammed Farah decided not to compete. Three women are representing solid power. Jo Pavey and Hayley Yelling will aim for 31:40 Osaka Standard and Kate Reed for World University Games 32:20 standard. In total 4 races at 10 000 m are planned for the day, first women B and A and then men A and B. Men´s meet record is 27:14.44 by Fabian Roncero,ESP in 1998 and female from last year 30:21.67 by Elvan Abeylegesse from Turkey.
ATHENS: It was confirmed by weekends General Assembly of SEGAS (Greek Athletics Federation) that as the candidate for IAAF Council will be proposed former long jumper Kostas Koukodimos. This also means that current IAAF Council member Minos Kyriakou will not be proposed and so would not be able to stand for the elections which will happen in August at IAAF Congress.
KINGSTON: At Jamaican High School Championships held currently at National Stadium some 2300 young athletes are competing. In total 78 girls teams and 89 boys teams. New Asafa Powell or Merlene Ottey might be competing... From early results it could be noted that 18 years old Kimberly Williams achieved new event record in triple jump 13.52 m. Also 16 years old Ramone McKenzie clocked new record for class 2 at 200 m with 21.11. He could be the hope for world U17 Champs in July in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
|
|
Alfons Juck
|
|
| Impressum