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Athletics News - 30.03.

Rothlin wants to run fast ZURICH: Swiss runner Victor Rothlin (32) is the main headliner of 5th Zurich Marathon planned for this Sunday. He hopes to break his own national and course record 2:09:56 from the 2004 edition of the race. He missed the race only last year when he gave the priority to European Champs preparation and was rewarded by a silver medal there. „I am in shape of my life,“ he was quoted by Swiss federation website. Pacemakers from Kenya and Ethiopia should help to reach the halfway at 64 minutes. He was second in first edition (2003 – 2:11:05), won in 2004 (2:09:56) and was 4th in 2005 (2:11:00). Female favourite is Russian Yelena Tikhonova who is title defender and has a best of 2:38:05 (2005). Interesting thing is that scheduled to run is Joey Kelly, the part of former great pop music band Kelly Family. He even aims to run between 2:30-3:00 hrs. EAA Permit Walking LUGANO: After Dudince last weekend the second EAA Permit Walking Meeting of the season will be held on Sunday in Swiss City Lugano. The 5th Memorial Mario Albisetti at 2 km course near the famous Lake with start and finish at „Piazza Manzoni“ will witness competitors from nine countries at 20 km distance for men and women. Main headliner for women event is Greek national record holder Athina Papayianni (1:28:58) who was 6th at World Championships 2005. Swiss walker Marie Polli hopes to attack the Osaka Standard (1:36:30) and even her own national record 1:35:47 (2004) as she in past weeks showed great shape at other distances. On the men side from long list of Italian walkers Lorenzo Civallero has 1:20:34 and was 14th at Helsinki Worlds 2005. Best Slovak at 50 km Peter Korcok is also scheduled to compete. His 20 km best is 1:24:23 and he hopes to improve it, last year he was 8th at 50 km in Goteborg. Interesting entry is Brasilian Mario dos Santos with best 1:25:49 from 2003. He is currently in Europe as he was 14th in Dudince at 20 km last weekend. He competed at 50 km in Athens at Olympic Games and has silver from PanAm Games 2003. Winners will get 1000 Swiss Francs each as official prize money. The event has for first time EAA Permit. WEEKEND Apart of Zurich Marathon the other big Marathon race in Europe is the Thessaloniki event (previewed in EME 85/2007). On Saturday Xiamen Marathon will be held in China. In Slovakia Bratislava City Marathon in second edition is trying to get growing interest. Halfmarathon´s schedule is also very busy. The biggest is for sure Berlin race with record entries number (21 500) and high quality fields (five men with sub 61 seconds and women duel Masai-B. Johnson, the most important names were already previewed by EME NEWS). Stramilano of Milano is also very high in ranks and the main duel should happen between African runners and current olympic Champion Stefano Baldini. Hungarian Aniko Kalovics is the female favourite. Other HM includes for example races in Barcelona, Azkoitia, Graz and Edinburgh. At Dutch place Brunssum fast 10 km on the road is expected and in Carlsbad (USA) the same at 5 km (with Meseret Defar). The US spring track season is continuing in full swing. Reduit in Mauritius is for Saturday the place for first PanAfrican Meet of the season. OTHER NEWS NAIROBI: East African Standard writes that the fresh world junior CC champion Asbel Kiprop is keeping low-profile concerning celebrations. „The euphoria of winning gold in Mombasa is now behind me. I need to do something on the track this year to prove a point,“ he was quoted. He did not allowed his parents to organise a party at his house. „I was only using cross-country as a build-up for the track season as my coaches had told me. I needed to have a base for 1,500m which is my speciality,“ said Kiprop who aims in summer to come down to 3:30 level. He was only 11th at national trials, he comes from Kaptinga Village near Eldoret. HENGELO: The organisers of European Junior Championships to be held in July informed that record number of 49 countries have preliminary registered for the event. The figures are currently about 500 female and 500 male athletes, with Germany leading (99) before Poland (83) and Russia (75). GABORONE: Botswana will organise one of the AAC Permit Meets on May 5 in Gaborone. The event will attract participants from Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. The home athletics federation got as per local media reports a grant from IAAF worth of 30 000 USD to stage the event. The amount will be used mainly for accomodation, meals and prize money of the athletes. The meet will feature seven events - the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 5000m, long jump and high jump. INDIANAPOLIS: USATF published the timetable of this years US National Championships which will be serving as Trials for World Championships in Osaka. Indianapolis will see it from June 21 until June 24 along with national junior championships. It will be also last part of VISA Championships series which will start end of April at Penn Relays in Philadelphia, continue on May 20 with adidas Track Classic in Carson and two US IAAF World Athletics Tour stops in New York (June 2) and Eugene (June 10). MEXICO: Mexican walker Eder Sánchez is only 20 and already prooved his senior abilities last week at Chinese leg of IAAF Race Walking Challenge. He finished third with 1:20:08, his second best result of career. After returning home he was quoted by Mexican media: „I expect to have a great year. My aims will be to succeed at Pan American Games and World Championships. My latest result confirms that I can compete against the best in the world.“ His next competition will be at Panamerican Walking Cup in April in Brasil which will be also selection race for the Mexicans for the Games later in July and World Championships in Osaka. His best 1:19:02 comes from his junior age back in 2005. BEIJING: Agencies are reporting about the fears of Olympic champion and world record holder at 110mHurdles Liu Xiang. The talk is about mental pressure or worries about injuries. His coach Sun Haipeng said for China Daily that since winning the Olympic title he has been through also upsets and bouts of depression. For the moment all is ok, he is healthy, his next race is planned for Osaka GP on May 5. The Chinese federation added to his team two doctors, who should help him in all aspects. HABANA: Prensa Latina informs that a groub of Cuban athletes will compete at ALBA Games held in Merida, Venezuela, they will also train there in first two weeks of May. The team will be led by 800 m world champion Zulia Calatayud and should include top jumpers Victor Moya, Yoandri Betanzos and Yargelis Savigne. Another team will travel to Brasilian GP meets in May headed by olympic champions Osleidys Menendez (Javelin) and Yumileidi Cumba (Shot Put). VERACRUZ: The initially cancelled mexican meet of Veracruz (May 5) will according to the latest informations still be held. New name is Festival Atletico Veracruz and it is because the governor of the state did not wanted to interrupt the tradition. It will be held with limited budget and 6 international events (Men 100 m, 400 m, PV and women 200 m, 400 m and HJ). STOCKHOLM: Swedish athletics federation webiste informs that Sixten Borg died at age 83. He was the founder of one of the best meetings on the circuit – DN Galan in Stockholm. He was the man behind the idea in 1967 to create the partnership of a athletics club with leading newspaper. MONTE CARLO: Austrian Robert Wagner reacted to latest IAAF Council resolution on betting in athletics and informed that he passed his athletes which he represents as agent to Mark McKoy, former olympic champion 1992 at 110 m Hurdles. McKoy will now work as agent for athletes like Jason Gardener, Craig Pickering, Jolanda Ceplak or American hurdler Lolo Jones. Wagner stays as CEO of athleticbet.com, managing director is Marton Gyulai, son of former IAAF General Secretary Istvan Gyulai who passed away last year and who as per Wagner was supporting the idea of starting with the betting website devoted solely for athletics. OSAKA: The Osaka Grand Prix to be held on May 5 cancelled the men´s hammer throw event. That leaves the Golden Spike Ostrava Hammer men competition on June 26 as only event where athletes can score full points (top 8) in the IAAF World Athletics Tour. Other five continental permits are staging the event, but there only top 4 athletes can score. One of the conditions to compete at World Athletics Final in Stuttgart (September) is that the athlete must score at least 3 times what in this case will be not so easy. The reason of Osaka cancellation is that the Japanese Olympic Champion Koji Murofushi will start his season only in June.

Alfons Juck