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High powered line-up assemble in Madison Square Garden for inaugural U.S. Open – PREVIEW

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Jan 272012
 

Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica crosses the finish line to win the women’s 200 metres final

 
New York, USA – The inaugural U.S. Open indoor track and field meet, to be held Saturday, 28 February, assures that the long tradition of world-class athletics competition in Madison Square Garden is alive and well: The entrant list includes 22 Olympians, 13 of them medallists.
The meet, which will open the 2012 IAAF Indoor Permit series, will be a boon to New York track fans. After 98 years in the Garden, the Millrose Games have been moved to the smaller Armory Track and Field Center in upper Manhattan; meanwhile, the Garden is undergoing a major renovation, and the U.S. Open will be the first track and field competition held in the venue after the completion of the overhaul’s first phase.
Lagat back on familiar territory
The presence of Bernard Lagat is almost enough to maintain the tradition.  The reigning World 3000m Indoor champion who took a marvellous 1500m/5000m double outdoors at the Osaka World championships, and is the holder of six American records surpassed Irish “Chairman of the Boards” Eamonn Coghlan’s total of Wanamaker Mile victories with his eighth in 2010.  
After a narrow loss last year to Ethiopia’s Deresse Mekonnen, Lagat will return to the Garden with new incentive as he begins his campaign to make a fourth Olympic team this year but he won’t have it easy. A strong field that includes 2011 World 1500m silver medallist Silas Kiplagat of Kenya will be trying to outlast the 36-year-old veteran. Continue reading »
 Posted by admin at 4:39 am

Samsung extends title sponsorship of Samsung Diamond League

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Jan 252012
 

Samsung extends title sponsorship of Samsung Diamond League Samsung Diamond League logo (IAAF.org) Monte-Carlo – The IAAF, which commercialises the title sponsorship rights of the Samsung Diamond League, is delighted to confirm that Samsung have triggered a contractual option to continue as Title Sponsor for the 2012 season. Samsung, which first signed as the Title Sponsor of the then ‘IAAF Diamond League’ in July 2010 for a two year contract through 2011 with an option for 2012, has gained strong exposure across the 12 markets and 14 meetings of the series, and has enjoyed worldwide exposure thanks to growing TV coverage. The Samsung Diamond League in 2011 came close to a cumulative total of 290 Million viewers and attracted a rising spectator attendance approaching 400,000 spectators across all 14 meetings. In addition to its series title sponsorship, Samsung has also directly supported Continue reading »

 Posted by admin at 5:59 pm

unn take US 50Km Race Walk Olympic Trials title

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Jan 242012
 

Nunn take US 50Km Race Walk Olympic Trials title
John Nunn at the 2011 Pan-American Games
John Nunn at the 2011 Pan-American Games (Getty Images)

Santee, USA – John Nunn won the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Men’s 50 km Race Walk in 4:04:38 to lead a fast race that saw course records set Sunday (23) in Santee, Calif.

Olympians at the 20 km distance, Nunn and Tim Seaman, both of San Diego, pushed each other throughout the race with several changes of the lead as both walked well under the Olympic “B” standard of 4:09. Seaman finished second in 4:05:50. The duo led the way for the top five men to better the previous course record of 4:28:53 set in 2009 by current race director Philip Dunn.

“You know it has been a long road to get back,” Nunn said. “I didn’t make the team in ‘08 and it was a hard push. My daughter was 6-months-old when I went in ’04, and I really wanted to give her a chance to come and see it again. It is a dream come true to make it again, and to know she can experience that and have it in her mind for the rest of her life to go and see me compete in the Olympics.” Continue reading »

 Posted by admin at 6:14 am

London 2012 unveils anti-doping laboratory

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Jan 222012
 

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) today unveiled the WADA accredited anti-doping laboratory which will operate during the London 2012 Games.
LOCOG, laboratory service providers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and laboratory operators King’s College London, welcomed Hugh Robertson, Minister for Sport and the Olympics for a tour of the facility which is based in Harlow, Essex. Continue reading »
 Posted by admin at 8:13 pm

Loaded women’s hurdles field announced for U.S. Open

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Jan 012012
 

Loaded women’s hurdles field announced for U.S. Open

 

Dawn Harper of the USA competes during the women's 100 metres hurdles heats during day seven (Getty Images)<br /><br /> Dawn Harper of the USA competes during the women’s 100 metres hurdles heats during day seven (Getty Images)

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 New York, USA – In what promises to be one of the most competitive hurdle matchups of the 2012 indoor season, four possible 2012 Olympic finalists will contest the women’s 50m Hurdles at the U.S. Open Track & Field event at New York’s Madison Square Garden on 28 January, the opening meet of the 2011 IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting Series.
Defending Olympic champion Dawn Harper, two-time defending World indoor champion Lolo Jones, USA indoor and outdoor champion Kellie Wells and British national record holder Tiffany Ofili Porter will go head-to-head in a hurdling showcase.The showdown adds to previously announced stars Jesse Williams, Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson, Bernard Lagat, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Asafa Powell, David Oliver and Jenn Suhr at the inaugural edition of the U.S. Open.Also the kick-off event of USA Track & Field’s Visa Championship Series, the U.S. Open will be the first track meet to be held in the newly renovated Garden and will be the first major professional meet in the United States as the 2012 Olympic year gets under way. It will be broadcast from 7-9 p.m. on Sunday, 29 January 29 on ESPN2.

Best of the best

The 2009 USA outdoor champion, Harper has made a name for herself by performing at her best when the chips are down. Third at the 2008 Olympic Trials, she won Olympic gold in Beijing. Likewise, she was third at the 2011 USA Outdoor Championships and came through with bronze at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu.

One of the most recognizable personalities in the sport, Jones is a two-time World indoor champion in the 60m Hurdles and is the U.S. record holder in the event as well. Although she battled injuries throughout 2011, Jones is a two-time Visa Champion as the top performer of the Indoor Visa Championship Series and was the 2010 USA Outdoor champion, the same year she broke Gail Devers’ U.S. indoor record.

The breakout hurdles star of the 2011 season, Wells shot to prominence by winning the USA indoor and outdoor titles and dominating top marks lists. Her winning time of 7.79 seconds at the 2011 USA Indoor Championships was the No. 1 time in the world for the year, and at the time gave her the nine fastest times in the world. Outdoors she was as dominant domestically and was a medal favorite for the World Championships, where she made the final but hit a hurdle and fell. She will look for her first global medals in 2012.

A two-time NCAA indoor champion and three-time champ outdoors while competing at the University of Michigan, Tiffany Ofili Parker won a bronze medal at the 2006 World Junior Championships while competing for the United States. Now representing Great Britain, she is that country’s national record holder outdoors and was fourth at the 2011 World Outdoor Championships.
 

 
 Posted by admin at 12:02 am

2011 End of Year Reviews – Sprints

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Dec 312011
 

2011 End of Year Reviews – Sprints

 

Bolt runs to fastest 100m of 2011 (Gladys Chai van der Laage)<br /><br /><br /><br /> Bolt runs to fastest 100m of 2011(Gladys Chai van der Laage)

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 Monte Carlo – Statisticians A. Lennart Julin (SWE) and Mirko Jalava (FIN) conclude their 2011 annual review with a look back at this past season’s action in the Sprints.
- MEN -
100m
This event has in the last few years gone through a completely unforeseen revolution statistically at the top levels. Whether it is something to be called a Bolt (or Powell?) effect is open for discussion but it is a fact that sub-10 times which previously were achieved on only special occasions by only a select handful of athletes now are almost viewed as “run-of-the-mill” marks. To be regarded as a true elite performance you have to venture into the 9.80s.
Some illustrative figures: After varying between five and nine (average 7.4) per year during the decade 1998-2007 the number of sub-10.00 runners (only legal wind counted) have been 14, 11, 13 and 20 in the last four years! Looking at sub-9.90 the corresponding numbers are between zero and five (average 2.2) in 1998-2007 followed by six, four, seven and finally in this year 10!
It is always amazing to see those kinds of patterns where a long period of statistical stability is followed by sudden development burst. Usually those cases have been seen in either field events (caused by technical innovations) or in distance running (some runner leading the way by attempting a pace no one else has dared previously). But in the 100m? An event where everybody always has run as fast as possible not having time or opportunity to worry about any mental barriers or “too fast” splits!
And there are no new “techniques” or significantly improved tracks or shoes to explain it. Why then are the top 100m runners of today about a tenth faster than they were just four or five years ago? That Usain Bolt might be “the talent of the millennium” can explain his brilliant record runs, but it doesn’t explain that also “everybody else” in the elite group is running significantly faster than their predecessors as late as 2006/2007.
A part of the explanation can perhaps be found in the new approach in Jamaica, who has always had the teenage talents but where only a select few that acquired scholarships to US colleges did progress to establish themselves on the senior world stage. It seems that Asafa Powell ushered in a new era in 2003/2004 by becoming the first “homegrown” world class sprinter from Jamaica. Continue reading »
 Posted by admin at 11:57 pm

Bett proves best in Zatopek 10

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Dec 112011
 
Emmanuel Bett on the way to winning the Zatopek 10 Men's 10,000m during the 2011 Zatopek Classic
Emmanuel Bett on the way to winning the Zatopek 10 Men’s 10,000m during the 2011 Zatopek Classic (Getty Images)
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 Melbourne, Australia – It was another Kenyan distance running masterclass at the Zatopek 10 in Melbourne on Saturday (10), a race record from Joyce Chepkirui and London Olympic qualifying standards from Emmanuel Bett and Bitan Karoki providing the racing highlights of a rainy summer evening.
The 51st Zatopek: 10 was the first major event at the new athletics facility and the official opening competition. State minister for sport Hugh Delahunty may have cut the ribbon to open the stadium, but it was Kenyan distance runners who broke the tape first in the night’s major events.
Chepkirui won a magnificent battle with her countrywoman Emil Chebet to win the women’s race in 31:26.10, slicing 0.24 off the race record held by Susie Power since 2001. Despite Kenya’s great record of success in the men’s race, Chepkirui is the first Kenyan and the fourth international athlete to win the women’s race. Sonia O’Sullivan of Ireland, these days resident in Australia, and New Zealand’s Kate McIlroy and Jessica Ruthe are the other overseas winners.
The only other Kenya woman to compete is 1997 World champion Sally Barsosio, who finished fourth in the 1999 race. Continue reading »
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A. Bekele and Britton reign supreme in Velenje – European XC Championships

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Dec 112011
 

11 December 2011 – Velenje, Slovenia – Scintillating front-running performances by Atelew Bekele and Fionnuala Britton highlighted the 18th Spar European Cross Country Championships in Velenje, Slovenia, on Sunday (11).

Bekele, who was at the front from the gun and forged on alone for much of the 9870m contest, covered the course in 29:15, five seconds clear of Spaniard Ayad Lamdassem, to claim the first-ever senior medal for Belgium at these championships. Britton, fourth a year ago, reached the finish seven seconds ahead of another pre-race favourite, Portugal’s Ana Dulce Felix, to collect just the second senior gold ever for Ireland. Meanwhile, Great Britain & Northern Ireland dominated the team triumph medal board, amassing four gold and two silver medals.

Bekele dominates – Men’s race

With much of this weekend’s spotlight falling on defending champion Serhiy Lebid’s drive for a tenth title, the 24-year-old Bekele fell somewhat under the radar on the list of potential spoilers. But his intentions were clear from the outset. Continue reading »

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