PALANGA (LTU): IAAF organised in this Lithuanian city a seminar for presidents of around 50 athletics federation from Eastern Europe and Asia. Main lecturers were IAAF President Lamine Diack, Senior Vice-President Sergey Bubka and EA President Hansjorg Wirz. Informs Bulgarian media. The theme was the role of regional and national federations towards the development of world-wide athletics movement.
BRUSSELS (BEL): Belgium’s 4x400m relay team is planning a team building trip to Greenland at the end of October. The team, which includes the succesful Borlée twin brothers and is under the lead of their father Jacques Borlée, will ski up to 30 kilometers every day. A team of the BBC will travel along with the team to shoot a documentary.
LONDON (GBR): Sprint star Tyson Gay has backed training partner and double Paralympic champion Jason Smyth to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics next year. The 24-year-old visually-impaired sprinter from Northern Ireland has improved dramatically since he joined up with top sprinting stars, such as Gay, as part of the Lance Brauman’s training group who are based in Florida. He broke his own Northern Ireland record for 100 metres last month with a time of 10.22sec to secure the B-standard for London 2012 Olympics and this year’s World Championships in Daegu where he will be hoping to compete for Ireland writes Insidethegames. Smyth is scheduled to represent Ireland this weekend at European Team Championships, First League in Izmir.
KINGSTON (JAM): Kaliese Spencer, despite running a remarkable 50.98 over the 400m in the cold and windy conditions of New York, will solely focus on the 400m hurdles at the Jamaican National Championships. Spencer ran 54.20 this season and will be among the favourites at the World Championships in Daegu. The Jamaican athletes does hopes to be included into the 4x400m relay she said for Carribeantracklife.com.
JOHANNESBURG (RSA): South Africa’s sport minister said on he still wants the country to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games despite a cabinet decision last month to instead spend money on services for the poor. Fikile Mbalula said he hopes to convince his colleagues in President Jacob Zuma’s cabinet to revisit plans for an Olympic bid, which the government vetoed after estimating it would cost $50 million reports news.yahoo.com.
LONDON (GBR): Jessica Ennis’ coach Toni Minichiello claimed Ennis appearance in New York has been not a good one in the rainy and windy conditions of last weekend. Ennis is already qualified for the IAAF World Championships but will still take part in the Great Britain Trials in Birmingham and is also registered to take part at the North of England Championships in Manchester this weekend where Ennis will do the javelin and long jump.
GOLD COAST (AUS): Olympic hurdles medalist Sally Pearson, who in April won a rare treble of gold medals at the Australian Athletics Championships, will this weekend compete at home on the Gold Coast as she continues her build up to the 2011 IAAF world championships this August. Set to depart Australia for Lausanne on June 26, Pearson will this Saturday compete in both the 100m and 100m hurdles, before backing up the following day for a 60m and 200m dash.
JOHNSON CITY (USA): Total Sports US announced the addition of NCAA pole vault Champion Scott Roth (University of Washington) to its roster. Roth enjoyed a stellar high school career, earning multiple national titles to go along with a World Youth silver and a World Junior berth. This year he captured both the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles and owns an indoor and outdoor personal best of 5.72 meters. Total Sports US, based in Johnson City, Tennessee represents many of the world’s top track and field athletes including Lisa Aguilera, Dylan Armstrong, Nataliya Dobrynska, Carmelita Jeter, Lacy Janson, Sally Kipyego, David Payne, Nick Symmonds, Dwight Thomas, Sheena Tosta, Novlene Williams-Mills, and Megan Wright.
KINGSTON (JAM): Last year co-fastest in the world Nesta Carter said he will not be at his best for Jamaica’s National Championships set for June 23-26 here at the National Stadium. Carter, in a recent interview, said “I suffered a hamstring injury at the Prefontaine Classic” and added “I just return to full training,” while making it clear he would not be at his best by next week. At the Prefontaine Classic, Carter, who looked uncomfortable towards the end, ran 9.92 in what was his second 100m race of the season. The sprinter, the fourth fastest man in history at 9.78, pulled out of last weekend’s Adidas Grand Prix in New York. Informs TrackAlerts.
KINGSTON (JAM): World champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton is not too worried about her New York appearance and also Jamaican trials later this month. She is focusing on defending her title later in the season in Daegu. “My national championships is not so much on my agenda, considering that I have an automatic spot into the World Championships, it’s about getting ready for August now, so my training is not geared to be sharp now. I’m going to be sharp later on in the season,” Foster-Hylton said of the upcoming senior nationals, in an interview that followed an unplaced effort at the Icahn Stadium in New York. She added: “And as everyone knows, I’m coming back from major surgery, so I have work to do and that’s what I’m doing.” Informs Jamaica Gleaner.
NEW YORK (USA): World champion at 10 000 m Linet Masai disclosed for Universal Sports that she plans to run the July 15-16 Kenyan national trials for the World Championships next, even though she is automatically entered in the Daegu 10,000 as the defending champion, and wasn’t sure if her national federation would require her to contest the trials. She would prefer to run the 5000 m at the trials but she is not sure she will be allowed to do it. Preparing for Daegu’s 10,000m final on August 27 will mean a limited race schedule for Masai after next month’s trials. “We’ll do one grand prix after that before the world championships, either Stockholm or London, in the 5000,” said her agent Ricky Simms.
JOHANNESBURG (RSA): South African 400m hurdles record holder and world leader LJ van Zyl says he will use his prize money from the domestic athletics season to buy cattle for his family. Van Zyl, the leading one-lap hurdler in the world this year, received a R200 000 cheque from sponsors Yellow Pages on Wednesday for setting a national record of 47.66 seconds in Pretoria in February. “I plan on using the money to pay off my home bond and to buy some cows for my father’s farm in Malteno [in the Eastern Cape],” Van Zyl said. “I am pleased with my form and will be returning to Europe in search of more fast times when I compete at the Diamond League meetings in Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 30 and Birmingham, England, on July 10,” he said. SA media are informing.
