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Farah’s amazing double Watching the Olympic 5000m final on...

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 18:54:37 +0000

Farah’s amazing double

Watching the Olympic 5000m final on TV didn’t really do justice to the atmosphere inside the stadium when compared to live footage from the stadium. The noise generated by the crowd shook this person’s camera and it also distorted the Omega photo-finish print-out!

Yokohama Marathon route and course profile

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Yokohama Marathon route and course profile

Pavey in confident mood for Yokohama – preview Jo Pavey feels...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:42:44 +0000

Pavey in confident mood for Yokohama – preview

Jo Pavey feels her preparations for Sunday’s Yokohama Marathon have been her best to date and while the 39-year-old doesn’t have a specific time-goal in mind, Pavey is confident she can improve her 2:28:24 PB which she set on her debut in London last year.

While her preparations in the build-up to the London and New York Marathons were blighted by stress fractures, Pavey’s enjoyed a largely uninterrupted spell of training this autumn and her performances on the roads confirm she’s reaping the benefits of this. Pavey posted a 69:20 half-marathon in the Great North Run which compares favourably to her time of 70:49 last year and this was followed up with a 53:00 10-mile sharpener for victory at the Great South Run.

Unlike the notoriously undulating New York course which Pavey ran on last year, the profile of the Yokohama Marathon is very flat which was one of the key factors that swayed her towards choosing this race for her autumn marathon. The organisers have also arranged some high-calibre pacemakers, including sub-2:25 competitor Maria Konovalova, which should greatly benefit those in the elite-field looking for a PB or a quick time.

Pavey admits she’s still on a learning-curve as far as her marathon career is concerned and the differences in time-zones has meant she’s had to adapt her preparations accordingly by travelling to her race destination two weeks in advance. In terms of pacing too, Pavey might opt for a more conservative start as she was operating at low-to-mid 2:20-pace in the opening stages of her debut before fading in the second half. Even though the end-product was faster than her time in New York, Pavey is capable of a much faster marathon.

2012 has very much been Pavey’s resurgent year and she now has her sights set on making her fifth Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. A marathon PB would cap off one of her best seasons to date and her first marathon podium finish from this race isn’t out of the question either. Here’s a look at some of her main rivals on Sunday and see here for full elite-field.

Five potential winners

1 Lydia Cheromei

The Kenyan veteran is by far the fastest marathoner at 2:21:30 but her form appears to be slightly on the slide since registering that very fast time in January. After an ambitious start in the Prague Marathon in May, Cheromei was forced to drop out in the final 10km. She was also the arguable pre-event favourite for last month’s World Half-Marathon Championships but she finished fourth although her time of 69:13 was still respectable in testing conditions in Kavarna.

2 Remi Nakazato

Yokohama doubles up as one of the selection races for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and the competition among the Japanese is always of a ferocious standard. At 24, Nakazato is one of the rising stars of Japanese marathon-running and she will be looking to qualify for her second World Championships team after finishing tenth in Daegu 2011. Finishing second last year in 2:24:29 shows she enjoys the course too.

3 Jelena Prokopcuka

The Latvian is one of a handful of last-minute entrants in light of the cancellation of the New York Marathon. Prokopcuka has been in good form as she rolled back the years at the Great North Run by lowering her seven-year-old half-marathon PB to 68:09 to finish fourth. While most well-known for winning New York twice, she’s also at home on the roads in Japan as she won the 2005 edition of the Osaka Marathon in a PB of 2:22:56. The only question is how much her preparations have been affected by having to alter her racing schedule so drastically.

4 Yukiko Akaba

Akaba is a rarity in Japanese marathon-running circles as she juggles motherhood with racing at an elite level. 2011 was her best season to date as she started her year with victory in Osaka in 2:26:29 before finishing sixth in London in a PB of 2:24:09. Akaba then took fifth at the World Championships and was only 21 seconds away from the bronze medal but perhaps running three high-level marathons in such a short space left Akaba a bit depleted for her spring marathon this year as her 2:26:08 performance in Nagoya proved insufficient for Olympic selection.

5 Mai Ito

Ito has been a consistent performer in the past eighteen months with a runner-up finish in Osaka last year and fifth in Nagoya this year in a PB of 2:25:26. She was also in the top-ten at the World Half-Marathon Championships.

The dirtiest race of the past decade? While lacking the grandeur...

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 17:19:00 +0100

The dirtiest race of the past decade?

While lacking the grandeur of the infamous 100m final from the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, the 2006 European Championships 1500m final could be a contender for one of the dirtiest high-profile races, at least in recent times. There have been subsequently no less than eight doping violations among the first nine finishers and many of them have been caught up in some of the most controversial doping cases of the past decade.

European Championships 1500m results:

Tatyana Tomashova 3:56.91 PB – the two-time world champion was one of seven Russian athletes busted on the eve of the Beijing Olympics for long-term tampering with doping control. In a case with strong connotations of organised doping, Tomashova was suspended for two years and nine months and all of her results from April 2007 were annulled. While her European title still stands, her doping record irreparably blotches all of her past achievements. Now 37, Tomashova returned to competition last summer and finished fourth in the Olympic 1500m final this year.
Yuliya Fomenko 3:57.61 – the Russian, who improved from 4:04.58 to 3:58.68 in 2005, was also implicated in the pre-Beijing doping scandal.
Daniela Yordanova 3:59.37 – Bulgaria won three medals at the 2006 European Championships through Vania Stambolova, Venelina Veneva-Mateeva and Yordanova. All of them subsequently tested positive.
Yelena Soboleva 4:00.36 – Soboleva was arguably the highest profile of the Russians to get caught up in the pre-Beijing scandal. Her early-season results included the world indoor title from Valencia where she broke the world 1500m record and as well as being favourite for her specialist event , Soboleva was considered the most likely challenger to Pamela Jelimo in the 800m on the basis of her now-voided sub-1:55 from the Russian Championships. She returned last summer and just missed a place on the Russian 1500m team for London by one spot.
Lidia Chojecka 4:01.43
Corina Dumbravean 4:02.24 PB – the Romanian served a two-year ban in 2007 and notched up her second doping sanction in the space of three years when she refused to submit a sample for doping control in 2010. She’s banned for life.
Nataliya Tobias 4:02.71 – Tobias’ doping sample from last year’s World Championships where she finished ninth was retested. It was found to contain traces of testosterone.
Iryna Lishchynska – while she’s never tested positive, Lishchynska shares the same coach as Tobias, who also happens to be Iryna’s husband Igor Lishchynskyy.
Hind Dehiba 4:05.46 – the infamous Frenchwoman was busted when the police arrested her at Charles de Gaulle airport after her luggage was found to contain human growth hormones. She served a two-year ban and returned better than ever in 2009.
Tetyana Holovchenko 4:05.53
Helen Clitheroe 4:09.73
Maria Martins 4:13.62

World marathon record-holder…for a decade! In a season...

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:57:00 +0100

World marathon record-holder…for a decade!

In a season which had already included her second world cross-country title, victory in the London Marathon in the second fastest time ever as well as titles on the track at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, Paula Radcliffe capped off her annus mirabilis with a world record in the Chicago Marathon of 2:17:18 on 13 October 2002. Saturday marks the tenth year of her record which is a time only since bettered by Radcliffe herself.

2002 Chicago Marathon results:

Paula Radcliffe 2:17:18 WR
Catherine Ndereba 2:19:26
Yoko Shibui 2:21:22
Svetlana Zakharova 2:21:31
Madina Biktagirova 2:25:20
Deena Kastor 2:26:53
Kayoko Obata 2:28:15
Nuta Olaru 2:31:37

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/ethiopians-dominate-chicago-marathon/

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 20:04:36 +0100

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/ethiopians-dominate-chicago-marathon/:

Chicago tidbits

*Tsegaye Kebede became the first non-Kenyan winner of a World Marathon Majors race since team-mate Gebregziabher Gebremariam won the New York Marathon in 2010.

*Kebede broke the nine-year Kenyan dominance of this race by becoming the first non-Kenyan winner of this race since Khalid Khannouchi a decade ago. Kebede also became the first ever Ethiopian winner of this race.

*Likewise, Atsede Baysa broke the long-standing Russian dominance which stretches back to 2008. She became just the second Ethiopian winner after Berhane Adere triumphed in 2006 and 2007.

*This was the first time since 2001 (Ben Kimondiu 2:08:52, Catherine Ndereba 2:18:47 for Kenya) that both winners came from the same country.

*Tilahun Regassa’s 2:05:27 debut was the fourth fastest marathon debut ever. The fastest are Moses Mosop (2:03:06), Dennis Kimetto (2:04:16) and Ayele Abshero (2:04:23).

*Dathan Ritzenhein moved to No.3 on the US all-time rankings after running 2:07:47.

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/tadese-wins-record-fifth-title-at-world-half-gbs-steel-and-jones-in-top-10/

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:25:00 +0100

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/tadese-wins-record-fifth-title-at-world-half-gbs-steel-and-jones-in-top-10/:

My World Half-Marathon Championships report for Athletics Weekly, published on October 6.

Chicago Marathon - formcharts, stats and facts

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 12:20:00 +0100

Chicago Marathon - formcharts, stats and facts

Adere’s amazing comeback Adriana Nelson’s (nee...

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:19:25 +0100

Adere’s amazing comeback

Adriana Nelson’s (nee Pirtea) marathon debut didn’t go entirely to plan as the Bucharest-born runner collapsed through exhaustion at 37km on her first go at the distance in her homeland of Romania. She vowed never to run the distance again but subsequent results, including a top-ten finish at the World Half-Marathon Championships in 2005, suggested she was always going to perform better at the longer distances than on the track.

Pirtea was lured back to the marathon in 2007 and the Romanian was on the verge of making an unlikely winning return to the distance. In sweltering conditions which wrecked havoc with the pre-event formcharts, Pirtea found herself in the lead at 36km and her advantage had stretched to more than 30 seconds at 40km over Berhane Adere, who was wallowing in the hottest Chicago Marathon since the late 1970s.

While Adere is renowned for her redoubtable finishing speed, the commentators calling the race on US television saw it as a foregone conclusion and Pirtea was even confident enough to hi-five the crowds lining the roads. Coming into the final 385-yards, Pirtea still had close to a 20-second lead although Adere was now starting her revival.

Adere, who looked broken by the conditions at 35km, now resembled a cheetah pouncing on her prey as she employed her track speed to devastating effect. She was closing on Pirtea with every stride and the Ethiopian, whose CV includes a world indoor 3000m title in 2003, came through to defend her crown in the final 80m ahead of Pirtea, who couldn’t respond once she realised her victory was in jeopardy.

“Probably that was my mistake, I didn’t check,” Pirtea understated after the race. “I never looked behind. I thought if somebody was coming, everybody would be screaming that somebody was there.”

Pirtea, who is now an American citizen, admits she still gets asked constantly about that race. Her reply in an interview with runcolo.com at the start of the year was candidly self-deprecating. ”Thanks for reminding me. I was almost at the point of forgetting about it!”

She later said she did look back in the closing stages although she couldn’t spot Adere, who had to swerve wide past some of the stragglers in the men’s race.

Even though she took a lot of positives from the race, the over-riding emotion was bittersweet. ”Finishing in second place among the amazing athletes who competed that day, I was more than happy, so I can’t say I 100% regret anything. But of course it still haunts my dreams sometimes.”

2007 Chicago Marathon – results

Berhane Adere 2:33:49
Adriana Nelson (nee Pirtea) 2:33:52
Kate O’Neill 2:36:15
Liz Yelling 2:37:14
Benita Willis 2:38:30
Nuta Olaru 2:39:04
Paige Higgins 2:40:14
Yolanda Fernandez 2:45:23

World Half-Marathon Champs form-guide

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:25:00 +0100

After a two year hiatus, the 20^th edition of this now bi-annual race takes place in the small Black Sea resort of Kavarna in Bulgaria. While a lot of the world’s leading distance runners are either enjoying a break after the track season or preparing for autumn marathons, many top athletes from the track and roads will still be targeting this championships where former champions include Haile Gebrselassie, Paul Tergat, Paula Radcliffe and Mary Keitany.

The lack of head-to-head competition makes it difficult to make a wholly accurate form-guide but here’s a look at some of the leading contenders.

Dark-horse

Elvan Abeylegesse is due to compete although her form is an unknown commodity having barely raced since giving birth to her daughter last July. She’s only known to have raced once this year which resulted in an inauspicious 16:21.96 for 5000m. However, this race was nearly five months ago so we can expect the Turk to be in much better form now. If Abeylegesse is anywhere near the form which took her to the fastest ever debut of 67:07 in 2010, she will be a threat to the medals.

Brit-watch

The Brits will almost certainly be the first European team to finish, mainly because the only other country with a team are the host notion and one of their trio has only narrowly broken 90-minutes for the half-marathon! Gemma Steel and Caryl Jones arrive fresh from PBs of 70:46 and 71:18 respectively from the Great North Run while Susan Partridge has sub-72 in Bath earlier this year. They have an outside chance of a bronze medal in the team race if they all perform to the best of their ability.

Dark-horse

Japan have sent a strong team which includes 21-year-old Chihiro Miyawaki, who made a 60:53 winning debut in March. While an individual medal might prove a bit of a stretch, the Japanese team looks most likely to challenge the hegemonic dominance of the East Africans in the team competition.

Brit-watch

The men’s race will once again be devoid of British participation. According to UKA, the men who met the selection criteria were not available for selection.

Stats, facts and figures

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:50:00 +0100

World Half-Marathon Championships

*Most medalled athletes only includes athletes who were one of the first three counters in the team race

Makau vs. Kipsang vs. Mutai - split comparisons

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 17:22:28 +0100

Why Geoffrey Mutai will break the world marathon record *If an...

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:40:03 +0100

Why Geoffrey Mutai will break the world marathon record

*If an athlete has serious aspirations of targeting the world marathon record, Berlin is THE course to do it. The last four world records (see video) have all been set on the streets of the German capital so it can quite plausibly claim to be the fastest course on the world marathon circuit.

*While it’s quite easy to forget, Mutai is still (albeit unofficially) the fastest marathoner in history. He won Boston last year with 2:03:02 although it couldn’t be ratified for record purposes due to the course profile even though it’s not considered as one of the fastest big-city marathons.

*New York is the slowest of the major marathons due to its undulating nature but Mutai still ran an astonishing 2:05:06 (this would have been a world record at the turn of the millennium) last year to break the course record by 2:37. Mutai’s winning time made New York’s course-record the seventh fastest and the most impressive aspect of his run was his 28:57 split from 30-40km which contains most of the toughest climbs in Central Park. As a rule of thumb, a time set in New York is worth at least two minutes more on a faster course and using this as a (rough) guideline, Mutai’s projected time is comfortably below the current world record.

*Makau had the company of Haile Gebrselassie until 27-28km last year and Mutai probably won’t have the road to himself after the halfway point either. The field also contains sub-2:05 athlete Jonathan Maiyo and Dennis Kimetto, who won the Berlin half-marathon in 59:14 and set a world 25km record also in Berlin of 1:11:18 in May. The latter, who is making his marathon debut, is also Mutai’s training partner and he could assist with his world record bid if the pace starts to drop.

*While it is due to be a bit more breezy than the elite athletes might have hoped for, conditions are still favourable. Temperatures aren’t due to surpass 16C and no rain is forecast either.

Tirunesh Dibaba made a successful transition to the...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:50:00 +0100

Tirunesh Dibaba made a successful transition to the half-marathon by winning on her debut at the Great North Run in 67:35. The two-time Olympic 10,000m champion called upon her dependable superior track pace to defeat world marathon champion Edna Kiplagat from Kenya and team-mate Tiki Gelana. Dibaba intends to move to the marathon very soon and she is likely to come across both athletes over the full distance so this victory augurs well for when she makes her debut which might be in London next year.

Official results

Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 67:35
Edna Kiplagat (KEN) 67:41
Tiki Gelana (ETH) 67:48
Jelena Prokopcuka (LAT) 68:09
Jo Pavey (GBR) 69:20
Rene Kalmer (RSA) 70:13
Gemma Steel (GBR) 70:46
Caryl Jones (GBR) 71:18

Svetlana Ulmasova produced a tremendous sprint finish to win the...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 19:31:30 +0100

Svetlana Ulmasova produced a tremendous sprint finish to win the second running of the 3000m at the 1978 European Championships which she went on to defend in Athens in 1982. Silver medallist Natalia Marasescu from Romania later became infamous for being one of the select group of Eastern Bloc athletes to fail a drug test although the former world 5000m record-holder was reinstated in time for the 1980 Olympics although she made little impression, finishing ninth in the 1500m final. Grete Waitz, rather like Paula Radcliffe, lacked the raw speed to win major track titles as demonstrated in this race but the Norwegian legend was soon to find her niche on the roads. She won her first of nine New York Marathon titles later in the year in a world record time of 2:32:30 before winning her last title a decade later in 1988. By then, the world of marathon-running had moved on the record had been lowered by Ingrid Kristiansen (tenth in this race in 9:02.87) to 2:21:06.

Svetlana Ulmasova (URS) - 8:33.16
Natallia Marasescu (ROU) - 8:33.53
Grete Waitz (NOR) - 8:34.33
Maricica Puica (ROU) - 8:40.90
Giana Romanova (URS) - 8:45.70
Cornelia Burki (SUI) - 8:46.13

10. Ingrid Kristiansen (NOR) - 9:02.87

Dibaba set for Great North Run half-marathon debut Tirunesh...

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:41:00 +0100

Dibaba set for Great North Run half-marathon debut

Tirunesh Dibaba’s half-marathon debut will be her first step in racing terms in her progression towards the marathon which she’s looking to tackle for the first time next year. The two-time Olympic 10,000m champion faces the marathon champion from London and team-mate Tiki Gelana, who ran a sub-2:19 national record in Rotterdam in April as well as world champion Edna Kiplagat from Kenya, who is looking to rebound from a disappointing Olympic campaign.

Dibaba is likely to face both of these athletes at some point in her marathon career so Dibaba’s debut tomorrow will have the extra value of facing some of her potential future opposition as well as testing out the distance.

Even though the Newcastle to South-Shields course is notorious for its undulating profile, fast times have been recorded in both the men’s and women’s races. Paula Radcliffe set a world-best of 65:40 in 2003 (can’t be ratified as a world record due to the overall downhill nature) and Kara Goucher became the world’s fastest debutante when she ran 66:57 to defeat Radcliffe in 2007.

Conditions shouldn’t be too bad for tomorrow’s race and if Dibaba is motivated for a fast time like she was when she made her 15km debut in 2009, Goucher’s world’s fastest debut time should be within her grasp. The roll-of-honour shows track exponents generally perform well on this course and Dibaba has the advantage of fresher legs as Gelana and Kiplagat could still be feeling some of the effects of racing over the marathon distance five weeks ago.

Tiru’s record on the roads

April 7 2002 – At 16, Dibaba finished second in the Carlsbad 5000 in 15:19 behind Deena Kastor, who set a US record of 14:54. The teenager still finished ahead of luminaries including Werknesh Kidane, Sonia O’Sullivan and long-time domestic rival Meseret Defar.

October 6 2002 – second again over 5km in Syracuse, New York in 15:44 behind Eyerusalem Kuma (15:38).

April 13 2003 – a fortnight after winning the world junior cross-country title in Lausanne, Dibaba proved competitive against the highest level of senior competition finishing third in Carlsbad in 15:00 behind soon-to-be world 10,000m champion Berhane Adere (14:54) and Isabella Ochichi (14:56).

April 3 2005 – Dibaba finally prevailed in her third appearance in the Carlsbad 5000 winning in an African record of 14:51 which has since been beaten.

November 15 2009 – Dibaba missed the majority of the track season because of injury but she finished with a flourish on her 15km debut in Nijmegen (see video) after a four year hiatus. Dibaba debuted with 46:28 to break Kayoko Fukushi’s world record by 27 seconds. The most impressive aspect of Dibaba’s record was the manner in which she set the record as she ran the final 5km almost one-minute faster than the first!

Dibaba’s splits – 15:58, 31:23 (15:25), 46:28 (15:05)

December 31 2011 – another injury-plagued season concluded with a venture onto the roads as she won her 10km debut in Madrid. Instead of going for a fast time, Dibaba relied on her legendary sprint finish to win in 31:30 ahead of 1500m specialist Gelete Burka.

April 1 2012 – Dibaba was the comfortable winner in Carlsbad for the second time in 15:01.

Past results

2011 – 1. Lucy Kabuu (KEN) 67:06, 2. Jessica Augusto (POR) 69:27, 3. Marisa Barros (POR) 70:29

2010 – 1. Berhane Adere (ETH) 68:49, 2. Dulce Felix (POR) 69:01, 3. Marisa Barros (POR) 69:09

2009 – 1. Jessica Augusto (POR) 69:08, 2. Berhane Adere (ETH) 69:42, 3. Dulce Felix (POR) 69:48

2008 – 1. Gete Wami (ETH) 68:51, 2. Magdaline Mukunzi (KEN) 68:52, 3. Jo Pavey (GBR) 68:53

2007 – 1. Kara Goucher (USA) 66:57, 2. Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 67:53, 3. Aniko Kalovics (HUN) 70:17

2006 – 1. Berhane Adere (ETH) 70:03, 2. Benita Willis (AUS) 70:17, 3. Susan Chepkemei (KEN) 70:22

2005 – 1. Derartu Tulu (ETH) 67:33, 2. Werknesh Kidane (ETH) 68:09, 3. Jelena Prokopcuka (LAT) 68:11

2004 – 1. Benita Willis (AUS) 67:55, 2. Edith Masai (KEN) 68:27, 3. Susan Chepkemei (KEN) 68:32

2003 – 1. Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 65:40, 2. Berhane Adere (ETH) 67:32, 3. Susan Chepkemei (KEN) 67:51

2002 – 1. Sonia O’Sullivan (IRL) 67:19, 2. Susie Power (AUS) 67:56, 3. Joyce Chepchumba (KEN) 68:34

Ilke Wyludda broke her major championships duck with gold in the...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:09:00 +0100

Ilke Wyludda broke her major championships duck with gold in the discus at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and aged 43, she returns to the Olympic fray albeit in a slightly different manner to when she was in her hey-day in the 1990s.

Wyludda’s international career started almost three decades ago under the flag of the former GDR when she won the inaugural world junior title in 1986. She dominated senior competition at the turn of the decade amassing 41 successive wins from 1989 to 1991 but it wasn’t until reunification when she achieved her first global title in 1996 after a succession of near misses at the highest level of elite competition.

The latter stages of Wyludda’s career were blighted by knee injuries and she retired from competition after the 2000 Olympics aged 31 which is when most discus throwers reach their prime.

Wyludda’s injuries forced her to undergo a succession of operations in the late 1990s and she needed further surgery on her knee and lower leg after retiring from the sport after finishing seventh in Sydney.

She went under the knife again in 2010 although this time, the operation led to complications as the wound became infected which then led to septicemia. To put it bluntly, Wyludda had to choose between losing her limb or losing her life.

Her lower limb was amputated from just above the knee but despite an already busy lifestyle balancing long hours working as a full-time doctor and writing a doctoral thesis in pain therapy, Wyludda was lured back to the competitive arena after a twelve year hiatus with the Paralympic Games very much in mind.

“It’s always better if you have a goal in life.” Wyludda acknowledged.

“However much you cry, you are not going to get your limb back. You cannot stand in the past but keep living with new aims because life is a gift.”

Wyludda started training seriously again at the start of the year and she currently trains five times a week under the tutelage of Gerhard Boettcher, who coached Wyludda for much of her senior career. She made a tentative return in a disability competition in the UAE where she threw 6.20m in the F57/58 shot put.

However, the distance was immaterial for an athlete who was still a novice in this sort of competition: “It was important for me to watch above all. The whole competition is a lot different from what I was formerly accustomed to.”

The main obstacle Wyludda noted was how the power in disability competition has to come entirely from the upper-body when most of the power in able-bodied discus is generated from the lower legs.

Wyludda has overcome the changes in bodily dynamics and technique and has gradually found the form which will see her contend for a podium finish in both the F57/58 shot put and discus. She improved her shot put PB from 6.20m to 9.95m and she recorded a 29.12m discus which would have won bronze four years ago.

What a triumph over adversity it would be if Wyludda was to win a medal in London.

Wyludda’s London schedule

Sep 4, 19:00 – F57/58 discus final
Sep 8, 10:03 – F57/58 shot final

Assunta Legnante compiled a solid career in able-bodied shot put competitions with the highlight being a gold medal from the 2007 European Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

Throughout the entirety of her career though, Legnante had to contend with congenital glaucoma in both eyes, a vision problem which she’s had since birth which forced her to miss a number of competitions, namely the 2004 Olympic Games.

Her vision became increasingly problematic in 2009. She was driving to a meeting in Padova and it got to the stage where she could no longer see through her right eye which had generally given her more reliable vision through wearing lenses.

For the next three years, Legnante admitted she didn’t partake in any sports as a number of doctors from a variety of hospitals tried to solve the blindness and once she was sure it wouldn’t be resolved, Legnante immediately contemplated participation at the Paralympics and was put in touch with the President of Paralympic Sports Luca Pancalli.

Within weeks of training, Legnante set a world record in the F11 shot put of 13.27m. Since then, Legnante has improved enormously to 15.89m which makes her by far and away the leading aspirant for the title in London.

Legnante also plans to compete in the F11/F12 discus.

Legnante’s London schedule

Sep 1, 11:45 – F11/12 discus final
Sep 5, 10:00 – F11/12 shot final

Olympic Games – highlights and lowlights Best moments of the...

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:00:01 +0100

Olympic Games – highlights and lowlights

Best moments of the Games

*Two moments which left me speechless were Jessica Ennis’ 100m hurdles in the heptathlon and David Rudisha’s world record in the 800m. Of course we didn’t dare say it at the time and while it’s easier to say in hindsight, I think we collectively knew that performance could have clinched the gold medal in the heptathlon. 12.54 was a UK record, the fastest ever time in a heptathlon and worthy of a podium place in most individual sprint hurdles finals. It confirmed Ennis was in optimum shape and allayed any doubts Ennis might succumb to the pressure of being the face of the Games.

*Since becoming a fan of the sport in eight years ago, the men’s 800m has always been a funny ol’ event lacking any sort of dominant figure. Yuriy Borzakovskiy has been one the mainstays although tactical misjudgements have prevented him from becoming a multi-global champion which many were expecting. Instead, champions have come and drifted away from the 800m in an anonymous fashion until David Rudisha took the event by the scruff of the neck in 2009. The Kenyan has won 31 of his last 32 races and he ran in London with the sort of authority not too far removed from past all-time greats like Wilson Kipketer and Alberto Juantorena who I would have loved to watch at their peaks. In fact, Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 was the first time a world record has been set in a championship middle-distance race since Juantorena in 1976. This exemplifies the rarity of what Rudisha achieved and I had goosebumps when I saw the winning time.

*It’s funny how you sometimes don’t appreciate a sportsperson until the latter stages of their careers. I’ve never been much of a fan of Michael Phelps until his Olympic swansong this year and I didn’t really root for Maria Sharapova before her career-threatening shoulder injury and in stark contrast to recent years, I found myself actively pulling for Usain Bolt. As unpopular an opinion as it might be, I’ve never been particularly enamoured by the pre-race theatrics but realising this could be the last time we see Bolt at the Olympics, I just focused on the racing. Bolt became the first athlete in history to defend his three Olympic crowns and he’s probably the only athlete on the planet who can get away with calling himself a legend without sounding stupid. Bolt’s clearly the best sprinter we’ve seen – and might see in our lifetime and while I’m not fond on the pre-race routine, probably because I’m a miserable fart, he brings drama and a sense of occasion to the track in a way no other sprinter can. Michael Johnson was right when he said the other sprinters just don’t look the same when they play up to the cameras. In terms of performances and what he brings to the track, there’s no superior and if he chooses to hang up his spikes before 2016, what a way to round off your Olympic career!

*I found myself drawn away from British Eurosport as the BBC’s coverage of the Games went beyond what I was expecting with *shock horror* uninterrupted coverage of field events on the interactive service. How nice it was to be able to watch a field event unfold in real-time instead of relying – or hoping – for the main channels to show the leading jumps or throws by which time you already know the outcome because you’ve seen the medallists go on their victory lap behind Colin Jackson and Denise Lewis’ heads or heard the winner’s national anthem in the background. I doubt I’ll be a permanent convert but this time the BBC’s coverage was faultless, particularly compared to the horror stories I’ve heard from the folks across the pond stuck with NBC.

Biggest surprises of the Games

*Had anyone even heard of Keshorn Walcott before the Olympics? While he had some pedigree from winning the world junior title, nobody even tipped him for a minor medal despite the lethargic standards of men’s javelin throwing but it was great to see someone step up and seize the opportunity while the rest of the finalists grossly underperformed.

*Class of 2004 Meseret Defar and Felix Sanchez rolled back the years in winning their second Olympic titles eight years after their initial triumphs. Defar’s pre-London form included a heavy loss to Tirunesh Dibaba in New York and a string of defeats to Vivian Cheruiyot but the former champion had something of an advantage in London as she didn’t contest the 10,000m. At the time, this wasn’t factored as a hindrance seeing as Dibaba and Cheruiyot have both successfully doubled up in the past but Defar, running on fresh legs, outsprinted the pre-race favourites for the first time since 2009 for a shock gold medal. Meanwhile, Sanchez had slipped into the second-rank of 400m hurdlers for a while since winning in Athens but spurred on by the promise he made to his late grandmother, Sanchez produced his first sub-48 performances since 2004 in the semi-finals and finals to seal the most emotional gold medal of the athletics programme.

Memorable image of the Games

*Usually such a poker-faced competitor, Jessica Ennis crossing the line in the 800m with her arms stretched out wide is my over-riding image of the Games. Even after her world and European titles, Ennis still retained a serenity about her but you could just see all of the emotions pour out as she was crowned Olympic champion.

Worst moments of the Games

*Nobody wants to see an athlete with a history of doping winning medals in London so Tatyana Lysenko and Asli Çakir-Alptekin’s back-to-back victories on the seventh day left a sour taste and the only blotch on the men’s 100m final was Justin Gatlin pipping Tyson Gay for the bronze medal. Two year bans are ineffectual (it takes some athletes longer to come back from injuries!) and while lifetime bans will probably never be implemented, Olympic bans would be the greatest deterrent. Besides which, a commitment to anti-doping is enshrined in the Olympic oath which the aforementioned haven’t upheld so let’s ban them for life, then.

*Again, what a shame Valerie Adams was robbed of the chance of standing on top of the podium after Nadzeya Ostapchuk tested positive for anabolic steroids. Ostapchuk has been one of the Belarussian I’ve been less dubious of given her pedigree as a junior, consistent progression and willingness to compete internationally but her performance in London left me rather uneasy. Ostapchuk had never surpassed 21m outside of Belarus until the Olympics where she was churning them out one after another in a machine-like manner. The end result was a series which hasn’t been produced since the days of the Iron Curtain and it didn’t come as much surprise when the positive drug test was announced. However, there’s nothing to suggest Adams isn’t capable of a three-peat in 2016.

*Thankfully it was resolved but the under-measurement of Betty Heidler’s fifth-round throw in the hammer shouldn’t have happened at this level of competition. The computerised methods are by no means infallible and everyone watching saw the throw was in excess of 75m so why couldn’t the distance be remeasured at the time? Even though Heidler was fairly confident the error would be resolved, it still took away the moment of celebration in the stadium.

*For every ecstatic moment of the Games, injury or bad luck can just as easily derail someone’s aspirations on the most visible level. Morgan Uceny fell for the second major 1500m final in succession and Brigitte Foster-Hylton’s chances of claiming an elusive Olympic medal at 37 ended after a mid-race trip in the 100m hurdles heats. Great champions like Paula Radcliffe, Liu Xiang and Roman Sebrle were forced to pull out of their respective events through injuries.

Biggest disappointments of the Games

*For the fourth Olympics in succession, the US shot-putters arrived with the world’s longest throws to their credit but failed to win the Olympic title. The triumvirate held the six longest puts in the build-up so Reese Hoffa’s solitary bronze medal was a rather scant return.

*There was scepticism even from the likes of Haile Gebrselassie whether their marathoners could translate their super-fast times from Dubai in January and potential candidates, namely 2008 bronze medallist Tsegaye Kebede will be feeling somewhat aggrieved of their non-selection as the gamble didn’t pay off. Ayele Abshero and Dino Sefer, who both ran sub-2:05 in Dubai, didn’t finish the men’s race while sub-2:20 performers Mare Dibaba and Aselefech Mergia finished 23^rd and 42^nd respectively in the women’s marathon. Their selection process was akin to picking the hardest-hitting tennis players for a doubles match even though the assignment doesn’t necessarily call for an all-out-attack approach.

*The Kenyan 1500m runners made a meal of the final while Nick Willis also underperformed after setting a national record in Monaco.

Things which could have been better

*One of my perennial bugbears is the three semi-final system which continues to be implemented at major championships. Unless you’re a tactical ignoramus, the 800m heats were pretty much a cakewalk for anyone half-decent but then the semi-finals transcended into nothing more than a lottery. I’m not alone in favouring the old system whereby sixteen athletes progress from the heats into two semi-finals where the top-four from each race make the final. It makes the heats more competitive and the semi-finals fairer. And if anything, surely semi-finals denotes two races, not three?

*Okay, I’m being picky now but I did miss the live-scoring on the IAAF results page. The BBC and London 2012 website filled the void although they weren’t the most user-friendly sites I’ve visited.

Quick-fire round-up

Best track final – Sanya Richards-Ross vs. Christine Ohuruogu in the 400m. For a split second, it looked like the reigning champion would reel in Richards-Ross in a repeat of Beijing.

Best field event final – Renaud Lavillenie was on the brink of defeat in the pole-vault until a clutch 5.97m clearance on his final attempt. This probably didn’t get the coverage it merited. The women’s hammer final also produced the best ever quality final although it was partially marred by Heidler-gate.

Worst track final – Savinova was my favourite for the 800m title but I was hoping for a much more competitive race. Cater Semenya and Pamela Jelimo were rather underwhelming opposition in the final.

Worst field event final – the women’s triple jump in Beijing produced a rich harvest of 15m performances and while Olga Rypakova was the deserved winner, the winning mark of 14.98m was disappointing.

Best tactical performance – Savinova ran a typically well-measured race in the 800m while the Turks avoided the argy-bargy which befell Morgan Uceny by staying out of trouble and at the front in the 1500m final.

Worst tactical performance – Semenya left her finish too late in the 800m final and a 14-minute 5km split was a foolhardy move by Wilson Kipsang in the men’s marathon.

Olympic Games thoughts; *After anchoring Jamaica to the gold...

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 23:56:09 +0100

Olympic Games thoughts;

*After anchoring Jamaica to the gold medal in the 4x100m in a world record time, Usain Bolt’s thoughts on competing at the 2016 Olympics weren’t wholly optimistic:

“I’ve thought about it, I think it is going to be very hard. Yohan is coming through and I’m sure a lot of the other young guys are coming up, so I will see what happens in four years.”

A move to the 400m has been bandied around as Bolt’s possible post-2012 territory even though he’s not a fan of the one-lap race and such plans didn’t seem to figure when he spoke after the 200m:

“I’ve got nothing left to prove. I’ve showed the world I’m the best.”

If he decides to retire before Rio de Janeiro, who could blame him? Bolt’s financially set for life and bear in mind, London was his third Olympic appearance which is on par with the norm for a world-class sprinter. His goals in London were to achieve legendary status which he accomplished by becoming the first athlete to retain their 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles. They might not come to fruition but Bolt holds ambitions away from the track which might also weaken the lure of another four years in a sport where he’s already achieved everything which matters – twice.

*The parity between Beijing and London in the sprinting events was striking with Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards-Ross, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Christine Ohuruogu among the medallists again. Even though retirement doesn’t appear to be on their respective horizons, 2016 would be Felix, Richards-Ross and Ohuruogu’s fourth Games and Campbell-Brown’s fifth. Likewise, Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay will be 34 and Carmelita Jeter 36 at the next Games which suggests London 2012 could have been the Olympic-swansong for some of the world’s best sprinters of the past decade.Merlene Ottey, Gail Devers and Linford Christie are oft-cited examples of sprinters with longevity at the highest level but they are the exceptions to the rule. True, athletes enjoy greater longevity at the top-level but expect 2016 to play host to some fresh faces in the sprints.

*A change of the guard could become apparent on the track too as three-time Olympians and respective 5000m and 10,000m champions Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba have aspirations of moving to the roads next year. Their move could leave a dearth on the Ethiopian track team and for all the medals their top athletes have won, the depth is starting to dwindle as the majority of juniors move straight for the marathon with the promise greater financial rewards, albeit perhaps to the detriment of the longevity of an athlete like Defar or Dibaba who have both followed the conventional route of moving through the distances. Only five Ethiopians (including Defar and Dibaba) have broken 15-minutes for 5000m this year while twelve have broken 2:25 for the marathon.

*Caster Semenya was accused of not trying to win the women’s 800m final although subsequent explanations, including Colin Jackson’s which was quickly disregarded by Michael Johnson in the BBC studio, didn’t seem to be based on anything more than rudimentary pop psychology. Semenya wasn’t tipped as a medallist before the Games and while it is true she made a tactical error in the final, accusing Semenya of tanking grossly degrades the achievements of Mariya Savinova, who has been the most consistent 800m runner and the best racer over the past three seasons. The Russian, whose pre-London form was superior to her pre-Daegu form where she won gold in 1:55.87, would have probably still won gold even if Semenya was in closer contention.

*Semenya was by no means the only athlete to misjudge her tactics. Wilson Kipsang’s 14-minute 5km split from 15-20km in the men’s marathon came at least 10km too early and probably put paid to his gold medal aspirations while the leading aspirants in the men’s 5000m ran a foolish race. They didn’t attempt to take the pace on in the early stages even though Mo Farah must have been fatigued from the 10,000m and nobody attempted to get ahead of him with 600m to go, which is when Farah is in his element.

*Race-walking is sometimes unfairly regarded as the poor relative of athletics but the women’s 20km produced a climax just as exciting as any in the track and field programme. On her senior championships debut, Yelena Lashmanova defied her teenage years by producing a perfectly paced race to reel in reigning champion Olga Kaniskina on the final circuit and the 19-year-old was even rewarded with a world record of 1:25:02. While it will never be the most glamorous event of the athletics programme, hopefully race-walking might have gained a few converts.

*Only one athlete surpassed the Olympic A standard in the men’s long jump final so let’s hope this will influence the IAAF to lower the preposterously tough qualifying mark of 8.20m for future global competitions. The lack of consistency across the board in terms of qualifying standards, which there shouldn’t be, is astounding if you consider the women’s 5000m A standard is a modest 15:20.00 which wouldn’t have come close to making the final. The emphasis on streamlining field events also marred the men’s high jump final after the bar was incremented from 2.29m to 2.33m which is, in other words, going from one centimetre above the B standard to two centimetres above the A standard. Six of the fourteen finalists were eliminated at this height which made a somewhat modest 2.29m clearance sufficient for a medal. While the margins sound minimal, going from 2.29m to 2.32m to 2.35m would have probably made for a better spectacle and avoided the anomalous outcome of three athletes sharing a bronze medal.

What to look out for at Crystal Palace? *Christine Ohuruogu...

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:10:58 +0100

What to look out for at Crystal Palace?

*Christine Ohuruogu doesn’t always distinguish herself on the commercial circuit but the Londoner has been putting together a series of performances in Diamond League competitions which suggests she will be in medal-winning form at the Olympic Games. Ohuruogu has been hamstrung by injuries in recent years but she ran her fastest time in three years in Paris last week and her performance in the Stade de France of 50.59 was more than two tenths faster than her season’s best before the Beijing Olympic Games. Inclement conditions are forecast which might hinder her ability to improve on this time but let’s see if Ohuruogu can get any closer to world champion Amantle Montsho (she finished 0.82 ahead of her in Paris) who will be the benchmark.

*Knee surgery and a mid-season virus accounted for Dai Greene’s sub-standard early-season form but the world champion is coming into form at just the right time. Greene arrives fresh from a 47.84 PB from the Paris Diamond League where he came within six-hundredths of Javier Culson, who is unbeaten this year. With another week’s training under his belt and the advantage of home support, could Greene overturn the deficit and claim a victory over the world No.1 in the 400m hurdles?

*No other event caused an iota of the controversy as the women’s 800m did in terms of Olympic selection and this could reignite if Marilyn Okoro produces something eye-catching in the 800m. Since her non-selection for an individual slot, Okoro set a UK 600m record of 1:24.36 followed by (bar two performance at considerable altitude) her fastest 400m since 2007 of 52.67.

*How will Yamile Aldama and Phillips Idowu respond after recent injury problems? Despite advanced age and fitness concerns, both athletes are still considered medal contenders in the triple jump next month. Aldama, who injured her shoulder in Rome, faces European champion Olha Saladuha while Idowu, who has been suffering from a foot strain, takes on world champion Christian Taylor. This competition will be telling to see how they will fare in the Olympic Games.

*The much maligned British quartet will be in need of a confidence-boosting performance in the relay after the European Championships marked another disaster in the recent history of British relay-running. Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, France and Polish are also due to field sprint quartets too

*It might be a long-shot but the pacemakers have been asked to toe the field through 3km in 7:45 in the 5000m (12:55-pace) which is more of less on UK record pace. If the pacemakers do their job properly and Farah is in the mood for it, perhaps his 12:53.11 UK record is living on borrowed time?

*Barbara Parker could also take victory in the 3000m steeplechase. With Habiba Ghribi opting to sit out this race after winning in Paris last week, Parker is comfortably the fastest in the field and feels confident of pushing towards a sub-9:20 performance. The predicted conditions might not be particularly conducive for fast sprinting performances but the distance-runners should benefit from the cool conditions.