Beijing Olympic Games 2008

Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic is aiming for her first Olympic honor at the peak of her powers.
The 24-year-old world champion is hot favorite in the Chinese capital after 33 consecutive victories and she has jumped 3 cms higher than anyone else this season.
Vlasic, whose father and former coach Josko was a former decathlete, won her first senior gold medal at last year’s world championships when she set a personal best of 2.07 meters.
She won the high jump at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart in September and the world indoor championships in Valencia this year.
Her father’s 1984 decathlon record still stands, a rare example of father and daughter simultaneously holding national records.
Vlasic was born in Split, Croatia’s main Adriatic artery. Her father named her after the Moroccan city of Casablanca where he took part in the 1983 Mediterranean Games shortly before her birth.
She made the headlines in the early stages of her career with a series of semi-nude photos.
Vlasic won the bronze medal at the 2004 world indoor championships in Budapest but ended the season on a low after finishing 11th at the Olympics in Athens.
Vlasic captured the silver at the 2006 world indoors in Moscow before she took world athletics by storm last year.
She registered 18 wins in 19 outdoor competitions after finishing fifth at the European indoors in Birmingham in March 2007.
The only second-place finish, at the Bislett Games in Oslo, cost Vlasic a chance to earn a share of last year’s $1 million Golden League jackpot won by U.S. sprinter Sanya Richards and Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.
In October, she became the first Croatian to be named the European women’s Athlete of the Year. This year she remains in contention for the Golden League jackpot.
Known for striking a pose when she clears the bar, Vlasic will certainly be one of the most eye-catching athletes in Beijing. If she hits top form, her other ambition of breaking the world record of 2.09 meters.

(writing by Zoran Milosavljevic, editing by Robert Woodward)
source: reuters.com

Some of the planet’s premier runners, along with a contingent of Great Britain’s Olympic team, are set to warm up for the Beijing 2008 Games by competing first at the Aviva London Grand Prix July 25-26.
One of a series of summer competitions being staged by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the London Grand Prix will gather more than three dozen British Olympic team members at the Crystal Palace, according to the official website of UK Athletics.

Phillips Idowu, winner of the triple jump event at the 2008 British Olympic trials with a distance of 17.58 meters, will take part in the Grand Prix triple jump event.

Christine Ohuruogu, the women’s 200-meter race winner at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, will also attend as part of preparations for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. She was quoted on the official website of European Athletics as saying: “Nothing will prepare me better for Beijing than a warm-up at the Aviva London Grand Prix in front of a home crowd.”

Many international track and field stars are set to meet at the Grand Prix, just two weeks before the Olympics kick off in the Chinese capital on August 8. Among the most closely watched competitions in London will be the men’s 100- and 200-meter races. The three fastest men in the world - Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt – are all scheduled to converge on the Grand Prix.

Powell, the former 100-meter event world record holder, will compete against his strongest rival, Tyson Gay. Gay, a triple gold medalist at 2007 World Championships in Osaka, was quoted on the official website of UK Athletics as saying: “London will be very crucial for me – it is one of the biggest meets of the year right now and that is where it is going down between myself and Asafa. He has the title of being the world record holder and I have the title of being the world champion and I think that is really good for the sport.”

The world number one in men’s long-distance running, Kenenisa Bekele, will compete in the 5000-meter race in London. Bekele won the 5000-meter race at the London Grand Prix in 2005, but was defeated by Bernard Lagat in 2006 and was absent in 2007.

The first woman who vaulted over 5.00 meters, Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva, will compete in the pole vault event in London before traveling to Beijing.

An impressive performance for an around –the-world audience is set to be staged in London.

source: beijing2008.cn

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt laid down another marker for the Beijing Olympics when he ran the fastest 200 metres of the year so far at the Athens Grand Prix on Sunday.
The 21-year-old, who broke the 100 metres world record at the end of May, clocked 19.67 seconds, cruising home to a comfortable victory.
It was a personal best for Bolt and the fifth fastest time ever over the distance.
However, he again played down suggestions that he would soon break Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old record of 19.32.
“It is a very hard record to get but someone will take it one day and hopefully I will be that person - maybe next year,” he said.
Cuba’s Daryon Robles also sent out a warning for the Olympics, clocking 13.05 in the 110-metres hurdles. It was well off his world record 12.87, set last month, but still the third-fastest time of the year so far.
“I felt really good. I am working day after day to fulfil my personal objective for the Olympics,” he said.
“I don’t want to think too far ahead yet. I honestly believe it is a question of getting to the (Olympic) final because it is, of course, a desire and dream of every athlete to get an Olympic medal.”

STIRRING FINISH
Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas took the 100 metres for the second year running, clocking 10.10, while Louis van Zyl produced a stirring finish to plough past the Americans Danny MacFarlane and Reuben McCoy to take the 400 metres hurdles.
The South African’s winning time of 48.22 was shy of American Kerron Clement’s 47.79, the best so far this year, but there was a season’s best in the high jump where Sweden’s Stefan Holm cleared 2.37 metres.
The 2007 triple jump world champion Nelson Evora produced a leap of 17.23 to see off Olympic silver medallist four years ago Marian Oprea and the Cuban Arnie David Girat while Louis Tsatoumas gave the home crowd something to cheer when he leapt 8.44 metres, the third best long jump of the year.
Veronica Campbell-Brown made up for disappointment in the same meeting in 2007, winning the women’s 100 metres in 10.92.
The Jamaican said: “I am satisfied with my race. I have been training very hard and I hope I will stay healthy to achieve my goal in Beijing. I adore Athens. I run my best races here.”
Sanya Richards of the US missed out by 0.03 seconds on the fastest time of the year in the 400 metres but still won with something to spare in 49.86.
In the women’s javelin, world record holder Osleidys Menendez of Cuba had to settle for second behind the Czech world champion Barbora Spotakova who won with a throw of 63.70 metres.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar shattered the world indoor record for the women’s two-mile race at the Boston Indoor Games on Saturday, while Australian Craig Mottram clocked the fastest 3,000m time in the United States.
Meseret Defar, the 5,000m Olympic and world champion and outdoor world record holder, clocked 9:10.50 to blitz the previous two-mile mark of 9:23.38 by American Regina Jacobs here in 2002.
New Zealander Kim Smith, who trains in nearby Rhode Island, finished second in 9:13.94.
Defar, the 2007 IAAF female athlete of the year, said there was still room for improvement.
“I’m not running today 100 percent,” Defar told reporters. “I could have run faster.”
Mottram, aiming to make up for the disappointment of last year’s world championships, cruised to an impressive 7:34.50 in the men’s 3,000m — the fastest time recorded over the distance in the United States, indoors or out, and an Australian national record.
Mottram bettered Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie’s 2004 indoor U.S. all-comers record of 7:35.24 and topped the outdoor best of 7:35.44 run in 2005 by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge. He also eclipsed his national record of 7:39.24 set at the same meet last year.
Markos Geneti of Ethiopia was a distant second in 7:41.81.
“Had I known it was Haile’s I would have tried a little bit harder,” Mottram said with a chuckle. “He’s definitely the greatest distance runner of all time. That’s one record I’ll be proud of.”
Mottram will face double world champion Bernard Lagat in the mile at next week’s Millrose Games in New York.
World 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia shook off recurring cramp to win the women’s 3,000m with a 2008 world-leading time of 8:33.37. Her sister, Ejegayehu Dibaba, was second in 8:36.59.
There was disappointment for Olympic and world heptathlon gold medallist Carolina Kluft of Sweden, who could finish no better than third in the long jump with a best of 6.34m.
“I’m very disappointed today,” Kluft said. “It was just one of those bad days where everything goes wrong. I had no feeling. No rhythm,” she added.
American outdoor record holder Jenn Stuczynski returned from Achilles and back problems to win the women’s pole vault at 4.60 metres but failed in three attempts at a U.S. indoor record of 4.82.

from: chinadaily.com.cn