World record holder in the men’s 100-meter race Usain Bolt got his coach’s nod to compete in both 100m and 200m sprints in the Beijing Olympics, clearing his way to win the greatly coveted Olympic triple sprint golds.

Glen Mills, coach for the 21-year-old Jamaican who just arrived in Beijing on Saturday, said Sunday morning (Beijing Time) on the IAAF website that Bolt will take the double in the coming Olympics, from Aug. 8 to 24.

The Olympic information system, Info2008, also showed Sunday that Bolt, who refreshed his countryman Asafa Powell’s former world record by two hundredths of a second to 9.72 seconds in May, would participate in the 100m, 200m and 4×100m relay in the Olympic athletics.

After his low-profile arrival in Beijing, neither Bolt nor Powell showed up Sunday in the training camp located in Beijing’s east suburbs. Jamaican Olympic delegation members said that at least Powell and two other relay teammates will train in an unspecified camp in Tianjin, an Olympic co-host 120 kilometers southeast of Beijing.

Bolt ran the year’s best two in the 100 meters dash, including his record-breaking performance two months ago in London. The lanky runner also finished the best two in the 200 meters race, which made him a dominant runner in the half-lap competition.

Double dash golds are something the most aspired by any elite sprinters. The last one who got the unusual glory during the Olympics was Carl Lewis of the United States who won the both in 1984 in Los Angeles.

The triple world champion (100m, 200m and 4×100m relay), American Tyson Gay lost his chance to line up with Bolt in the men’s 200 meters after he was disqualified in June for a berth of the U.S. team for the competition due to leg cramps.

Powell, who outperformed Bolt over a week ago in Stockholm, Sweden, by a slight advantage, will not be in the 200 meters competition too. Compared to his top performance in the 100 meters dash, his personal best in the half-lap race was unimpressive.

However, the Jamaican men’s 4×100 meters relay team is formidable enough to any of their competitors. Besides Bolt and Powell, the rest two members of the relay team, Michael Frater and Nesta Carter, both clocked sub-10 seconds in the 100 meters.

Track and field is the biggest gold hope for the Jamaican Olympic delegation to Beijing.

from: xinhuanet.com

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

Dayron Robles of Cuba posted a time of 12.88 seconds in the Men’s 110m Hurdles at the Meeting Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis on Friday,which is just 1/100th second slower than the world record time he posted at the IAAF Grand Prix on June 12.

This is the second time Robles has clocked below 12.90 seconds, making the Cuban the only one who has reached the mark twice.

The 21-year-old hurdler won at the Golden Gala in Rome in 13.08 seconds last Friday. The repeat victory in Paris confirms once again that he is in good shape heading into the Summer Games in Beijing.

Robles’ time in Paris matched the previous world record, which China’s Liu Xiang, Olympic champion in Athens 2004, set on July 11, 2006, in Lausanne, Switzerland. The two will meet in Beijing in August in one of the most anticipated showdowns of the Olympic Games.

from: beijing2008.cn

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

Usain Bolt has his sights on the 200-meter world record, too.

The Jamaican, who set the 100 record of 9.72 seconds in New York on May 31, will skip that race Sunday at the star-studded Tsiklitiria meet.
“In Athens, I am running my favorite event to see how far my body will go,” Bolt said Thursday. “One day I will get the record … eventually. My aim is to improve on my personal record.”

Bolt is still not sure if he will compete in both the 100 and 200 at the Beijing Olympics.

“This is a decision my coach and I will make at the last moment. I have two more meetings to run in Europe (before the Olympics) and we’ll see how I feel after those,” Bolt said.

Bolt’s best in the 200 is 19.75 seconds, achieved at altitude last year. He has run a world-best 19.83 this year.

He hopes to win at least two gold medals in Beijing, one being in the 400-meter relay, where Jamaica missed the final in last year’s World Championships.

“Last year, we had a chance to win, but we messed up the baton change,” Bolt said. “If we can pass it around carefully this time, I am certain we will win.”

Other world record holders who will compete at the Tsiklitiria include Dayron Robles of Cuba in the 110 hurdles, Kenyan-born Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar in the 3,000 steeplechase and Osleidys Menendez of Cuba in the women’s javelin.

The list of stars also includes defending Olympic champions Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic in the 400 hurdles, Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya in the steeplechase, Stefan Holm of Sweden in the high jump and Christian Olsson of Sweden in the triple jump and Tim Mack of the United States in the pole vault.

A total of 250 athletes will take part in 17 events Sunday.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Swedish golden girl Carolina Kluft is determined to bag two gold medals at the Beijing Olympics after renouncing the defense of her heptathlon crown due to lack of motivation.
The Olympic heptathlon champion in Athens is planning to compete in the long jump and triple jump in China.
The switch in disciplines is partly due to fitness worries which have beset the 25-year-old in the past year, but there is also a strong mental aspect with her father Johnny Kluft saying his daughter is rediscovering her motivation.
“Right now she is training a bit less because of the reduction in disciplines, and she is feeling less tired than before,” he said.
“It is an unbelievable challenge for her and she is aiming to do her best. Before, she had won everything and she was starting to get bored.”
The athlete herself explained her decision in terms of motivation.
“I understand that a lot of people will not understand the decision and will contest it but the motivation is not sufficiently there for the heptathlon,” she said in a Swedish newspaper interview earlier this year.
“The decision was tough and yet at the same time a simple one. I had been thinking about it for some time. I had a chat with myself and followed what my heart said.”
Kluft’s extraordinary achievements started at the age of 12 when she came home from school and announced to her parents she could jump higher than her classmates.
By 17 she bagged her first major title at the world youth championships in Chile.
Since then she has gone on to be world heptathlon champion three times, (in 2003, 2005 and 2007) as well as Olympic gold medalist in 2004.
She has been European champion twice (2002, 2006). More recently, Kluft achieved gold twice (2005, 2007) at the European Indoor Championships in a different discipline, the pentathlon.
Her top heptathlon score of 7,032 points is second only to the all-time women’s record set at the 1988 Seoul Olympics by Jackie Joyner-Kersee of the United States.
The athlete, born at Boras in western Sweden, has a formidable pedigree of sporting achievement.
Her mother was one of Sweden’s leading long jumpers in the 1970’s, while her father Johnny was a professional footballer who spent much of his career with the Allsvenskan club in the Swedish first division.
Kluft has been working hard on her two chosen specialities and is currently ranked 8th in the world in long jump, one of the seven disciplines included in the heptathlon.
Last month at the European Cup event in Istanbul, she jumped 6.87m, 10 cm short of her personal best and she hopes to improve on that distance before heading out to Beijing.
But the Swede has yet to show she can win on the biggest of stages in the highly technical triple-jump finshing fourth in a recent meeting in Istanbul.
The 1.78m tall athlete is currently enrolled at Vaxjo University where she is studying peace and development. In September 2007 she married pole vaulter Patrick Kristiansson.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Tanzanian marathon hero John Stephen Akhwari said here that he concerned the lack of fund to develop his country’s athletics.

Akhwari, the most famous last place finisher in an Olympic Games marathon, was paying his second visit to the Olympic host city while telling his concerns.

“Lack of fund is the biggest problem for us right now,” said the 70-year-old. “We cannot afford building sport schools. Besides, we also lack fund to pay for the students’ accommodation, training and tuition.”

“If only we had enough fund to bring up more young talents, we would have created more good results in world class competition,” said Akhwari.

Tanzania has yet to win a marathon medal at any Olympic Games after Akhwari first represented his country in the Mexico City Games in 1968 when he dragged his injured leg to finish last, with four hours 30 minutes, in the marathon race. The winner, Mamo Wolde from Ethiopia, took the race in 2:20.26.

But he became one of the most memorable figures in the Olympic history with his persistence and his word.

“My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish,” said the then 30-year-old athlete.

Despite his last finish, Akhwari was honored as a national hero by Tanzania in 1983.

He was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in April this year in the Beijing Olympic torch relay Dar es Salaam leg.

from: xinhuanet.com

Javier Gomez Noya fought a six-year battle with Spain’s sporting authorities over a heart condition and he is now favorite to win a triathlon gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
“I have overcome a lot of obstacles. Some people have helped me, others haven’t. I can’t forget what has happened but I want to look forward, I don’t want wars with anyone,” the 25-year-old world champion told Reuters in an interview.
Gomez Noya’s problems started after a routine medical test by the Spanish Sports Council (CSD). In 2000 they withdrew his international licence due to what he describes as “an abnormal heart valve”.
With the help of independent consultants he won back his right to compete overseas in November 2003, just in time to win the world under-23 title in New Zealand.
He failed to make Spain’s 2004 Olympic squad and in 2005 the CSD decided to bar the Swiss-born athlete from competing at home and abroad until February 2006.
“I don’t think the Spanish Triathlon Federation and the CSD did well in my case. But we have got over our problems and I don’t think there is any point trawling through it all again,” Gomez Noya said.
“I have to have routine check-ups every three to six months. While the cardiologists think I can compete there is no problem.
“I didn’t consider quitting. Once the cardiologists said I could run, I decided to fight.”

Unbeatable
Since his return to competition, Gomez Noya has been all but unbeatable.
He won the triathlon World Cup series in 2006 and 2007, and leads the 2008 series after winning all four major races he entered, including the World Championships this month.
He was runner-up in the 2007 World Championships although he finished the year ranked No 1.
Gomez Noya was born in Basel, Switzerland, and was only months old when his parents returned to their native Galicia. He started out playing soccer and switched to swimming before getting into triathlon by chance when he was 15.
Friends at his local swimming club in Ferrol encouraged him to enter a competition.
“It caught my attention, the sport as much as the atmosphere. I saw I had a lot of room to improve but that it matched my characteristics well,” he said. “Although I come from the world of swimming … my strong point is the running race and it is the one I enjoy the most. It’s where I have had a slight edge over my rivals.”
Typical training sessions last between three and seven hours a day, depending on the proximity to a race, and need to exercise three different sets of muscle groups because of triathlon’s make-up of swimming, cycling and running.
The sport’s growing popularity - it is generally reckoned to have originated in the 1970s - won it acceptance into the Olympics for the first time in 2000 and Gomez Noya says people should not be put off by its reputation as a tough sport.
“I think it is made into something of a myth how hard the sport is. It’s not as tough as the marathon or cycling, where you have to spend six hours on a bike day after day.
“It’s more attractive than them because you do three different disciplines. It’s a young sport, and a clean one, and it’s doing well. We hope it carries on growing.”

Sporting idols
One of the problems holding back triathlon’s development, particularly in Gomez Noya’s home country, is the lack of media exposure.
“It’s difficult in this country … there isn’t a deep sporting culture,” he said. “The priority is given to football and in other sports to the ‘idols’ of the moment such as Fernando Alonso in Formula One or Rafa Nadal in tennis.
“People follow their idols rather than the sports themselves, which is bad for the rest of us.”
Gomez Noya, an admirer of cyclist Lance Armstrong and marathon king Haile Gebrselassie, would help to raise the profile of triathlon at home with a podium finish in Beijing.
“It’s an error to count on winning a medal in the triathlon. With one race every four years anything can happen, especially in a sport as tactical as this where it isn’t always the strongest who wins,” he said.
“The pressure could translate into a positive thing. They are my first Games and I just hope my novice status doesn’t work against me.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a world record in the men’s 100m, clocking 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix meeting at Icahn Stadium in New York on Saturday.
Bolt bettered the mark of 9.74 set by countryman Asafa Powell last September.
The 21-year-old, the 200m silver medalist at the world championships, dashed out perfectly at the start after a false start and touched the finishing tape ahead of 100m world champion Tyson Gay.
Gay finished second in 9.85, with his fellow American Darvis Patton a distant third in 10.07.
“It was a great start,” Bolt said, “I’ve been working hard at that. I gave you what you wanted.”
Earlier this month, Bolt stunned the athletics world by running a 9.76 in Jamaica, the second fastest time ever registered and only his third competitive race over the distance.

Evolution of men’s 100m world records

10.6 seconds, Donald Lippincott, United States, July 6, 1912
10.4, Charles Paddock, United States, April 23, 1921
10.3, Percy Williams, Canada, August 9, 1930
10.2, Jesse Owens, United States, June 20, 1936
10.1, Willie Williams, United States, August 3, 1956
10.0, Armin Hary, West Germany, June 21, 1960
9.99, Jim Hines, United States, June 20, 1968
9.95 (electronic), Jim Hines, October 14, 1968
9.93, Calvin Smith, United States, July 3, 1983
9.92, Carl Lewis, United States, September 24, 1988
9.90, Leroy Burrell, United States, June 14, 1991
9.86, Carl Lewis, United States, August 25, 1991
9.85, Leroy Burrell, United States, July 6, 1994
9.84, Donovan Bailey, Canada, July 27, 1996
9.79, Maurice Greene, United States, June 16, 1999
9.77, Asafa Powell, Jamaica, June 14, 2005
9.77, Justin Gatlin, United States, May 12, 2006
9.77, Asafa Powell, Jamaica, June 11, 2006
9.74, Asafa Powell, Jamaica, September 9, 2007
9.72, Usain Bolt, Jamaica, May 31, 2008

from: beijing2008.cn