Sanya Richards

World 400m champion Sanya Richards shares that her winning success and secret this year was by emulating Usain Bolt, that is “run fast when you just have fun and relax”.

At the World Championship last August, the American crossed the finish line first in a world-leading time of 49.00 seconds, some 0.32 seconds faster than Jamaican Shericka Williams.

Sanya Richards added, “This season I just had fun and relaxed. I think Usain and the rest of the Jamaican athletes showed us that you run fast when you just have fun and relax.”

With the World title in hand she shared the one million dollar jackpot on offer at the Golden League series with Russian Jelena Isinbayeva and Ethiopian Kenenanisa Bekele.

1 3 1022 Sanya Richards USA 49.00 (WL) 0.164
2 4 535 Shericka Williams JAM 49.32 (PB) 0.194
3 5 806 Antonina Krivoshapka RUS 49.71 0.187
4 6 534 Novlene Williams-Mills JAM 49.77 (SB) 0.214
5 7 393 Christine Ohuruogu GBR 50.21 (SB) 0.231
6 1 985 Debbie Dunn USA 50.35 0.275
7 2 799 Anastasiya Kapachinskaya RUS 50.53 0.220
8 8 159 Amantle Montsho BOT 50.65 0.212

Olympic champion Usain Bolt likes a laugh as much as the next man, which is why he agreed to a running race with FHM.

Who do you think will win ….

Glen Mills and Stephen Francis

Recently Glen Mills retired as Jamaica’s head coach of the country’s national team, and Stephen Francis, whose top athlete includes former 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell and two world and Olympic individual champions, has declined the offer at the job.

Francis was quoted, “It would be very hypocritical if I were to accept a position as team coach of the Jamaican team. I believe that post is for someone with less personal interest. The truth of the matter is that I don’t have the best interest of the Jamaican team members at heart.

What I do have is the best interest of the people that I coach at heart. I have in the past strongly believed that people who coach a number of athletes, especially non-Jamaicans in a private capacity, should not be accepting positions on a national programme primarily because, well for me, I am really interested in how the athletes who I coach perform.

And if I coach an athlete from Trinidad or from Bahrain, I am going to want my athlete to beat any Jamaican that I do not coach as a result of the whole athlete-coach thing.

I have repeatedly in the past turned down offers and have told the JAAA that I will not be available for any such position because it’s not fair to the athletes who are a part of the team, it is not necessary. But some people, for whatever reason, have felt that they need to continue doing it.

I don’t do it and I don’t see that changing in the future because as I said, I am going to want to see my individual athletes who I coach from whichever country beat whichever Jamaicans they are up against as long as I don’t coach them.

I wouldn’t want to recommend anybody. These things (appointments) are not done by ability anyway. it’s about friendships and who is comfortable working with whom, and so forth At the end of the day, however, the selection process is carried out.

I hope it is someone who would be an asset to the people who will represent Jamaica at these meets.”

From what I’ve been following the forums discussion, it seems that Francis has issues with his national body, Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA). Well well well now, we sure can identify with such ‘politics’ eh.

All-Athletics.com – The Most Comprehensive Athletics Database has published an interesting Track and Field rankings statistics

All-Time Lists:

After her 5.06m in Zürich, Yelena Isinbayeva has 24 of the best 28 results (4.85m or more) in women’s Pole Vault

Blanka Vlasic 2.08m in Zagreb is 2nd best All-Time in women’s High Jump

• So far 11 women have jumped 2.05m or more; 52 times (41 outdoor + 11 indoor):
• Stefka Kostadinova (BUL) 22 times (18+4)
• Blanka Vlasic’ (CRO) 14 times (11+3)
• Kajsa Bergqvist (SWE) 4 times (3+1)
• Hestrie Cloete (RSA) 2 times (2+0)
• Ariane Friedrich (GER) 2 times (1+1)
• Heike Henkel (GER) 2 times (1+1)
• Tia Hellebaut (BEL) 2 times (1+1)
• Lyudmila Andonova (BUL) 1 time (1+0)
• Yelena Slesarenko (RUS) 1 time (1+0)
• Tamara Bykova (URS) 1 time (1+0)
• Inga Babakova (UKR) 1 time (1+0)

World Rankings:

The latest All-Athletics Rankings were published on 2 September.

Overall leaders: Usain Bolt (men) and Sanya Richards (women)

Deep World and Area Rankings are available in all events

Countries Rankings:

Overall Men:

1. USA
2. Kenya
3. Russia
4. Great Britain
5. France

Overall Women:

1. USA
2. Russia
3. Germany
4. Great Britain
5. Jamaica

Countries Rankings are available in all events

Competition Rankings:

2009 Top 5 in the Invitational/One-day competitions category, before Brussels:

1. Zürich Weltklasse
2. Roma Golden Gala
3. Monaco Herculis
4. Eugene Prefontaine Classic
5. Lausanne Athletissima

The Competition Rankings are published in 12 categories

Rachel Christie

Rachel Christie is the niece of former Olympic sprint champion Linford Christie, who serves as her coach.

The 20 year old is also British beauty pageant contestant who was crowned Miss England 2009, and the first black mixed race woman to hold the title.

Rachel recently has to relinquish her Miss England crown as she was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Miss Manchester Sara Beverley Jones at a Manchester nightclub.

She subsequently announced her withdrawal from the Miss World competition and relinquished her Miss England crown.

Rachel Christie has been touted previously as the first Miss England with high hopes of winning a medal in the 2012 Olympics.

Leonard Chuene and Caster Semenya

Athletics South Africa president Leonard Chuene was suspended Friday for his role in runner Caster Semenya’s gender tests, where he lied about his knowledge of the tests, citing wanting to protect Semenya’s privacy.

Aside from the president, the track body’s 12-member board were also suspended pending investigations into their handling of Semenya’s case by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee.

It is also said action against international track officials is being considered.

An interim board is expected to be elected soon.

18 year old Caster Semenya won the women’s 800 meter world championships in August after which the International Association of Athletics Federations ordered a gender test to seek clarifications on her gender.

Check the Results here: nikerunning.nike.com

Top 10 Men (Overall)

1. Jauhari Johan 31:01
2. Thomas Kiprotich 31:54
3. Jason Lawrence 33:34
4. Kien Mau Lim 33:56
5. Dev Kumar Rai 34:23
6. Aaron Meng 34:31
7. Colin Tung 36:14
8. Lim Guo Hua 36:31
9. Patrick Ang 36:55
10. Jianyong Fang 37:00

Top 10 Women (Overall)

1. Anna Thompson 35:10
2. Vivian Tang 38:45
3. Lim Baoying 42:59
4. Sumiko Tan 43:05
5. Annabelle Yee 43:54
6. Phua Hui Qin 45:13
7. Jocelyn Chan 45:30
8. Melissa Tan 45:37
9. Maria Le Page 46:05
10. Michelle Zhang 47:03

Men’s Under-25

1. Aaron Meng 34:31
2. Colin Tung 36:14
3. Lim Guo Hua 36:31

Women’s Under-25

1. Sumiko Tan 43:05
2. Phua Hui Qin 45:13
3. Melissa Tan 45:37

A recent book on the 1968 Olympics athletics.

IN SOMETHING IN THE AIR, Richard Hoffer has written a gripping sports narrative that brilliantly tells the individual stories of the unforgettable athletes who gathered in Mexico City in 1968, a year of dramatic upheaval around the world.

Those Olympics caught the revolutionary spirit of the times. In these pages, Hoffer captures the turbulence and offbeat heroism of that historic Olympiad, which was as rich in inspiring moments as it was drenched in political and racial tension.

This was a year that saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy; racial rioting in the nation’s big cities; the upheaval at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; growing revulsion toward the war in Vietnam; an inspiring bid for freedom in Czechoslovakia, which was crushed by Soviet tanks; and student demonstrations seemingly everywhere, including, fatefully, in Mexico City itself.

Racial tensions were high on the U.S. Olympic team, where inflamed black athletes had to choose between demands for justice on one hand and loyalty to country on the other. No one had easy choices.

The sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos became as famous for their raised-fist gestures of protest as their speed on the track. No one was prepared for Bob Beamon’s long jump, which broke the world record by a staggering twenty-two inches.

1968 Olympics

And then there was Dick Fosbury, the goofball high jumper whose backward, upside-down approach to the bar (the “Fosbury Flop”) baffled his coaches while breaking records. Though Fosbury was his own man, he was apolitical and easygoing. He didn’t defy authority; he defied gravity.

These were a complicated Olympics — no longer a reliably reassuring sporting event, a respite from world events. Not only was the 1968 Olympics a forum for youthful protest, it was a platform for the lingering racism that divided a nation. The generational contest that was working itself out in the culture back home was exploding in Mexico City.

Everything was up for grabs. Professionalism was suddenly overtaking this last outpost of amateurism, the media was piggybacking a newly inflated spectacle, nations tussled as usual for international attention. And all the while, a bunch of kids were pitting their interests against the world’s, weighing performance against politics, in one of the most exciting sporting events of the twentieth century.

Witty, insightful, and filled with human drama, Something in the Air mixes Shakespearean complexity with Hollywood sentimentality, sociopolitical significance, and the exhilarating spectacle of youthful physical prowess. It is a powerful, unforgettable tale that will resonate with sports fans and readers of social history alike.

100m Men's Finals - Photo credit to Fana Farhanah via FB

Event: IVP 2009/2010

Location: Bukit Gombak

Date: 11 & 18 October 2009

Results: IVP 2009 Downloaded 78 times

Photos:
Link #1
Link #2
Link #3 (Day 2)
Link #4 (Day 2)
Link #5 (Day 1)
Link #6 (Day 2)
Link #7

Men 1500m

Men 110m Hurdles (Heat 2)

New York City Marathon 2009

The 2009 New York City Marathon was held yesterday and it saw Athens Olympic silver medallist Meb Keflezighi winning the men’s event. The Eritrea born (yes I myself am hearing this nation for the first time. Somewhere in the coastline of Africa’s Red Sea.) American Meb Keflezighi, won the race with a time of 2:09:15.

The women’s category was won by Derartu Tulu from Ethiopia who crossed the finish line in a time of 2:28:52. Tulu was 10,000-meter Olympic champion back in 1992 and 2000.

Race favorite Paula Radcliffe, who has won the race three times, dropped out running with the leading pack at the 22 mile marker after suffering from cramps. She finished fourth.

Other results includes four-time Boston Marathon champion Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya in second place (2:09:56), and Jaouad Gharib of Morocco in third spot (2:10:25).

Russia’s Ludmila Petrova (2:29:00) was second in women’s category, while France’s Christelle Daunay settled for third (2:29:16).

Full results at the official site, www.nycmarathon.org

Meb Keflezighi wins NYC marathon

Derartu Tulu talks of her win

Paula Radcliffe cries

Paula post-race