Welcome to the official blog of elite American middle-distance runner Nick Symmonds. Make sure to check every other Monday at http://nicksymmonds.thefinalsprint.com/ for Nick’s latest entry! For more information about Nick, also please visit: www.nicksymmonds.com
I am currently sitting in a cafe in Oviedo, a small city in the north of Spain and I’m thinking I have the best job in the world. I get paid to travel to many foreign places doing what I love to do. Well, usually I love this job, but sometimes it challenges me with the most difficult experiences. I ran into a new challenge this past weekend in Valencia, Spain at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
After passing through the prelims and semi-finals with relative ease, I found myself preparing to race in my first World finals. I was about to compete against five of the fastest people on this planet. The prospect had me excited to say the least and I had no idea what to expect. Though this was my first final on the World level, I have been in many championship races. They are, especially in the 800m, impossible to predict.
I assumed that it would go out at a modest pace and eventually slow down leaving things perfectly set-up for me to unleash a 200m kick that would surely result in a top three finish … No such luck.
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After thoroughly reviewing the race video, officials at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships reinstated 18 year-old Deresse Mekonnen of Ethiopia as the winner of the rough and tumble men’s 1500m final, giving that African nation a second gold medal today after Meseret Defar’s earlier win in the women’s 3000m.
Mekonnen, who had crossed the finish line first with an apparent victory, was disqualified immediately after the race under IAAF rule 163.3, which covers all manner of lane violations. He was cited for stepping into the infield after contact with another athlete. The Ethiopian delegation immediately lodged an official protest, as did the New Zealand delegation because Nick Willis was also disqualified.
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WCSN.com, in partnership with USA Track & Field, is providing free live video coverage of the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships being here.
The free live webcast start at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time today. Live coverage continues on Saturday March 8 (10:50 a.m. ET) and Sunday, March 9 (10:50 a.m. ET).
The 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships opened here today at the Palau Lluis Puig, and nearly all the top entrants in the men’s and women’s 3000 meters advance to their respective finals.
The first heat of the women’s qualifying round offered perhaps the best glimpse of tomorrow’s final when defending champion, Meseret Defar (Pictured)of Ethiopia, and one of her top challengers, Kim Smith of New Zealand, broke away with three laps to go to finish 1-2 in 8:51.02 and 8:52.82, respectively. Their times were particularly impressive, considering they ran the first kilometer in a pokey 3:06.22.
“It was easy,” Defar said after the race, speaking in English. “I keep for tomorrow.”
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Reigning IAAF World Indoor 800m champion, Wilfred Bungei of Kenya, has been forced to withdraw from this weekend’s IAAF World Indoor Championships with an injury.
“During his workout yesterday in Nairobi, Wilfred felt some pain while doing some faster strides,” said Eric Lilot of Demadonna Athletics Promotions, the Italian athlete management firm which represents Bungei. “He stopped immediately and applied ice. This morning, however, he still had some pain while jogging so has decided to skip Valencia.”
Bungei, 27, who has an outdoor personal best of 1:42.34, was enjoying a solid indoor season this year. He finished second to Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy twice at the beginning of this season, won his race in Valencia on Feb. 9, then came back to defeat Borzakovskiy in Stockholm on Feb. 21.
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On the second day of its meeting in Monaco, the IAAF Council agreed a number of hosts for future events.
There were two candidates for the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships, the second most important competition on the IAAF calendar, Doha, Qatar and Istanbul, Turkey. Following excellent presentations from the two candidates, a question and answer session, Council voted, and the winner was Doha, host of the 2006 Asian Games.
However, due to the excellence of the Istanbul candidature, Council also agreed to award that city the 2012 edition of the same competition.
“These were clearly two top class candidates demonstrating not only excellent facilities and organizational capabilities but outstanding levels of support from public authorities,” said IAAF President Lamine Diack. “I am glad that Council agreed that we should take this opportunity to ensure that the next two editions of the World Indoor Championships would help us in our aims to universalize our sport.”
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The Russian capital city of Moscow has been awarded the right to host the 4th edition of the European Athletics Indoor Cup, which will be held on Saturday February 16, 2008.
It will be the first time Moscow has hosted a major athletics event since the successful IAAF World Indoor Championships took place in 2006, and will take place in the 5,000 seat CSKA Arena, which hosts the successful IAAF Indoor Meeting “Russian Winter” every January.
Eight teams will take part in each of the men’s and women’s competitions and will be led by the French men and the Russian women, who are the defending European Cup champions both indoors and outdoors.
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