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Lead Stories: Friday, August 29, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 3/29/08

Posted March 29th, 2008 at 1:45 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, Track & Field, Olympics, Drugs In Sports, TFS News Briefs

TFS News Briefs
Coe Blames Athletes and Coaches, Not Federations, For Cross-Country’s Decline
A report in UK’s Guardian continues the recent discussion about the decline of European decline in cross-country. IAAF President Lamine Diack called Germany’s one-woman delegation (Susanne Hahn) “shameful.” (However, I must say that mad props should go to Hahn!) IAAF VP Sebastian Coe, the unparalleled middle-distance runner who won 4 Olympic medals and set 11 world records (8 outdoors/3 indoors), blamed the individual athletes and coaches, whom he said “don’t see it… You rarely find anyone at a European level now who sees a correlation from cross country to track.”
Read more at: [Guardian, UK]

African Showcase In Edinburgh
Speaking of cross-country, the 11th hour until the big race is upon us. At 9:45am Sunday morning (EST) (9:05 for the women’s race) the Africans will toe the line in Edinburgh, Scotland to take their 22nd world championship in a row at the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Among the favorites are 2006 winner Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, defending champ Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea, Moses Kipsiro of Uganda and a whole host of Kenyan runners, including Gideon Ngatuny. The lone non-African contender is Craig Mottram of Australia. In the women’s race, Tirunesh Dibaba hopes to join Bekele in an Ethiopian sweep.
Read more at: [IAAF][Peninsula On-line, Qatar]

Speaking of Mottram…
That’s all we can do because he’s certainly not doing any speaking for himself. He has initiated his usual pre-race lock-out of the media in order to prepare for the race. Benita Johnson, Mottram’s teammate and training partner, has joined him in the media ban. The Sydney Morning Herald states that the media ban is “self-imposed,” but taskmaster coach Nic Bideau must have a major say in the decision. Bideau told the media that “the interviews might make [Mottram] more famous and get him more sponsorship deals, but it’s not going to help him run better.”
Read more at: [Sydney Morning Herald][More Mottram]
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TFS News Briefs: 3/10/08

Posted March 10th, 2008 at 12:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Cross Country, Track & Field, TFS News Briefs

TFS News Briefs
USA Reigns Supreme in World Championships Medal Count
Team USA, even with many of its top athletes not in attendance, still took away a total of 13 medals, more than any other nation at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships held in Valencia, Spain from March 7-9, 2008. These included 5 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze. Russia was a close second with 12 medals, including 5 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze.
Read more at: [IAAF]

IHT Dismisses Worlds As “For Connoisseurs Only”
An article in the International Herald Tribune dismissed the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships as being “for connoisseurs only.” With The US contingent being “B Team USA” and still winning the meet, the writer probably has a point. Imagine if Wariner, Gay, Felix, Richards, Webb and Tegenkamp had been there.
Read more at: [IHT]

Mottram Focused On Edinburgh
After a disappointing 5th-place finish at the world indoors, Aussie Craig Mottram is now focused on redeeming himself at the World Cross-Country Championships to be held later this month in Edinburgh, Scotland. Mottram’s coach, Nic Bideau, said that “the focus is the cross-country. I mean he hadn’t done the preparation for a race like that, which was a sprint home.”
Read more at: [Melbourne Herald Sun]
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Craig Mottram Wins Handicapped Mile

Posted December 29th, 2007 at 6:40 PM by David Monti

Section: News & Results

mottram clip Australia’s Craig Mottram passed 47 people to win a handicapped mile in Devenport, Tasmania, on Saturday night, according to his coach and manager, Nic Bideau.

Running on grass, only Mottram and Australia’s two-time 1500m champion Lachlan Chisholm did not receive a headstart. Mottram clocked 3:59.1 in his first race since resuming his training in November. Chisholm finished second, ten seconds back.

“I love coming to run here because the people always get behind me,” Mottram told Australis’s ABC News. “It’s taken a few years of me coming down here and performing well to get the interest and the support, so I look forward to keep coming back in the future.”
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Wami’s Daring Marathon Double Begins in Berlin on Sunday

Posted September 27th, 2007 at 1:44 PM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Marathons

gete wami Most performers in elite sport will say that they would compete even if they weren’t paid. On the other hand, while rewards can often seem obscene, eg the $200,000+ per week that many English Premier League footballers earn nowadays, or three times the average YEARLY wage in the UK, few would deny them that opportunity to earn those sums, if that’s the going rate. But, what to make of those athletes who chase the money to the detriment of their career achievements?

Speaking of which, half a million dollars is the sum that Gete Wami has in her sights, the prize for winning the first edition of the World Marathon Majors series. But to ensure the victory, and the prize, Wami has to run in both the real_Berlin Marathon this Sunday, and the New York Marathon in five weeks’ time. And she would have to win both, in order to ensure displacing points leader, Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, who also runs New York. That is a tall order, even for an Ethiopian distance runner, despite Wami’s considerable kudos as a former Olympic 10,000m and world cross country champion.

In Berlin yesterday, Wami and her husband and coach, Getaneh Tessema were both playing down the dual challenge. “I can only start to think of New York when I finish the race here in Berlin on Sunday,” said the 32-year-old defending champion. “Whether I run New York will depend on what happens here.”
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