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Lead Stories: Monday, October 6, 2008

TFS News Briefs: 6/04/2008

Posted June 4th, 2008 at 11:00 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Sebastian Coe: Real Damage to Track & Field Inflicted By Americans
British Middle-Distance Great Sebastian Coe has written a scathing indictment of America’s role in the doping scandal in track & field and our attitude toward the sport. Perhaps most telling are his words, “American athletes who remain anonymous in their own towns are lauded in the Golden League in Europe.”
More: Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom

Lagat Remains a Student Of the Sport
The Guardian has posted a profile of Beijing 1500m favorite Bernard Lagat who, after all of his experience and success, remains a careful student of the sport who learns something every day.
More: guardian.co.uk, UK

Bolt Undecided About Olympic Double
Having only run five 100m races in his entire life, world-record holder Usain Bolt is still not sure whether or not he will attempt a 100m/200m double in Beijing. He said he would run the 200m “for sure” but that he would leave the decision about the 100m up to his coach, Glen Mills.
More: CBC
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TFS News Briefs: 5/19/2008

Posted May 19th, 2008 at 2:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Trevor Graham Trial to Begin This Week
The trial of Marion Jones’ former coach, Trevor Graham, begins this week in a San Francisco, CA federal court room. Several prominent names expected to take the stand as prosecution witness include Antonio Pettigrew, Jerome Young, Calvin Harrison and Dennis Mitchell.
More: HeraldNet, WA

Sebastian Coe: Get These People Out Of Our Sport
Lord Sebastian Coe, a vice-president of the IAAF and one of the best middle-distance runners of all time is not pleased with Dwain Chambers’ attempt to get back into track & field, saying, “The way we move away from it [the drugs issue] is we have got to get these people out of our sport. I don’t recognise a particularly principled stand in the last few days.”
More: Times Online, UK

Wariner Not Too Concerned About Tight Hamstring
Despite a timid start because of soreness in his hamstring, Jeremy Wariner predicts that he will be ready to “run with everybody else” by the time he toes the line at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene next month.
More: Reuters
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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

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: 2/19/2008

Posted February 19th, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

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

Coe: Track & Field Can’t Survive Another Drug Scandal
Double Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe said that another scandal could wreck the sport of track & field, saying, “we cannot have another five years like the one we’ve just been through because I’m not sure the sport would survive that.”
Read more at: [The Age]

Oregon High Schooler Runs 1:52 800m With No Speed Work
Having done no speedwork yet, Elijah Greer, a junior from Oswego High School, ran an outstanding early-season time of 1:52.66 at the University of Washington’s Husky Classic. It is the best prep time of the season.
Read more at: [The Oregonian]

Pistorius May Have New Evidence To Help His Appeal
Oscar Pistorius, the South African 400m sprinter who has been banned by the IAAF, may have new evidence to help him when he appeals the ruling that his two prosthetic legs give him an advantage over runners with two legs.
Read more at: [News24.com, South Africa]
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London 2012: New Era of Stadium Design Unveiled

Posted November 9th, 2007 at 9:28 PM by Jamal Walker

Section: News & Results, Olympics

The Olympic Stadium for the Games in 2012 has been unveiled at a ceremony in the London Olympic Park. The 80,000-seat stadium will be the centre-piece of the 2012 Games venues and will host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and athletics events. Once the Games are over, the arena will be converted into a 25,000-seat permanent stadium and will become a new home for athletics, combined with other sporting, community and educational uses.

Inspiring, Innovative and Sustainable

Commenting at the launch, the Chairman of the London 2012 Organizing Committee (LOCOG), Seb Coe, said:

“We talk a lot about milestones, but few will be more exciting than this, the unveiling of the Olympic Stadium, which will be the centre-piece of our Olympic Park. The stadium will stand for everything we talked about in the bid: it will be inspiring, innovative and sustainable – the theatre within which the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will be played out and will leave behind top class sporting and community facilities after the Games.”

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TFS News Briefs: 11/07/07

Posted November 7th, 2007 at 2:30 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Cross Country, Olympics, TFS News Briefs

London Olympic Stadium: “For a New Era”
The 2012 London Olympic Stadium was unveiled today. Lord Sebastian Coe called the 80,000 seat arena a “stadium for a new era.” It will be converted to a multiple-use, 25,000 seat stadium when the Olympics are over. Read more at: [BBC Sport]

Razorbacks to Host South Central Region
The Arkansas Razorbacks cross-country team is hosting the NCAA South Central Regional Championships this coming Saturday, November 10th, 2007. The Hogs have won 28 of the last 29 South Central titles, including 17 straight. Read more at: [HogWired.com]

Glitch at NYC Marathon Causes Some Erroneous Finish Times
Oops! New York City Marathon organizers, calling it a “little problem,” are downplaying a malfunction that caused some finishers of the New York City Marathon to have incorrect times. Some of these erroneous times may have implications for Boston Marathon qualification. An official statement will be released tomorrow. Read more at:[Bloomberg.com]
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TFS News Briefs: 11/05/07
Special Marathon Edition

Posted November 5th, 2007 at 2:00 PM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Marathons

Sebastian Coe On Paula Radcliffe
Paula Radcliffe’s victory in yesterday’s New York City Marathon prompted Sebastian Coe to sound off on her achievements, saying that, “Paula has clearly now transcended track and field and is one of the biggest names in British sport of all time. She has had more impact on track and field than any single man in the last 15 or 16 seasons.” Read more at: [InTheNews.co.uk, UK]

Katie Holmes Finished NYC Marathon in 5:29:58
Katie Holmes, wearing bib number F127, crossed the finish line at the New York City Marathon in 5 hours, 29 minutes and 58 seconds, prompting scores of news articles from celeb/gossip sites as well as news sites. Her average pace was 12:35 per mile. Read more at: [Google News]

Ryan Shay Autopsy Inconclusive
The autopsy performed on Ryan Shay, the marathoner who tragically died while competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic marathon team on Saturday, was inconclusive. A Histology will be performed on his heart but results of those tests will not be available for a week. Read more at: [NY Times]
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Quote of the Day: 10/19/07

Posted October 19th, 2007 at 6:00 AM by Hariz Siddiqui

Section: Motivation, Famous Quotes

“World records are only borrowed.”

- Sebastian Coe

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Coe sees Olympic lessons

Posted September 8th, 2007 at 7:30 PM by Adam Jacobs

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

In a video interview by Dan Sloan of Reuters, track legend and London Olympics Organizing Committee Chairman Sebastian Coe discusses the lessons to be learned from the IAAF World Championships in Osaka.

Despite the historic and dramatic races and performances at the World Championships, Coe explains that there is a lot that needs to be improved as he prepares for the London 2012 Olympics in terms of marketing, ticket sales, and media campaigns that can turn runners like Tyson Gay and Bernard Lagat into international heroes.

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IAAF reiterates support for four-year doping ban;
Coe, Bubka elected VPs

Posted August 23rd, 2007 at 7:15 AM by Bob Ramsak

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Drugs In Sports

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), track & field’s international governing body, reiterated its support for a four-year penalty for first time serious doping infractions.

At the second day of the 46th IAAF Congress, the sport’s ruling body endorsed a resolution first passed at its last Congress two years ago in Helsinki when member federations unanimously called for a move to increast penalties for doping offenses, in the case of serious infractions, from the current two year ban to four years.

“We remain convinced that strong penalties are an important cornerstone of an effective anti-doping campaign in general, and in athletics in particular,” the IAAF said in a statement released on Thursday.

The World Anti-Doping Code is currently under review, with revisions expected to be adopted at the World Conference on Anti-Doping in Madrid in November.
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