Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2008-06-28

Edith Masai leads the field in the women’s 10,000m – 2006 Kenyan Champs (Photo credit: IAAF)

Former three times World Cross Country short course champion Edith Masai won the 10,000 metres on the second day of the Kenyan National Championships held at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on Friday (27).

Masai who faced stiff opposition from marathon aces Catherine Ndereba

and Rita Jeptoo managed to overhaul her opponents in the last 100 metres after trailing them for the best part of the race held on a cool sunny afternoon in the only second track final of championships.

Masai overtook Jeptoo first before engaging the World marathon champion Ndereba in a sprint which she won in 33:29.1. Ndereba, the 5000m/10,000m winner at the double during recent Kenyan Prisons Championships, clocked 33:29.6, with Jeptoo in third coming home in 33:31.0.

“I am glad with today’s outcome as this gives me hope to try and qualify for Beijing Olympics during the trials on Saturday next week,” said Masai who is the oldest Kenyan female athlete still active at the top of the sport having celebrated her 41st birthday.

“I had hoped to run in the marathon in Beijing. So running in the 10,000m will be a consolation,” concluded Masai.

Later in the day African 800m champion Pamela Jelimo, assisted by World champion

Janeth Jepkosgei, led the Police team to victory in the finals of the 4×400m relay. The Police clocked 3:38.2 and were followed home by squads from the Armed Forces (3:55.2) and North Rift (3:56.0).

In event semi-finals, Gideon Gathimba won the men’s 1500m first heat in 3:45.5 after out-sprinting Churchill Kipsang (3:45.8) and Vicson Polonet (3:46.7). Remmy Limo won the second semi in 3:46.7 with second placed Geoffrey Rono clocking 3:47.0 and Joseph Ereng (3:47.3)

Peter Njenga for the IAAF

Selected results

Finals

Women

10,000m

1: Edith Masai, 33:29.1

2: Catheine Ndereba, 33:29.6

3: Tota Busienei, 33:31.0

4: Elizabeth Rumokol, 33:33.7

5: Pauline Wangui, 33:42.0

6: Susan Tanui, 33:50.6

7: Antonina Ruto, 34:26.4

8: Jackline Nyangeri, 34:50.4

10km Race Walk

1: Mary Njoki, 50:40

2: Grance Wanjiru, 50:41

3: Jepngetich Kosgei, 54:15

4: Anna Ngathingi, 56:57

5: Rael Rotich, 57:36

6: Ruth Wanjiku, 59:49

7: Caroline Mwangi, 62:26

8: Rose Chepkosgei, 63:58

Semi finals

Men

400m

(1)

1: Vincent Mumo, 46.03

2: George Kwoba, 46.38

3: Geoffrey Ngeno, 46.71

(2)

1: Thomas Musembi, 46.16

2: Ezra Sambu, 46.19

3: Mark Mutai, 46.44

1500m

(1)

1: Gideon Gathimba, 3:45.5

2: Churchill Kipsang, 3:45.8

3: Vickson Polonet, 3:46.4

(2)

1: Remmy Limo, 3:46.7

2: Geoffrey Rono, 3:47.0

3: Joseph Ereng, 3:47.3

Women

200m

(1)

1: Joy Zakary, 24.12

2: Getrude Apollo, 25.18

3: Damaris Mbula, 25.62

(2)

1: Susan Nyarunda, 25.39

2: Zipporah Ratemo, 25.40

3: Ann Karauni, 25.70

(Credit: IAAF. Click here for further information.)

Updated: 2007-10-08

Wang Yihan and Li Yu prevented the usual European clean sweep in Germany for the classy Bitburger Open. The young Chinese defeated local hopes while Denmark’s Boe and Mogensen made an impressive comeback.

Tough luck for Prezmyslaw Wacha. The top seed of the Bitburger Open from Poland had a first round clash with the future winner of the event, Yu Li, a Chinese shuttler who had yet to shine outside his own border.

In the Bitburger Open, Yu avenged this lack of fame by defeating a bunch of famous players from the old continent en route to his first title. He beat no less than Denmark’s new kid on the block, Joachim Persson and German’s giant Bjoern Joppien.

But in the final, Yu faced another Asian, who was hoping to get important points from this event played far away from home – Lee Tsuen Seng, from KLRC, who knew his compatriot’s good run in Macau meant more trouble for him to get the second ticket for Malaysia in the race for an Olympic berth.

But in spite of a much better world ranking, the Malaysian bowed to the young Chinese, 21/23, 21/19,15/21 after a fierce battle. The Malaysian may have paid the price for his marathon semi-final against German’s former number one, Marc Zwiebler, who was out of the courts for more than a year due to a sustaining back injury.

In the women’s single event, Wang Yihan – a little more known Chinese youngster – also fought her way through to the final of the event, helped in the matter by her compatriot, Zhu Jingjing, who upset top seed Xu Huaiwen from Germany earlier in the draw.

The two Chinese then met in an impressive semi-final – finally won by Wang, while Jiang Yanjiao, favourite in the other half of the draw, was beaten by the local girl Juliane Schenk in three tough games. And the final between the upcoming European and the young Chinese went to Wang Yihan in spite of losing the first game. The Chinese kept her composure and took the two remaining ones 21/10 – 21/17 for her first title outside China’s borders.

If Zwiebler’s comeback was one of the nice surprises in the men’s single’s draw, the pairing of Mattias Boe and Carsten Mogensen ended up in an even better way : the Danish duo, who had to split up for over a year because of Mogensen’s long time injury and operation – came back in Germany as winners, beating England’s scratch pairing of Lindley and Blair in the final, 21/17 – 21/15.

No trouble for top seeds from China Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen who had to make up for their separation to try to get some points to be able to fight for keeping their Olympic title. Zhang and Yang clearly outclassed all their opponents – only Rayappan and Wallwork managed to give some resistance.

Zhang and Yang spent less than half an hour to beat Munt and Nicholas 21/10 – 21/11. Kristof Hopp and Bigit Overzier kept the local hopes alive when they won the mixed double event, Defeating the England-Scotland partnership of Robert Blair-Imogene Bankier, 21/17 – 21/17.

Few hundred miles another badminton event was taking place in Bulgaria – the third in the same week end. Petya Nedelcheva has obviously healed from her knee injury sustained last month and won her home event against Anna Rice in straight games, while Nina Vislova won two gold medals in the mixed and women’s doubles.

The men’s singles crown went to Jan Frohlich of the Czech Republich, who didn’t have to play the whole final as his opponent Kevin Gordon got injured midway. Same fate for France’s new pairing of Stoyanov and Kehlhoffner who had to concede a walkover in the final against Poland’s Mateusiak and Logosz.

(Credit: BWF. Click here for further information.)

Updated: 2008-06-18

(BEIJING, June 17)– The British athletics 4 x 100m relay squad faces disarray with injury to one of their top sprinters, Craig Pickering, ahead of this weekend’s, European Cup.

The 21-year-old British sprinter has suffered a hamstring injury and will miss the event being held at June 21 -22, in Annecy, France.

Eight teams compete for the men’s 4 x 100m relay– France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia, and Britain.

The British team, OIympic gold medalists at Athens 2004, will be affected by Pickering’s absence, having already been hit by British No1 Mark Lewis-Francis being ruled out for the season through injury.

Pickering also missed the World Indoor Championships in March because of the same injury and has run only once this summer.

He had an impressive 2007 season indoor season — winning the silver medal in the men’s 60m at the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships and a bronze medal with the British sprint team in the World Championship in the outdoor season.

He burst on the scene in 2005 when, as an 18 year-old, he beat Olympic relay gold medal winner Darren Campbell at an international meting in Bedford in 2005. He is currently based at the Marshall Milton Keynes Athletics Club and Bath University.

His absence will cause big trouble for the British squad. Pickering’s coach, Malcolm Arnold, told The Telegraph in the UK: “It was a bit more serious than we first thought and with the Olympics coming up, if he ran at the European Cup and something went bang it could be the end of his season.”

UK Athletics performance director Dave Collins told BBC Sport: “Obviously Craig’s focus is on getting to Beijing in top form.”

World Indoor Championship finalist, Simeon Williamson, considered to the best young sprinter in Britain, will replace Pickering at the European Cup. Tyrone Edgar, the fastest Briton over 100m this season, will contest the individual race in France

Pickering isn’t the only British athlete with injury concerns. Lee McConnell and Tim Benjamin have also withdrawn from their respective 4×400m relay teams at the European Cup, while Michael Rimmer has pulled out of the 800m.

Heptathlete Jessica Ennis is ruled out of Beijing 2008, and marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe remains a doubt with a stress fracture.

Updated: 2007-10-29

Chinese shuttlers stormed into four of Sunday’s five finals.

An injured Zhang Ning once again had to fight until the very end in a marathon match against Wang Chen of Hong Kong. Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard chose the right time to peak and disposed of 2006 world champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng of China in the day’s longest and most exciting match. The only other Europeans to play on Sunday are Robertson and Emms of England.

The day started off with a strong performance in mixed doubles by England’s best pair of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms. In concordance with their record against Thais Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongam of Thailand, the English won 21-19, 21-17.

In the other semi-final, He Hanbin and Yu Yang of China easily dispatched compatriots Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen. In what hardly looked like a Super Series semi-final, the latter displayed none of the excellent badminton they had played so far at this tournament.

Their play was characterised by a serious lack of communication and a series of strange club-level mistakes. Xie and Zhang barely reacted on some shots and displayed almost no will despite the stakes involved. He and Yu won 21-12, 21-15 in less than 30 minutes.

Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard were on fire in their match against former world champions Cai-Fu. In the first game, the Chinese were often surprised by Eriksen’s natural talent at intercepting drives and went down 16-21. The Asians replied with a series of well-placed smashes on Lundgaard’s backhand which put them in the lead for the most part of the second game that ended in their favour at 23-21.

In the final game, the Danes seemed mentally solid as opposed to the Chinese who looked a bit uneasy. The Chinese coach even allowed himself to shout instructions to his players during the rallies but it wasn’t enough as the Danes offered one of their best performances ever on Danish soil and closed out the match with a score of 21-16, 21-23, 21-19, thus assuring a Danish presence on finals day.

The other men’s doubles was dominated by Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia who regained their form of early 2007 and easily dispatched reigning world champions Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia 21-18, 21-10. With their victories against the Danes in the latter stages of this year’s All England and Swiss Open in March, the Malaysians should have the psychological advantage to take the title.

World champion Lin Dan was inconsistent in his match against Kenneth Jonassen, the lone Danish survivor in men’s singles. In the first game, Lin showed his superiority by moving Jonassen from one end of the court to the other. The strategy backfired when Jonassen took some chances and grabbed the 2nd game by the narrowest of margins at 22-20. In the third game, the Chinese went back to his original strategy and ended the rallies with unanswered crosscourt smashes. A frustrated Kenneth Jonassen conceded the match 21-13, 20-22, 21-13 in favour of the world champion.

In men’s singles, Lee Chong Wei started strong against left-handed Bao Chunlai to take the first game at 11. His smashes along the lines and excellent net shots earned him many points but the relaxed Chinese never panicked and slowly got back into the game. A thankful Bao showed his appreciation to the crowd when the match ended in his favour (11-21, 21-18, 21-16).

Lu Lan hardly broke a sweat in her 21-12, 21-10 win in the women’s singles against reigning world champion Zhu Lin. The same cannot be said of Zhang Ning who had to go all the way against former compatriot Wang Chen in the other semi-final. In her fourth consecutive match over 50 minutes at the Denmark Open, Zhang once again survived and left the court with a 18-21 21-17, 21-18 victory under her belt.

“Because of my thigh injury, this tournament is very tiring for me. I wanted to withdraw after my first round match against Persson of Sweden, but I decided to keep on playing and here I am with a place in the final,” said Zhang Ning.

“Lu Lan is in good condition so tomorrow’s match will be tough. Perhaps it will be another three-setter.”

In women’s doubles, Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg couldn’t do anything against Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen of China who seemed to have an answer for every shot thrown at them. To the amusement of the crowd, Yang Wei was so relaxed that she could be seen walking during the rallies. In the second semi-final, Lee and Lee of Korea dominated Yu Yang and Zhao Tingting of China 21-19, 21-13.

(Credit: BWF. Click here for further information.)

Updated: 2007-09-03 From: Xinhuanet

OSAKA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) — Bernard Lagat completed the first 1,500m and 5,000m double in world championship history on the last day’s competition of the world championships on Sunday as the United States increased their gold tally to 14.

The Kenya-born Lagat beat the 2003 champion Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya in the 5,000m in 13 minutes 45.87 seconds. Kipchoge clocked 13:46.00 for the silver and Moses Ndiema Kipsiro of Uganda won bronze in 13:46.75.

The U.S. team were also victorious in the men’s and women’s 4×400m relays.

Lagat, who was banned for three years after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2004, won the 1,500m title on Wednesday.

Kenya won two more gold medals on Sunday, with one from youngster Alfred Kirwa Yego in the men’s 800m and the other from 35-year-old Catherine Ndereba in the women’s marathon.

Yego scored a surprise win when he outsprinted Canada’s Gary Reed in the final meters in 1:47.09, followed by Reed in 1:47.10 and Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakoviskiy of Russia in 1:47.39.

Ndereba, the 2003 world titlist, pulled away from China’s London marathon winner Zhou Chinxiu with 200 meters to go and won in 2:30:37 in Osaka’s sweltering heat.

Zhou took the silver and became China’s first marathon medallist in major global championships in 2:30:45, and Reiko Tosa earned hosts Japan’s first medal in 2:30:55.

“I guess it was the toughest marathon of my career. It was so hot,” said Ndereba, also the Olympic silver medalist. The temperatures soared up to 30 degrees although the race started at seven.

Blanka Vlasic cleared 2.05 meters to win the women’s high jump, becoming the first Croatian to claim a medal at the world championships.

The 23-year-old from Split jumped over 2.05 meters when her last two remaining rivals failed at the same height. She failed with three attempts to set a new record at 2.10m after sealing the gold.

Russia’s Anna Chicherova and Antonietta Di Martino of Italy finished tied for second after clearing 2.03m.

Finland also got its first gold in Osaka through Tero Pitkamakiin the men’s javelin throw with 90.33 meters. Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway took the silver in 88.61m and American Breaux Greer was third with 86.21m.

Defending champion Andrus Varnik of Estonia was eliminated in qualifying.

The day’s other gold medal was won by Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal, who clocked a season best of 3:58.75 in women’s 1,500m race. Russia’s Yelena Soboleva was second in 3:58.99 and Ukraine’s Iryna Lishchynska took the bronze in 4:00.69.

The U.S. team topped the medal standings with 14 gold, four silver and eight bronze, far ahead of Kenya with 5-3-5 and Russia with 4-9-3.

A total of 22 countries and regions won gold medals and 47 left their sign on the medal standings.

Updated: 2007-09-03 From: Xinhuanet

OSAKA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) — With one gold, one silver and one bronze, China achieved its best results since 1993 at the world athletics championships, which boosted their confidence in preparing for the Beijing Olympic Games.

Even Lamine Diack, the IAAF president, believed that Chinese athletes will have better performances in the newly-built Chinese National Stadium at the Beijing Olympics.

“I believe the Chinese athletes can do better in the Olympics because they compete at home,” said Diack in an interview with Xinhua. “Liu Xiang will 100 per cent have the chance to win again and I think China can make breakthroughs in other events.”

Liu became the first man from China to win gold at the world championships with a 110 meters hurdles victory.

The 24-year-old Shanghai native has already been a superstar in China following his Olympic triumph in Athens and the 12.88 seconds he clocked to break the world record in Lausanne last summer.

China should have won a second gold through London marathon winner Zhou Chunxiu. But Zhou, the year’s fastest runner, was overtaken by Kenya’s eventual winner Catherine Ndereba with two kilometers to go and had to settle for a silver.

Feng Shuyong, general coach of the Chinese national team, said he had expected the result and he was satisfied with Zhou’s performance.

“Today we saw our weak points,” he said. “It will surely do good to our preparations for the Olympic Games.”

Zhou was the first Chinese marathoner to win a medal in the world championships and Olympic Games.

Zhang Wenxiu, competing in her fourth world championships, won a bronze in the women’s hammer throw. Having rich experience aged only 21, she has been tipped by Feng as a gold medal hopeful in the Olympics.

Liu Xiang’s gold was also China’s first since 1999, when Liu Hongyu won the women’s 20km walk. And the 1-1-1 medal tally was the best since 1993 when China won four gold, two silver and two bronze. Three gold medals were from controversial coach Ma Junren’s middle and long distance runners.

China sent a record of 56 athletes, 24 men and 31 women, to the Osaka worlds. Three men were in top eight. Besides Liu Xiang, Shi Dongpeng finished fifth in the men’s 110m hurdles and 20-year-old Sun Chao was seventh in the 50km walking.

As for the 33 Chinese women athletes, they competed in 14 events and nine people reached top eight in six events including discus throw, marathon, 400m hurdles, triple jump, shot put and hammer throw.

China, who won the women’s shot put in two consecutive championships in 1991 and 1993 through Huang Zhihong, has three people in the top eight this time. Li Lingling finished fourth with a personal best of 19.38 meters. Li Meiju was sixth and 17-year-old Gong Lijiao finished seventh.

In the women’s 400m hurdles, Huang Xiaoxiao, fifth in Helsinki, showed her consistent form and took the fifth place again. She also improved her personal time to 54 seconds in the semifinals.

But it was not so good for the Chinese walkers. Feng, a second-class long jumper-turned national coach, said the walkers’ performances have disappointed everyone.

In the men’s 20km walking, the best Chinese finisher was 13th and in the 50km event, three of them were disqualified. In the women’s 20km, the first Chinese to cross the finish line was in the 15th place.

“There are still a lot our walkers should do before the Olympic Games,” Feng said.

“But as a whole, our performances in Osaka showed that we had made a lot of progress,” Feng added. “It really increased our confidence. I believe that as long as we make more efforts and train harder our future in the Olympic Games is bright.”

Updated: 2007-09-03 From: Xinhuanet

OSAKA, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) — Zhou Chunxiu became China’s first marathon medalist in major world championships after winning the silver here on Sunday.

Zhou, a surprise winner in this year’s London Marathon, led with two kilometers away but 2003 world champion Catherine Ndereba overtook her and won her second world title in 2:30:37.

But a second place finish was enough to make history. Zhou was the first Chinese to win a medal at Olympic or world championships marathons.

Zhou, this year’s fastest marathoner with 2:20:38, clocked 2:30:50 in Osaka’s sweltering heat. Japan’s Reiko Tosa won the bronze in 2:30:55.

Zhou has been regarded a favorite since surprising a strong field to win the London marathon last April. The 28-year-old was fifth in the last worlds and was a distant 33rd in the Athens Olympics.

The race started at 7 a.m. local time to avoid the heat that has bothered athletes at the championships. The temperatures reached 31 celsius degrees with humidity at 52 percent as the leaders approached the finish.

Zhou complained about an ankle injury and the weather after the race.

“At the end, the last two km, my foot started to hurt. One week before coming to the championships I got hurt in China at the inner side of my right ankle. I got treatment and it got better. But this is one of the reasons why at the end I could not stick to Catherine Ndereba,” she said.

“The other reason is the weather here. Catherine was very strong today. It feels just O.K. to have the silver medal.”

But she is confident that she can do better at next year’s Beijing Olympic Games.

“Now, I will go back to China, have a rest. This was my last big competition for this year. In 2008, at the Olympic Games, everything will work in favor of me, because it is my home country.”

Zhou’s silver is China’s third medal in the world championships. Liu Xiang won a gold in the men’s 110m hurdles and Zhang Wenxiu took a bronze in the women’s hammer throw.