Talk Athletics Blog

Bolt desperate for more success

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 09:03:58 GMT

You might have thought that setting the world records for both the 100m and 200m events would be enough to keep any athlete happy for a significant amount of time. However, some individuals will never be content no matter how much success comes their way.

One such individual is Usain Bolt, the twenty-two year old sprinter from Jamaica, who currently holds the two world records.

He was a star at the Olympic Games in Beijing earlier this year, running the 100m event in just 9.69 seconds. Bolt also successfully led the Jamaican 4x100m sprint relay team to victory in the Olympic event. In addition he broke the record set by Michael Johnson for the 200m event (19.32 seconds) in the final, with a new record time of 19.30 seconds.

Bolt now believes that he will be able to run 100m in just 9.52 seconds but, before fulfilling this ambition, he must “make progress in different areas”. The one area highlighted by the athlete as being relatively weak at the moment is the start of the race.

If the athlete continues to improve, his coach, Glenn Mills, believes that he may be able to run 200m in well under 19 seconds, as long as the conditions are similar to those seen in Beijing.

Bolt’s aims may seem ambitious to many people but recently, scientists found that male sprinters are, theoretically at least, physically able to run 100m in 9.48 seconds. Furthermore, the scientists, who had performed research at Stanford University, believe that top athletes could run 200m in 18.63 seconds.

Radcliffe reveals marathon excitement

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:54:55 GMT

Paula Radcliffe has spoken of her excitement at the prospect of returning to the London Marathon next year. She has missed the last three London Marathons as a result of persistent injuries but has previously experienced great success on the course.

After a victory in the event in 2002, Radcliffe set the world record in London in 2003 and also won the race in 2005. She is now determined to make up for her absences during 2008, 2007, and 2006, by putting on an impressive performance on home turf.

She will compete against tough competition, with Irina Mikitenko, the defending champion, expected to be in good form. Mikitenko was not present at the Olympic Games, held earlier this year in Beijing, where Radcliffe failed to impress in the marathon event and finished in a disappointing 23rd position.

However, Mikitenko won the Berlin Marathon earlier this year and became the World Marathon Majors champion just last month. Constantina Dita will also provide tough competition for Radcliffe. Dita has never won the event despite having participated a total of eight times. However, she won the gold medal in the marathon event at the recent Olympic Games.

Radcliffe made a successful comeback from physical injury and similarly damaging emotional knocks when she won the New York Marathon just last month and she has since won the Great South Run in Portsmouth as well.

The success in New York has left the British athlete “hungry to win back” her London Marathon title and the quality of the competitors has failed to worry her in the slightest. Indeed, Radcliffe is simply excited about the “top-class fields and great crowds” which are guaranteed at the London event.

Turner set to appeal over funding

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:11:47 GMT

Andy Turner has revealed that he is going to appeal against a recent decision to bring an end to his lottery funding. The sprint hurdler from Nottinghamshire, who is 28 years of age, is one of several athletes from Great Britain who were informed that their funding is going to be stopped or reduced last week.

The decision was made by UK Athletics, who have revealed that the selection process was fair and thorough and the athletes who have been affected by the changes in funding have simply failed to meet the appropriate criteria. However, Turner believes that he has “what it takes” and has spoken of his disappointment that UK Athletics has decided that he has not.

Turner has written a letter to UK Athletics and is hoping for a quick response from them. The athlete believes that a string of injuries has influenced the decision of the panel but he still thinks that he is capable of “making a final now or within the next two years”. This must be a realistic aim if lottery funding is to be provided to an athlete.

Turner finished third in the 110 metre hurdles at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and won a bronze medal in the same event at the European Athletics Championships in the same year.

If the appeal is not a success, Turner, who has revealed that he will never give up on his dream of “winning a medal in the Olympics”, may look for a part-time job to fund himself or may consider asking for a sponsor.

Radcliffe victorious in New York

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 14:18:13 GMT

This weekend saw Paula Radcliffe reach yet another impressive milestone in her career when she became just the second woman in the world to win the New York Marathon a total of three times and managed to dominate the race.

Radcliffe took just two hours, twenty-three minutes and fifty-six seconds to complete the marathon and she finished almost two minutes ahead of her closest rival for the title, 40-year-old Russian athlete Ludmila Petrova.

However, Petrova managed to achieve a personal milestone as well this weekend as she became the oldest woman to finish in the top two since 1987, when British athlete Priscilla Welch won the New York marathon at the age of 42.

A further record was set by Kara Goucher, the American athlete who finished third in the race. She became the first American to finish in the top three since Anne Marie Letko in 1994.

This statistic is all the more impressive when viewed in the light of the fact that Goucher was making her marathon debut. It was an important day for the American athlete, who was competing in the city where she was born and where her father was sadly killed when she was a young child.

The New York Marathon was an important event for Radcliffe, who had a lot to prove to the British public following a disappointing performance at the Olympic Games.

The race has always been a good opportunity for the athlete to prove herself. In 2004 her victory came after a disappointing performance at the Olympic Games in Athens. Her win in 2007 came just ten months after the birth of her first child.

This year, injury severely hampered her preparations prior to the Games in Beijing but she managed to put in an impressive performance during the Great South Run in Portsmouth recently.

The confidence gained by that performance was clear for all to see in New York and, unlike her previous victories in the city, she managed to win by a large margin.

This margin made the victory all the more sweet and Radcliffe revealed that she had made it her aim to open up a comfortable distance between herself and the other athletes: “I was determined to feel comfortable at the halfway point.

The last two times it’s been a really close finish, so it was nice”. Her only regret was not setting a course record, something she believes she could have achieved “on a calm day” but the windy conditions made it impossible.

British fans of athletics were also impressed by the performance of Hayley Haining. She finished in twelfth position, completing the course in just 2 hours, 35 minutes and 11 seconds. Furthermore, Lucy Macalister managed to finish four seconds behind Haining.

The men’s race was won by Marilson Gomes dos Santos, who completed the course in a time of just 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 43 seconds. The athlete from Brazil finished ahead of Abderrahim Goumri.

The Moroccan athlete finished with a time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, and 7 seconds. The men’s race was slightly more exciting than the women’s race as it came with a particularly a tight finish.

Halkia may face jail sentence

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:34:31 GMT

Fani Halkia may be forced to spend up to two years in prison after a Greek prosecutor charged her with using banned steroids. The Greek hurdler, who won gold in the 400 metres hurdling event during the Olympic Games in 2004, was apparently found to have used methyltrienolone.

She was prevented from competing in this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing when her ‘B’ sample was found to contain the steroid, which the International Olympic Committee defines as a drug which has the potential to "damage the health of athletes” and may even threaten their lives.

Tassos Gousis and Dimitris Regas, both sprinters from Greece, were also charged with using the same substance. The hurdler’s coach, George Panagiotopoulos, has been charged with supplying banned substances and is now facing a prison sentence of up to three years, as well as a potentially hefty fine.

The athletes and the coach have all spoken out about their apparent innocence but they will have to face trial within one year. Halkia remains adamant that she has never been involved with steroids and believes that her ‘B’ sample was tampered with by “third parties”.

It is certainly a sad chapter in the life of an athlete who shot to fame after her performance in the 2004 Olympics. She was relatively unknown prior to her involvement in the Olympics, with a previous highlight being a sixth place finish in the 400 metres event at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest. She currently holds the Greek record for both the 400 metres and the 400 metres hurdling event.

Paula Radcliffe wins Great South Run

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:09:52 GMT

Paula Radcliffe has enjoyed an impressive victory in the Great South Run in Portsmouth, thrashing rivals including Augusto, Mukunzi, Komu, Johnson and Daunay.

The athlete managed to finish the 10-mile race in just 51 minutes and 11 seconds, setting a new record in the process. Jill Boltz held the previous national record but Radcliffe managed to beat it by 30 seconds.

Perhaps more impressively, the athlete admitted that she chose to run at a slower pace than she was capable of in an attempt to save energy before the New York Marathon next weekend. Furthermore, the weather conditions in Portsmouth were not at all ideal, with strong winds and rain impacting upon the performance of the athletes.

For Radcliffe to have smashed the previous record, set 17 years ago, by such an impressive margin is therefore even more of an achievement given the slow pace and the adverse conditions.

Some sports journalists have stated that the athlete has not looked this good since she won the world marathon title in 2005 in Helsinki. Radcliffe won Britain’s only gold medal at the Helsinki World Championships and managed to set a championship record time of 2 hours, 20 minutes and 57 seconds.

The Great South Run was her first race since her disappointing performance at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Radcliffe’s preparations for the Beijing event were hampered by a stress fracture to her hip sustained in May of this year as well as a frustrating succession of calf injuries.

However, she has revealed that she suffered no detrimental psychological effects from the relative failure of the Olympics. Rather, the only “thing to recover from” was the fact that she was not in good physical shape.

The 34-year-old revealed her annoyance concerning her inadequate preparations. She believes that she did not do enough running in the build-up to Beijing and this had a major impact upon her performance.

Conversely, prior to the Great South Run, Radcliffe did plenty of running and “felt more confident” even whilst standing on the start line. This confidence really did show in Portsmouth and she certainly succeeded in her aim to “have a good blowout”.

With this impressive victory under her belt, Radcliffe can now focus upon next weekend’s marathon in New York. She revealed after the Great South Run that her legs felt in good shape and she is confident that she can put in a good performance in the USA.

She will hope that the long flight does not negatively impact upon her performance and that this week goes smoothly both psychologically and physically. Radcliffe has won the New York Marathon twice already during her career but is desperate to win another.

Her victory in the 2004 race was particularly impressive. She was, once again, unable to prepare adequately but still managed to record a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes and 10 seconds.

The men’s race was won by Bernard Kipyego. The Kenyan managed to establish a good lead after just four miles and won ahead of Irish athlete Martin Fagan. Kipyego’s time was impressive at just 46 minutes and 43 seconds.