Ethiopian athletes go missing on trip to Britain

Four Ethiopian athletes have gone missing during a visit to Britain for a major athletics event.

Scottish Athletics confirmed that the four ''fled from their hotel'' in London and failed to make their connecting flight to Edinburgh.

They had been due to take part in the Falkirk Cup athletics event tomorrow night at Grangemouth Stadium.

Geoff Wightman, chief executive of Scottish Athletics, said: ''We invited them, so it's our duty to report it to the authorities.''

Dagmawit Amare, part of the Ethiopian management in Scotland, who has completed a four week placement at Scottish Athletics, said: ''My colleague actually tried to restrain two of them but they ran off.

''This is such a sad thing to happen for my country and the sport.'

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Double golds all round as Bekele leads the way

BERLIN — Ethiopian superstar Kenenisa Bekele and Americans LaShawn Merritt and Sanya Richards won their second gold medals on the final day of the world athletics championships here on Sunday.

Bekele's came in the 5,000 metres as he became the first man to do the 5,000-10,000m double, a feat even his compatriot Haile Gebrselassie failed to achieve the one time he tried in 1993.

Merritt and Richards' second titles came in the men's and women's 400m relays respectively.

There was to be no such joy for Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain who, having taken the 1500m title, failed to repeat his golden performance in the 800m.

That was was won by Mbulaeni Mulaudzi which meant the South Africans swept the 800m after Caster Semenya had won the women's equivalent.

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Three Aussies through to 400m semis

COMMONWEALTH champion John Steffensen has led a three-pronged Australian attack into the semi-finals of the men's 400m at the world athletics championships in Berlin.
Steffensen has struggled to make an impact on the world stage in the last couple of years, but looked back to near his best in finishing second in his heat on Tuesday in 45.37 seconds behind reigning Olympic champ LaShawn Merritt from the US.

Sean Wroe was the fastest of the Australians in 45.31, while Joel Milburn eased up well before the line and still managed a season's best of 45.56.

It was an encouraging all-round display ahead of the 4x400m relay later in the championships, where Australia is a genuine medal hope.

``Lane three was good, I was pretty blessed with the lane draw and being up against LaShawn,'' said Steffensen, who qualified for the individual final at the 2005 world titles.

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World Athletics: Christine Ohuruogu backed to claim 400m gold

The man who masterminded Christine Ohuruogu's world and Olympic triumphs believes the Londoner is capable of running the fastest 400 metres of her life in Tuesday's final, insisting she has plenty more left in the tank after her season's-best time of 50.35sec in Sunday's semi-final.

Lloyd Cowan, who has coached the 25 year-old since she was a raw beginner, believes it will take a run of 49.2sec to win the gold medal, almost half a second quicker than Ohuruogu has run before, but he is convinced she can rise to the occasion.

"She's got nothing to prove," he said. "Some of the girls have run quicker than her in the semi-finals but we've just got to do a job and put the pressure on. If she comes off the top turn a metre down, then she'll go."

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World Athletics Championship Betting: Men's 400m & Pole Vault previews

The US look set to continue their 400m dominance with a 1-2-3 a distinct possibility but who will grab gold, LaShawn Merritt or Jeremy Warriner? Bob Adams has a view...

"Merritt won last year’s Olympic final by an unheard of margin of 1.1 secs from Warriner, with Neville literally diving over the line a split-second in arrears. I feel that the early-birds may have priced this up about right with Warriner a slightly generous 2.34 to obtain revenge over Merritt 1.56. I can’t really see beyond a Merritt victory and if Warriner does tighten up a tad he could be worth laying at around 2.0."

In last year's Beijing Olympics the American team achieved a clean sweep of the 400m medals with LaShawn Merritt, Jeremy Warriner and David Neville grabbing the medals. It could be a case of 'as you were' in the World Championships in Berlin with the trio set to dominate the podium once again. Merritt and Williams share seven of the eight fastest times in the world this year, whilst Neville is a dangerous opponent and generally reserves his best for the big occasion.

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Bethel Track Looks for Continued Success in 2009-10

The Bethel College Track and Field program comes into the 2009 – 2010 campaign with high expectations after a stellar year last season. The men’s team was MCC Champions as well as NCCAA Indoor and Outdoor National Champions. These were the first team national championships won by the track and field program at Bethel College. The Lady Pilots were also successful last season winning the MCC Championship and finishing runners up in both NCCAA indoor and Outdoor National Championship meets. The Bethel track and field programs qualified 25 athletes for NAIA Indoor Nationals in Johnson City, Tennessee and 30 athletes for NAIA Outdoor Nationals in St. Louis, Missouri. Junior JW Maierle was an NAIA All-American in both national meets finishing third in the long jump at each meet. Junior Nichole Arnold was also NAIA All-American in both meets finishing fourth in the discus outdoors and sixth in the shot put indoors. Junior Jordan Heim was the third Pilot to achieve NAIA Outdoor All-American honors by finishing fourth in that meet in the 400m. ....

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Bolt, Gay set for Berlin showdown

The mouth-watering sprint duel between Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay will headline the World Athletics Championships in Berlin starting on Saturday, offering up what should be one of the most eagerly awaited events ever.

Bolt took the Beijing Olympics by storm last summer, the towering, laid-back Jamaican winning the double gold sprint and also claiming gold as part of Jamaica's 4x100m relay team, all won - amazingly - in world record times.

He has continued his impressive form into this season, but the year's best marks in both the 100 and 200m races (9.77 and 19.58sec respectively) have been set by arch-rival Gay, the American who endured a miserable Olympics after rushing back from a debilitating hamstring injury.

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All the latest news from Southport Waterloo Athletics Club

SOUTHPORT Waterloo’s senior track & field athletes have enjoyed two consecutive years in Division 2 West of the Northern League; but reality struck home in the final match of this season at Blackpool on Sunday.

A fourth place finish meant relegation back to Division 3 next year!

After Round 3, three clubs - Southport Waterloo, Liverpool Pembroke & Sefton and St Helens Sutton - were each on nine League points which meant that whichever of the three finished lowest in the final match would be relegated, along with Manx Harriers.

This appears to have galvanised Liverpool Pembroke and St Helens to field strong teams in the final match and they proved well worth their place in Division 2.

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Artificial Life Brings MoPA-TV to the IAAF World Championships in Athletics berlin 2009

LOS ANGELES, BERLIN AND HONG KONG, July 20 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Artificial Life, Inc., (OTC BB: ALIF), ( http://www.artificial-life.com ) today announced a partnership agreement with the Berlin Organising Committee 2009 GmbH (BOC 2009 GmbH) to implement MoPA-TV(TM), the company's innovative cross platform technology at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics berlin 2009(TM) to entertain the audience in the Olympiastadion Berlin and at event sites in the City of Berlin.

This year's event, the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics berlin 2009(TM), will take place in the Olympiastadion Berlin. The biggest worldwide sports event in 2009 is hosting an extensive scope of 47 disciplines for approximately 1,800 athletes. It is expected that many world renowned athletes will be participating in the event including Ariane Fridrich - German champion in high jump; Jeremy Wariner - the 400m Olympic track star from the U.S.; Usain Bolt - Olympic champion in the 100m sprinter from Jamaica and Yelena Isinbayeva - the world record holder for pole vault from Russia.

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ATHLETICS: Harriers lose battle to beat the drop

SWINDON Harriers suffered relegation heartache following the final Southern Men’s League event of the season at Tonbridge, Kent.

Needing a second place to give them a chance of Division One survival and a first to guarantee it, Swindon finished fourth out of five behind hosts Tonbridge, Brighton and Chelmsford, meaning they will compete in Division Two next season.

With the stakes high, a strong squad of 16 athletes turned out to meet the challenge, and with three of the other four clubs all facing possible relegation too, the meeting was fiercely contested.

On the track, the quality of the sprinters was excellent with only Patrick North able to finish in the top two in any event.

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