Archives for August 2009

Out of 1,800 athletes who answered the call by the committee for the development of athletics in Lagos State, headed by former Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) President, Yomi Adeyemi-Wilson, 60 were selected. After further screening and trials, 40 athletes have been selected for intensive coaching tutorials.

Catching them young

The athletes were discovered during the Sydney Asiodu Athletics Competition organised for secondary schools last month. Some of those selected include Umar Isa, who won the 200 and 400 metres with a time of 22.8 and 60.00 seconds respectively, 14-year old Bukola Perreira whose personal best time over 5,000 meters is 17.1 minutes, and Nicholas Villanueva, who was instrumental to his team’s 4x100 and 4x400 metres victory during the competition. Others include Nneka Solomon who won the 400 metres (girls) with a time of 61.3 seconds and came second in the 100 meters with a time of 12.9 seconds and Tony Osheku Jnr. who came third in the 100 metres with a time of 11.4 seconds. Some of the coaches responsible for grooming these athletes include Wole Ogunlana, Rahman Shodeinde, and Abbas Olarewanju, with national record holder in long jump Yusuf Alli acting as head coach.

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London 2012 organizers appointed former Paralympic swimmer Chris Holmes as head of the city's Paralympics.
Holmes was given the title of director of Paralympic integration and organizers said on Friday he will be in charge of all aspects of planning the 2012 Paralympic Games.

The role is designed to ensure full co-operation between all bodies involved in Olympic and Paralympic planning rather than as a head of a separate Paralympic unit.

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Although demonstration sports were disbanded after the 1992 Barcelona Games, the national governing body believes that squash should be given “more visibility” if it is to be recommended by the International Olympic Committee as a commercially viable sport in the future.

Speaking after rugby sevens and golf were voted ahead of squash for inclusion to the 2016 Games, Zena Wooldridge, England Squash chairman, told the Daily Telegraph: “The bar has been raised in terms of the commercial return and the sport needs Olympic inclusion to get to that mark.“We should explore that possibility during 2012 as squash needs a bit more visibility. Inclusion to 2016 would have helped in that respect.

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South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) President Gideon Sam stated confidently on Tuesday that South Africa will aim for a minimum of 12 medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Sam was amongst a host of sports bosses, politicians and fans who welcomed back South Africa’s athletes from the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. Team SA bagged three medals - two gold, one each for 800 metres runners Caster Semenya and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, and one silver for long jumper Khotso Mokoena.

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Ambush marketing or guerrilla marketing is a term used to describe a brand which connects itself to a particular event without paying any sponsorship fees to be an official sponsor.

An official sponsor of an event, such as the Olympic Games, will pay a considerable sum of money by way of sponsorship fees. The success of these events depends upon the huge sums raised from sponsorship, ticketing and official merchandising. These payments fund the event. So when an official sponsor's competitor "ambush markets" the event, the value of being an official sponsor is considerably diminished Specific Questions relating to this article should be addressed directly to the author.

IMAGES released by the Olympic Delivery Authority show the progress being made in the construction of a new network of roads and bridges linking the East End with the Olympic Park site.

The main north-south route through the Olympic Park and new bridges into the Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre have already been built and construction work is now underway on 21 bridges in total. More than 30 new bridges will be built in the Olympic Park altogether

The new bridges will join up isolated pieces of land segregated by railway lines and waterways and forms part of the single biggest construction project the ODA is delivering.

Construction work has already been completed on the main north-south bridge and it is now being used by construction traffic.

The first new footbridge into the stadium site is nearing completion, spanning 41 metres across the River Lea to create an 11 metre-wide pedestrian link into the western side of the Olympic Stadium. Construction work is also well underway on four more bridges into the stadium site.

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Modern pentathlon wants to add team relays to its Olympic events in time for the 2012 London Games.

At the last three Olympics, competition has been restricted to individual men’s and women’s events, with a maximum of 36 competitors, and no more than two from each nation. In previous Games, before women pentathletes were included, more men were able to compete, and team medals were awarded based on combined scores. Britain won the team gold medal in 1976.

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Jason Quigley is targeting the 2012 Olympics Games in London after winning a gold medal at the European Youth Championships in Poland.

A 6-1 verdict over Emil Ahmadov of Azerbaijan ensured that the Finn Valley clubman, winner of seven Irish titles up the intermediate level, finished on top of the welterweight podium and also earned him the award for the best technical boxer of the event.

Quigley was 1-0 up at the end of the first, 2-0 ahead in the second and added another four points to his total in the final two rounds en route to gold.

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SIMON Armitage is among top talents now in the race to win a £500,000 arts commission as part of the celebrations surrounding the 2012 Olympic Games.

Marsden-born Simon, regarded as one of the finest poets of his generation, is included on a shortlist of five artists whose ideas are now in the running for what is one of the highest profile commissions in years.

He has been working with Ilkley Literature Festival on an idea which would see an epic poem carved into the rock on Ilkley Moor.

The project, called Any Distance Greater Than a Single Span, would also include spectacular performances on Ilkley Moor.

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Cuba will not take part in the newly created female boxing competition at the London 2012 Olympics, calling the combat sport 'not appropriate' for women, Cuban Boxing Federation President Jose Barrientos said Thursday. 'We have no intention at this time to take part in any international tournament, because we consider this discipline as not appropriate for women,' Barrientos told the Cuban press agency Prensa Latina.

Cuban has traditionally been a powerhouse of amateur boxing, though recent defections have weakened its team. Barrientos said the communist country does not currently have a programme to develop women's boxing. The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) executive body, meeting last week in Berlin, approved the introduction of three weight divisions of women's boxing for the first time at the London Olympics in 2012. Boxing had been the only summer Olympic sport without women competitors.    'Women's boxing is a fantastic addition. It was time to include this sport,' said IOC president Jacques Rogge.