I am around 30 minutes away from another NFL FL Draft… 20 team league – going to be hard. Let’s hope I draft low.
Today’s sports headlines in Japan…
Much cooler today… actually considering jeans!
Anyway… today’s top sports stories in Japan:
Definitely starting to cool down… a welcome respite.
Today’s stories in Japanese sports:
So, we have completed 4 days of competition at The Nagai Stadium in Osaka and have seen some fantastic athletics. For those of you who’ve missed out on the action, I’ll try and bring you up to speed on the results we’ve seen thus far.
Day 1
Competition kicked off with the Men’s Marathon. As so often is the case in championships, the time was slow, but given the conditions (30 degrees and 60% humidity I believe) this is not surprising. Marginally more than half the athletes finished the race, won by Kenyan Luke Kibet in 2:15.59, the first Kenyan to win the World Championship marathon since Douglas Wakihuri in 1987. Qatari Mubarak Hassan Shami (formerly Richard Yatich of Kenya) took silver just ahead of Victor Rothlin of Switzerland. Japan won the team event after it’s athletes took 5th, 6th, 7th and 13th, ahead of Korea and Kenya 3rd.
In the womens 10000, Tirunesh Dibaba overcame some drama to win the title again. At one stage she was well adrift of the leaders clutching her stomach, but somehow fought back into the race and eventually win in 31:55.41, with Turkey’s Elvan Abeylegesse 2nd in 31:59.40 and Kara Goucher (USA) holding out Joanne Pavey from the Uk for 3rd in 32:02.05. At just 22 Dibaba is sweeping womens distance running off it’s feet in much the same way male compatriots Haile Gebresselaise and Kenenisa Bekele have done for the past 14 years. Read the rest of this entry »
Cooler day today, and that’s a blessing…
Today’s top stories in sports:
Hell… wonderful day today – not too hot! Yay!
Anyway… top sports stories in Japanese News:
Have a great day all!
Hot, hot, hot… nothing new. Apparently we’re in for a cooler spell soon… yataa!
Today’s news in Sport in Japan…
Ok, this one will be short. Some would not have included walks as, well, they can be quite dull. But as anyone who has ever attempted to join the rubber-hipped road walkers will know, they certainly ain’t easy!
Race Walks
Women
Two years ago in Helsinki, Russian Olimpiada Ivanova netted a bonus $100,000 US after her 1:25:41 World record, and now 37, will be back to defend her title. She has yet to race this year, but was second in the World Cup a year ago. The primary force of late has been Ryta Turava, the 26-year-old sensation from Belarus, who currently carries a nine race unbeaten streak over the 20Km distance. This year she’s captured four IAAF Race Walk challenge races along with the European Cup. On paper, her closest rival this season is Norwegian Kjersti Platzer, who finished second to Turava in Sesto San Giovanni in 1:27:41, 31 seconds adrift of Turava’s world leading mark. Read the rest of this entry »
With competition beginning, we may need to speed up some of these previews! Otherwise I could look silly predicting something that already happened, and getting it wrong.. So today, we’ll cover throws and Multi events. Links to parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Throws
Men
D
efending Shot Put champion Adam Nelson (21.47 SB) will have a battle on his hands, primarily with his American team-mate Reese Hoffa, the reigning World Indoor champion, who threw a career best and world-leading 22.43m in London. Olympic bronze medallist Joachim Olsen (Denmark) continues to improve, most recently he improved his national record to 21.61.
Gerd Kanter (Estonia) is the world leader (72.02 from early May), but few can deny that the overwhelming Discus Throw favourite in Osaka will be Lithuanian Virgilijus Alekna. The two-time World and Olympic champion currently boasts the longest winning streak in the sport at 37 finals. He’s thrown beyond 70m four times this season, including a 71.56 season’s best.
With nine men throwing beyond 80m this season, the Hammer Throw will be among the more fiercely contested events at the Worlds. Of those, three – Vadim Devyatovskiy (82.94) and Ivan Tikhon (82.58) of Belarus and Slovenian national record holder Primoz Kozmus (82.30) have reached beyond 82m. Watch out for local hero Koji Murofushi, whilst below his best of previous years (79.24 sb), a big home-town boost could see him propelled back up into the medals and give the locals something more to smile about. Read the rest of this entry »
In this edition we look at the jumps. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 published earlier.
Men
With the retirement some years ago of Javier Sotomayor, the Cuban High Jumping guru and holder of 17 of the worlds 24 jumps over 2.40metres, including the top 3 and WR, the event has suffered from a lack of quality competition coming through. Only 2 men have broken 2.37 since 2001. The High Jump has had its share of upsets in the previous editions, and the situation this year is no different. Olympic champion Stefan Holm of Sweden (2.35m SB) seems to be peaking best among the main contenders and has experience on his side. Four others have cleared 2.34 or better, including Russians Yaroslav Rybakov and last year’s sensation Andrey Tereshin, and a total of 10 have jumped 2.32 or higher, meaning medals could be decided on countback.
In the Pole Vault, defending silver medallist Brad Walker (USA) tops all competitors with a 5.95m clearance to his credit, along with relatively consistent competitive performances. Australia will be represented by a formidable duo – 
and Paul Burgess – who have topped 5.91 this season. With a solid trio – Tim Lobinger, Danny Ecker, and Björn Otto – the event features the best medal hopes for Germany on the men’s side. Three of the men jumping, Burgess, Lobinger and Walker, have cleared the magical 6 metre mark, but none have come close to the mark of 6.14m (and 6.15 indoors) set by legendary Ukrainian Sergei Bubka. Australian/Belarussian Dmitri Markov has the championship record of 6.05m from Edmonton 6 years ago, a mark not likely to be challenged here either. Read the rest of this entry »
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