Powell set to run Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix

(bbc.)Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell will make his British indoor debut at the Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February.

Powell has not ran an indoor 60m race since 2004 but believes a change in his competition schedule could give him the edge at the 2012 Olympics.

"My coach and I think doing an indoor season is the best move," said Powell.

"If I'm going to be challenging for medals I need to be racing the best people and the calibre of athletes [at Birmingham] has always been strong."

The 29-year-old former 100m world record holder, who will be based in the city next summer ahead of the London Games with the rest of the Jamaincan squad, has clocked the most sub 10-second races in history.

POWELL'S PB'S
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60m: 6.56 seconds, New York, 2004
100m: 9.72 seconds, Lausanne, 2008
200m: 19.90 seconds, Kingston, 2006
4x100m: 37.10 seconds, Beijing, 2008
"I can't quite believe this will be my first time competing indoors in the UK," he said.

"I've competed outdoors there so many times and I actually broke the [100m] world record in the UK so I have good memories of my time there."

Powell missed the World Championships in August through injury so was unable to continue his battle with countrymen Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.

The Jamaican runner, who has never won an individual gold medal, said: "It's not long now until the Games so every minute counts.

"When I get out onto that track in Birmingham I'm determined to put on a show. Hopefully everyone's going to see something really

Usain Bolt & Yohan Blake up for Laureus awards

LONDON
Usain Bolt and training partner, compatriot Yohan Blake, have been nominated for two Laureus World Sports Awards.
Jamaican megastar sprinter Bolt has been nominated for the World Sportsman-of-the-Year with tennis star Novak Djokovic, Barcelona playmaker Lionel Messi, Dallas Mavericks' Germany-born centre Dirk Nowitzki, Red Bull Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel, and Tour de France winner, cyclist Cadel Evans.
"After the year I had and ended undefeated, this nomination is even more special to me. This award is a prestigious one and I am honoured to be among the best, said Bolt."
Bolt won two gold medals in the men's 200 metres and 4x100 metres relay at the World Championships last August in Daegu, South Korea, following his stunning false start in the marquee 100 won by Blake.
On the occasions when he got his start right, which was every other race for the season, the 22-year-old Bolt, the world record holder in the 100 and 200, also raced undefeated.
Bolt is a two-time winner of the World Sportsman-of-the-Year award in 2008 and 2009, following outstanding performances at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, and the World Championships in Berlin, Germany, in those respective years when he rewrote the record books.
The 21-year-old Blake grabbed a nomination for the Breakthrough-of-the-Year award alongside double amputee quarter-miler Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, British runner Mo Farah, Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, and tennis players Li Na and Petra Kvitova.
After winning the World 100 title following Bolt's disqualification for a false start in the final he was virtually unstoppable in the latter stages of the season, after his success in Daegu.
At the IAAF Diamond League meet in Zurich, Blake beat compatriot Asafa Powell in the 100 with a personal best of 9.82 seconds. –CMC

Liu Xiang and Li Na nominated for 2012 Laureus awards

LONDON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's hurdles star Liu Xiang and tennis ace Li Na were nominated for the 2012 Laureus World Sports Awards Thursday.

Liu, who became China's first male Olympic gold medalist in track and field when he clocked 12.91 seconds to win 110m hurdles in 2004, was nominated for Laureus World Comeback of the Year. His competitors for the award include French footballer Eric Abidal, American golf player Darren Clarke, Spanish golf player Sergio Garcia, New Zealand rugby team Crusaders and Australian rugby team Queensland Reds.Li Na, the first Asian player ever to win a Grand Slam in singles, was nominated for Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year, along with Jamaican athlete Yohan Blake, British runner Mo Farah, Czech tennis player Petra Kvitova, British golf player Rory Mcllroy and South African amputee athlete Oscar Pistorius.

Talking about the Chinese nominees, Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), said that he believed they are representative of Chinese sports.

"I am pleased to see Liu Xiang back after his disappointing performance at the Beijing Olympics due to injury," he said.

Liu was viewed as most hopeful in the Beijing Olympics, but withdrew from the heat due to tendon injury. This year, he staged a strong comeback by grasping a silver medal in the world championships in Osaka, Japan.

Laureus Academy member Daley Thompson, Olympic gold medalist in decathlon, said it was a pity that Liu Xiang just finished second in that competition.

"He should win the gold medal," he said. "He was unfortunate. He got a pull-back."

He hailed Liu's comeback as "fantastic". "He has good chance to win the gold medal in 2012 (Olympics)," he said.

Another Laureus Academy member Boris Becker, former World No. 1 tennis player from Germany, wished Li Na good luck in the Laureus award competition.

"She is a wonderful woman, with great character," he said. "The tennis competition in women is tough, but she stands out."

Becker noted that Li's success could be exemplary in China. "China is a big country, with millions of people. It needs a model, a winner, and a leader."

A total of 42 nominees of seven awards were announced Thursday. According to the introduction of Daley Thompson, they were picked up by 900 journalists around the world. Then 47 academy members, including Chinese legendary table tennis player Deng Yaping, will vote on the finally winners, who are to be announced on February 6 next year.
xinhuanet.com

Bernard Lagat to run 5,000 At the Millrose Games

(AP)Bernard Lagat will return to the Millrose Games but won't be trying to add to his record total of Wanamaker Mile titles.

The American star said Tuesday he would race the 5,000 meters in New York in February and try to regain the U.S. indoor record that Galen Rupp broke earlier this year.

Lagat won his record eighth Wanamaker title at the 2010 Millrose Games and finished second in 2011.

The Millrose Games are moving uptown to the Armory after nearly a century at Madison Square Garden and will be held Feb. 11. Lagat is scheduled to run the mile at the new U.S. Open at the Garden on Jan. 28.

Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell-Brown to open season in New York

Elite Jamaican sprinters Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown will open their preparation for the London Olympics when they headline the 2012 US Open Track & Field meet in January.
The event, scheduled for January 28, will be staged at Madison Square Garden and is the first of six IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting series.
While Powell will be making his NYC indoor track debut, Campbell-Brown will be looking to sustain her winning momentum after her success earlier this year.
USA Track and Field's interim CEO Mike McNees said the presence of Powell and Campbell-Brown would launch the rivalry with American athletes that is expected in London.
"No US city is more international than New York," McNees said.
"Having Veronica and Asafa at the Garden will help spotlight the international importance of the Olympic year, with the US Open as the first round of the 2012 USA-Jamaica rivalry."
The year will be an important one for Powell as he goes in search of this first-ever gold medal at a major championships.
Powell has more sub-10 clockings than any other sprinter on the planet but has repeatedly failed to convert this form into success at a World or Olympic championship.
At age 29, however, London will represent perhaps his last chance to break this bogey.
Campbell-Brown, meanwhile, will be looking to enhance her reputation as one of the most consistent sprinters of her generation.
The 29-year-old has picked up 200 metres gold in Athens and Beijing and has also won gold at the last two World Championships in Osaka and Daegu.
The London Olympics are scheduled to be held July 27 to August 12.

Allyson Felix to run 60m at Millrose Games

(Ap)NEW YORK -- Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix will compete in the 60-meter race at the Millrose Games.

Organizers announced Tuesday that Felix will run Feb. 11 at the Armory in New York.

Felix competed on the winning 4x400 team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She plans to use the Millrose Games to train for next year's Olympics, saying they are "part of my journey to London."

She joins a field that includes Jennifer Simpson, who will compete in the first Wanamaker Mile for women at the 105th Millrose Games.

Chambers case is heading back to court

The British Olympic Association are set to announce their intention to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport next week in their doping row with the World Anti-Doping Agency.

It is the latest move that could end with sprinter Dwain Chambers competing at his home Olympics in London next year.

Two weeks ago, WADA declared the BOA non-compliant over their refusal to lift a lifetime Olympic ban on athletes - including Chambers - found guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs.

Chambers, contrary to some reports, remains desperate to run in London. The 33-year-old is currently in the Caribbean where he is preparing to get married to his long-term partner and the mother of his two sons, Leonie.

The reigning World Indoor 60metres champion was one of the athletes uncovered in the BALCO scandal, testing positive for THG and later admitting to the use of a cocktail of drugs.

In 2008, Chambers appealed to the High Court of Justice for the removal of the ban and though it was temporarily lifted, it ultimately failed. Mr Justice Mackay stated at the time that a right to work was not sufficient reason to remove it and Chambers could not race in Beijing.

The Belgrave Harrier has since regularly spoken out against doping and last week gave a talk to an audience of a 1000 at Eton School where he received a standing ovation.

The BOA have now received in writing WADA's formal findings on their bye-law banning Chambers, cyclist David Millar and shot putter Carl Myerscough.

Their chairman, Lord Moynihan, claimed last month they had no choice but to take the case to CAS after the WADA took legal advice from Michael Beloff QC, who concluded the BOA's lifetime ban for drug cheats does not comply with their code.

WADA took the advice in the wake of the US 400m gold medallist LaShawn Merritt's successful challenge of the International Olympic Committee's rule 45 last month, which banned any athlete with a suspension of more than six months from the Games that followed.

The BOA insist they will "vigorously defend any challenge to the selection policy which bans drug cheats from representing Team GB".

But Chambers's manager and barrister, Siza Agha, argues today in Standard Sport that the BOA's appeal process is "inherently flawed".

As the BOA's bye-law on Olympic eligibility stands, athletes can appeal if their drugs "offence was minor or committed without fault or negligence or that there were mitigating circumstances for it" or if "the appellant can show that, on the balance of probabilities, significant mitigating circumstances existed in relation to the doping offence".

However, Agha believes that such a stance is wrong. He writes: "Essentially if an athlete keeps quiet and maintains that a banned substance was in their system because of a horrible mistake, someone spiked a drink, an unknown cream was applied or a banned substance was buried in the small print of packaging then that athlete would have a right of appeal within the bye-law.
Conversely if an athlete does what is universally viewed as the right thing and comes clean there is no appeal."

Myerscough has been largely silent on the matter while earlier this week Millar said he did not want to challenge the ban.

"I just considered that the lifetime ban was in place and it wasn't something I wanted to challenge," he said. "There are certain fights I don't want to fight and that was one of them. I just don't fancy being vilified any more. It's been a tough couple of years."

The BOA will hope to avoid a messy legal wrangle dragging on into 2012 and clouding the build-up the London Games.

Moynihan remains confident that the BOA's stance will not be overturned and that they retain the full support of "90 per cent" of the rest of the Britain's athletes. But Chambers's camp believe this is not the case and that the movement for change and handing the sprinter his redemption is growing.

Despite his advanced years, Chambers remains Britain's premier sprinter. He had a commanding win in 10.09 seconds at the UK Trials in Birmingham before failing to make the final of World Championships in Daegu after false starting in his semi-final.