Rai Sport Più and Eurosport to broadcast WYC 2009 live

The World Youth Championships 2009 will be shown comprehensively live on TV.

Rai Sport Più (accessible on Astra satellite) and Eurosport will report 14 hours live from Bressanone/Brixen and supplement it with delayed daily summaries.

A total of 30 hours reporting on the WYC is planned. Competitions begin on Wednesday at 9:30 am. There are 40 medal events on the programme.

According to the Italian athletics federation FIDAL Rai Sport Più has set the following TV Schedule:

Nigerian team cannot get Italian Visa for Sudtirol 2009

Well, it has happened again! A Nigerian national team has once again been denied entry Visas to a major championships.

So the report I'm hearing that the Nigeria’s 14-man team to the 6th World Youth Athletics Championships in Bressanone, Italy has ran into visa hitch with the Italian embassy in Lagos, two days to the start of the competition is hardly surprising.

Now this championship, The World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy has been on the IAAF calendar all year, so why are the team members still in Nigeria two days to the Opening ceremony?

South Africa and Kenya named their teams over three weeks ago and I'm sure visa issues, if any arose, would have been resolved early as the teams are all in Italy by now.

The Italian Embassy refused to issue the team visas after the embassy officials rejected the supporting documents - even with the Federal Government of Nigeria official letter head - covering the athletes’ trip to Italy for the Championships, which starts on Wednesday 8th july.

Secretary of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Maria Wophill said: "They have been turning us back and forth for days. First they asked to go and get court affidavits, swearing to the authenticity of documents and then they asked to go and get letters from parents of each of the children making the trip.

"This is the highest point of frustration. Do they mean that a covering letter duly signed by the minister of foreign affairs was not genuine enough to give these kids visas?

"We have also presented them a letter of undertaking we gave to the IAAF declaring that the kids would not defect in Italy," Wophill added.

One question to ask is, why does it always take a 'last minute rush' for Nigeria to select and confirm her teams to major events? Even journalists have a hard time receiving the sent media accreditation forms from the federation and two of them simply abandoned plans to travel to Italy.

What do you think? Have your say

Youths converge in Bressanone/Brixen

A record number of 179 nations will compete in Bressanone/Brixen World Youth Championships - Sudtirol 2009. Athletes are coming from as far as 18,600 km and 13 hours time difference. Opening Ceremony on July 7th.

This is also by far the largest number of participants for any sport event ever hosted in South Tyrol.

Aruba, Cook Islands, Nauru, Kiribati, Comoros, Mariana Islands, Micronesia or Palau: never heard of them? The World Youth Championships "Südtirol 2009" taking place in Bressanone/Brixen from July 8th to 12th has the answer.

Read More here

Meanwhile, South Africa has selected 30 athletes for the championships, while Kenya picked 20.

Naija women gets Berlin relay ticket

Nigeria women's 4x100m team has qualified for the relay event at the World Athletics Championships after dipping under the 43.90 seconds IAAF qualifying standard yesterday at the NAAA/Sagicor National Track and Field Open Championships at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Read more

Godfrey Mokoena flash interview

Here at AthleticsAfrica.Com, We wish Khotso Mokoena all the best at the World Championships in Berlin...stay with us for all the coverage on the African teams from Berlin - August 2009

Usain Bolt 9.77 !! (Golden SPIKE Ostrava 2009)

wow!

Melkamu takes Dibaba African record

Ethiopian Meselech Melkamu has become only the fourth woman in history to break the 30-minute barrier for 10,000m, clocking 29:53.80 - second fastest of all-time mark - in Utrecht, the Netherlands on Sunday.


For more, click here and see the video courtesy Flotrack/Bart Van Aalst

2009 NCAA Round-Up

Men

Zimbabwe's Florida State University sophomore Ngonidzashe Makusha defended his Long Jump title at the 2009 National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) outdoor track and field championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Makusha, who was the 26th and last wild card invitee in the event - his season's best jump being 7.73 metres, leapt to a modest, by his standards, 8.11 metres to win his second straight individual national championship.

Stanley Gbagbeke of Middle Tennessee State settled for second with a best of 8.00 metres.

Women

University of Houston senior Seun Adigun finished third (13.20s) in the 100m Hurdles final at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

UTEP's Blessing Okagbare finished fifth in the women's triple jump with a mark of 13.60m in the final day - her seventh USTFCCA All-American honour.

And schoolmate and countrywoman Endurance Abinuwa clocked in a time of 52.81 in the women’s 400-metres dash final to finish ninth in the event.

Makusha and Chibudu out of NCAA Outdoor finals

Zimbabwean long jumper and Florida State University (FSU) sophomore Ngoni Makusha and fellow long jumper Brian Chibudu (who had the longest mark in the US coming into last week's regionals) have both failed to earn a berth into next week's NCAA national championship meet in Fayetteville, Ark.

Since Makusha finished 12th at the East Regional in Greensboro, N.C., he was automatically entered into the at-large pool for the long jump — the top 12 for each region get entered.

And since Makusha's season's best jump ended up being the sixth best in the nation for non-automatic qualifiers, FSU track coach Bob Braman assumed the Zimbabwe native had narrowly slipped into the NCAA meet. There are almost always 26 long jumpers invited (20 automatic qualifiers and six from the at-large pool) to the national championships.

In 2009 however, there will be just 25 competing (20 qualifiers and five at-large berths). So the reigning national champion won't be able to defend his title.

"We're real disappointed that the defending national champion was the first athlete left out of the at-large field," said Braman. "I'm at a loss to explain that one." 

The NCAA Outdoor Championships takes place from June 10-13, 2009.

Wissman gets a website, targets Berlin

European champion and Sweden’s big hope for the upcoming World Championship, Johan Wissman has put up a website www.johanwissman.com for his fans to follow his journey towards new successes and new medals.

Johan Wissman says:

"The website is an effective and enjoyable way of communicating with all my fans and I shall be updating it frequently with news, pictures, as well as You Tube clips.
"I will also be conducting my own interviews at competitions and training campswith my fellow landsmen and rivals, and I certainly hope to be able to contribute with a scoop in the near future."

Johan will have his first appearance on the international track-and-field scene for the outdoor season, this Saturday the 30th of May in Kalamata, Greece and will be facing numerous big competitions in the nearby future with the main target being theWorld Championship In Berlin where the set goal is to take a medal and finishing in the top three positions.

The website will be introduced in Swedish and English, where it will be possible for visitors to find news, interviews, competitions for the fans, a schedule outlining Johan’s upcoming competitions, results of previous competitions, statistics and more.

For more visit www.johanwissman.com