Athletics Africa Magazine

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 .

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

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

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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

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.

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....

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 Swed...