B10 Newsletter 01 Mar 2009 - European Athletic Association

Newsletter B10/n.11
For more information consult our website:
www.bcn2010.org
1 March 2009
AGREEMENT SIGNED BETWEEN ESTRELLA DAMM AND BARCELONA 2010
Enric Crous, Jose Maria Odriozola and Pere Alcober in the moment of the toast
On 6 February the agreement between the Catalan beer Estrella Damm and the European Athletics
Championships Barcelona 2010 was signed, making the beer from Barcelona the Championships’ first
local sponsor. The event confirmed the strong relationship between Estrella Damm and high level
international sporting events.
The signing took place in the old brewery (Antigua Fábrica) in Rossellón street and was attended by
the Barcelona 2010 Organising Committee President, José María Odriozola, the Executive Committee
President, Pere Alcober, and Estrella Damm’s General Director, Enric Crous.
Through the agreement, Estrella Damm commits itself to cover the beer and
water needs of the event’s 10,000 accredited teams, guests, media and staff.
Mr Crous highlighted his company’s tremendous satisfaction in being able to
sponsor this event and stressed the event’s international status. Mr Alcober
thanked him for his words and for the determined decision taken by his
company to “participate with the city’s sporting initiatives”. Mr Alcober, who is
also the City Council’s Sports Delegate, added that Barcelona 2010 “will be
an important challenge with a high level of requirements that will need
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Damm’s help and commitment”.
Newsletter B10/n.11
For more information consult our website:
www.bcn2010.org
1 March 2009
Odriozola emphasised the close link between the Catalan company and the Championships’
organisation, and passed on his best wishes to the event’s organisers.
The Championships, which take place once every two years, will be held for the first time in Spain
from 26 July to 1 August. It is expected to be a big success in terms of athlete participation and
audience. The Spanish team will try to match the results obtained during the previous Championships
in Göteborg, where a total of 11 medals, three of which were gold, were obtained.
VOLUNTEER NUMBER 1,000 REACHED IN UNDER FOUR MONTHS!
Laura Nin Pardo, 24, from Barcelona is volunteer
number 1,000 for the European Athletics
Championships Barcelona 2010. Laura is a big
athletics fan who joined the volunteer team for the
Meeting Ciutat de Barcelona last year and
afterwards thought that she would like to repeat the
experience at future meetings and Barcelona 2010.
She submitted her application via the B10
homepage last Sunday.
Even if she does not practise athletics except for a
few popular races, her family is involved in the
sport. Her father and brother, both called Josep, are
licensed athletes and are members of the Nou
Barris Athletics Club.
The Championships’ volunteer recruitment campaign has had a very positive response amongst
young people from Barcelona and the rest of Spain. After just four months of recruiting (which started
on 1 November), 1,000 people have signed up. This is one third of the total the organisation is hoping
to find.
The lucky volunteer number 1,000, who has been presented with a variety of B10 merchandise, is
busy studying to become a nursing assistant while also working part time but says from now on she
will dedicate what little time she has left to Barcelona 2010.
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• 10 volunteers per day
have been recruited
since the start of
campaign on 1
November 2008. There
already are more than
1,000!
• 7 th position is the best
result obtained so far by
Nuria Fernández in the
European Athletics
Indoor Championships.
She achieved it in 2005
in Madrid, at the 1500m
final.
• 189,000 water
bottles will be used
during the six days of
the European Athletics
Championships
Barcelona 2010.
• 6.16m is the height
that the Australian Steve
Hooker wants to pole
vault this year. He has
tried three times so far,
but with no success.
• 42 is the number of
consecutive meetings
over 2.00m in the High
Jump for Croatian
Blanka Vlasic.
Newsletter B10/n.11
For more information consult our website:
www.bcn2010.org
1 March 2009
“DESTINATION BARCELONA”, THE EUROPEAN
CHAMPIONSHIPS’ HISTORY
The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) has started a series
of historical articles about the European Athletics Championships to
introduce athletics fans to the most important athletics event in Spain
today: Barcelona 2010. The series is called “Destination Barcelona”.
The first of the 19 chapters that will be published periodically in the
RFEA website (www.rfea.es) was dedicated to the event’s origins, at
the beginning of the 1930s, and has had a very good response. The
article reviews the pioneers that made the idea which was
considered crazy at the time, a reality. It describes the
Championships’ origins, which go back to 1920, when the Hungarian
Athletics Federation President, Szilard Stankovic, talked for the first
time about the project.
The first European Athletics Championships event took place in
Torino in the summer of 1934. A total of 23 countries and 226
athletes participated in the event.
Each chapter will feature photographs from the time as well as
statistics of interest to athletics fans.
Besides the special attention that is given to each of the 19 editions
that have taken place until now, “Destination Barcelona” also
features biographies of the greatest European athletes of all times
and reports of crucial finals. The first one covered is the 800m men’s
final in Berne 1954, which was won by the Hungarian Lajos Szengáli.
The Hungarian
Lajos Szentgali
in the moment to
come to the goal
ahead from the
Belgian Lucien
De Muynck and
from the
Norwegian
Audun Boysen
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Newsletter B10/n.11
HILDA KIBET NOW KNOWS ABOUT BARCELONA’S BEAUTY
Until the middle of January this year, Spain was a country of mystery to
Hilda Kibet.
However, a trip to Seville for the historic Cross Internacional de Itálica
got Kibet dreaming about her chance to return in the future and
Barcelona is now at the top of her list of places to visit when the
Dutchwoman comes south again.
“It was the first time I'd ever been to Spain for anything, but even just
flying into Seville I was so impressed with what everything looked like on
the ground I told Hugo (Dutch international marathoner Hugo van den
Broek, Kibet's partner) as we were coming through the clouds that I liked
what I was looking at and would be very happy to return sometime
soon,” Kibet told Newsletter B10.
It didn't matter to Kibet that it was Andalucía not Catalonia that was in front of her eyes.
For more information consult our website:
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1 March 2009
“People at the meeting then started telling me about the other aspects and areas of Spain and so I'm
already very enthusiastic about the prospect of going to Barcelona for next year's European Athletics
Championships,” added the reigning European Cross Country champion.
“The cross country race in Seville, and just seeing what everything was like here, got me thinking
about how good it would be to do some of my preparations in Spain ahead of the European Athletics
Championships and then, of course, I started talking to people about Barcelona and the sort of places
where I could train, whether it's sometime in the near future or just in the weeks before the
Championships.
“As I was born in Kenya, I often return there for my preparations. It's a great place to train for a
distance runner, and I still have family there, but sometimes it's good to have a change of scenery and
I've started thinking 'Why not go somewhere in Spain, like Barcelona or nearby there',” said the evercheerful
qualified physiotherapist who turns 28 on March 27.
With Barcelona 2010 still more than a year in the distance, it's not a surprise that Kibet has yet to
decide whether she will contest the 10,000m or the marathon at the Championships but, whichever
distance she chooses, she is likely to be among the medal favourites if her upward trajectory of the
last year or so continues.
With her fifth place, she was the first European home at the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country
Championships. Last summer, Kibet reduced her 10000m best on the track to 30:58.48 year and she
had a whole series of other sparkling performances. 2008 culminated December with her following in
the footsteps of her close relative and compatriot Lornah Kiplagat by winning the SPAR European
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Newsletter B10/n.11
For more information consult our website:
www.bcn2010.org
1 March 2009
Cross Country Championships in convincing fashion, her victory coming three years after Kiplagat had
won the continental crown.
“Another reason I want to do well at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona is that I want
to get a medal for our family and The Netherlands as Lornah missed out at the last Championships in
Gothenburg. She lead the 10000m for nearly all the race until she was overtaken on the last lap.”
Kiplagat is often referred to as being, Kibet’s aunt but the reality is a little more tenuous.
“Let's look at it this way. Lornah's father had about 10 brothers and sisters and one of his older sister's
is my grandmother,” joked Kibet. “But it doesn't matter as Lornah is more like my big sister in real life
as she's only about seven years older than me.”
“I don't know what her plans are for Barcelona as I haven't talked to her specifically about it, but it may
be that both of us will be running in the marathon as rivals for the gold medal. I've run one before, I did
2:32.10 in the 2007 Amsterdam Marathon, but I want to go much faster than that before Barcelona
and I'm sure I have the ability to do so.”
More immediately, Kibet will carry Europe's hopes of a medal at the World Cross Country
Championships in Jordan on March 28.
“It will be a different type of course to those that I've done well on at the World Cross Country
Championships in Scotland last year and at the Europeans in Brussels in December but a good result
will give me a lot of confidence ahead of the World Championships this summer and, in the long term,
for the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona next year.”
Hilda Kibet in the
podium of the 2008
European Cross
Country
Championships
between Jessica
Augusto and Inés
Monteiro
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Newsletter B10/n.11
JORGE LORENZO VISITS BARNI IN THE OLYMPIC STADIUM
For more information consult our website:
www.bcn2010.org
1 March 2009
Just under a month before the start of the first event of World Motorcycle Championships, the twice
250cc world champion Jorge Lorenzo decided to join the other top athletes who support Barcelona
2010 and had his photograph taken with Barni in the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc.
Jorge Lorenzo enjoys with Barni in the Lluís
Companys Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc
IN MARCH...
Days 6 to 8: European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torino
Day 11: Barcelona 2010 Organising Committee Meeting
Day 13: 500 days left before the Championships start
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