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EXECUTIVES
Headquarters
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Email: headquarters@iaaf.org
IAAF President
Lamine Diack (SEN)
IAAF Council
Sergey Bubka (UKR)
Senior Vice President
Robert Hersh (USA)
Vice President
Lord Sebastian Coe (GBR)
Vice President
Brigadier Gen. Dahlan Jumaan Al-Hamad (QAT)
Vice President
Jean Poczobut (FRA),
Honorary Treasurer
Pierre Weiss
General Secretary
Area Group Representative:
Mr William (Bill) Bailey (AUS)
Oceania Representative
Mr Roberto Gesta de Melo (BRA)
South America Representative
Col. Hamad Kalkaba Malboum (CMR)
Shri Suresh Kalmadi, M.P. (IND)
Asia Representative
Mr Neville McCook (JAM)
North and Central America
and Caribbean Representative
Mr Hansjörg Wirz (SUI)
Europe Representative
Members
Valentin Balakhnichev (RUS)
Leonard Chuene (RSA),
Africa Representative
Pauline Davis-Thompson (BAH)
Prof. Dr. Helmut Digel (GER)
Nawal El Moutawakel (MAR)
Abby Hoffman (CAN)
Alberto Juantorena Danger (CUB)
Ilkka Kanerva (FIN)
Isaiah F. Kiplagat (KEN)
Chaoyi Luo (CHN)
César Moreno Bravo (MEX)
Prof José Maria Odriozola (ESP)
Jung-Ki Park (KOR)
Anna Riccardi (ITA)
Katsuyuki Tanaka (JPN)
General Secretary
Mr Pierre Weiss (FRA)
IAAF Road Running
Commission Chairman
Roberto Gesta de Melo (BRA)
Members
David Bedford
London Marathon
115 Southwark Street,
London SE1 0JF, UK
Tel: 44 20 7902 0200
Fax: 44 20 7620 4208
Paco Borao (ESP)
Carlos Cardoso (POR)
Avenida Gama Pinto, No. 2,
1699 Lisbon, Portugal
Fax: 351 1 795 4288
Email: ccardoso@fc.ul.pt
Hiroaki Chosa (JPN)
C/o Japan Association of
Athletics Federations
1-1-1 Jinnan, Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo 150-8050, Japan
Fax: 81 3 3481 2449
Hugh Jones (GBR)
AIMS Secretary
Otto Klappert
Platanenallee 7, 59425 Unna, Germany
Fax: 49 2303 21233
Email: o.klappert@gmx.de
Katsuyuki TANAKA (JPN)
Pierre WEISS (FRA)
Mary WITTENBERG (USA)
2008
15-24 August:
XXIX Olympic Games
Beijing, China
12 October:
3rd IAAF World Road Running Championships
Rio de Janeiro, Bazil
GENZEBE DIBABA (RIGHT) OF ETHIOPIA EVENTUAL WINNER OF THE GOLD KEEPS IN
CLOSE TOUCH WITH EVENTUAL SILVER MEDALIST IRINE CHEPET CHEPTAI (2ND RIGHT)
OF KENYA IN THE JUNIOR WOMEN'S RACE
30 March 2008
36th IAAF World Cross-Country
Championships, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Sliding and
gliding
IBRAHIM JEILAN (4TH RIGHT) OF ETHIPOIA THE EVENTUAL
WINNER IN THE MEN'S JUNIOR RACE
A cold, blustery and windswept
Edinburgh greeted the runners, and
they seemed to like it fine. There
could have hardly been a greater
contrast to last year’s
Championships when runners were
wilting and dropping in the heat and
humidity of Mombasa. Holyrood
Park offered a serpentine course
ideal for spectators but the sodden
turf created some problems for
runners. Sharp corners sent several
of them tumbling on the slippery
surface. All races comprised the
usual combinations of ‘long’ and
‘short’ laps with three tight hairpin
turns in each, although there was
little difference in distance between
them. What did make the
difference, and it told in most of the
races, was the sharp incline on the
longer lap behind the rocky outcrop
called “Haggis Knowe”. The swift
descent that followed, to complete
the lap, contributed to some
explosive finishes. Not only the
nature of the contest was different,
but also the results. Without an
individual win last year Ethiopia
took all four titles this time around,
the last such sweep having been by
Kenya back in 1994.
SENIOR MEN
Bekele reclaims his crown
Kenenisa Bekele had suffered badly
in the heat at the last
Championships, and dropped out,
breaking his 5-year winning streak.
He almost met with disaster in
Edinburgh when, at one of the
tighter corners on the course, the
lead runners bunched and slowed
and Bekele’s shoe was trodden off
by one of the others. He stopped,
pushed in against the plastic tape,
and took his time to fix it back in
place. He only lost a few seconds,
but at that pace it equates to a lot of
distance, and every metre of it was
filled with runners who had slipped
past. Bekele kept his cool, taking his
time to carefully work his way back
into contention, and then gliding
serenely away from all other
contenders when he drove for home
on the last lap.
Bekele had been quick out of the
starting gate and headed the field
after two hundred metres. He
seemed content to control the pace
from the front, and did so with
aplomb for the first lap. Mid-way
around the second he parted
company with his shoe and the
leading group. “My shoe did not fall
completely off but I had to stop to
undo it and put it back on” he said
later. By the end of the lap he was
back in 12th, but only a second off
the lead and now seeming to prefer
not to run in the front rank; he was
still in eighth place after the third
lap.
Distance Running April – June 2008
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