IAAF
After 25 international seasons Plätzer shows how to end a career on a high
01/10/09 09:30 Filed in: Athletics reporting
“I'm, empty but very relieved.” said the 37-year-old Norwegian a week after the IAAF Race Walking Challenge Final in Saransk, and six weeks after being disqualified in Berlin. “Now I can retire on a high which is so important for me.” Such a long career has several beginnings - in Plätzer’s case due to injuries and motherhood. With her coach, Stephan, also her husband it may be a little intrusive to enquire deeply about some of their planning - but, what shines through is Plätzer’s sense of enjoyment of competition and the love of a challenge.
IAAF article here.
Read More...
|
One more year to the Platzer walking saga
11/01/09 11:04 Filed in: Athletics reporting | Sports writing
Approaching the age of thirty seven (on 18 January), and having seemingly achieved a neat enough symmetry to her Olympic career in Beijing by winning a silver medal in what will be her last Games to match her achievement in the first Olympic outing in Sydney back in 2000, you’d have been forgiven for expecting Norway’s Kjersti Plätzer to be planning a quieter 2009.
Yet Plätzer has decided that for one more year she will juggle motherhood, business life and elite athletics; braving hard training along the dark and icy roads around Softeland.
iaaf.org
Yet Plätzer has decided that for one more year she will juggle motherhood, business life and elite athletics; braving hard training along the dark and icy roads around Softeland.
iaaf.org
Erickson looks to make his mark in 2009
08/01/09 08:58 Filed in: Sports writing | Athletics reporting
Providing welcome pre-Christmas news for its race walkers, the Australian Federation named a maximum possible four man team for the 50km race walk at the Berlin World Championship. Chris Erickson was the one who ensured the team is known nice and early by gaining automatic qualification in winning in an ‘A’ standard time at the national championships two weeks earlier.
Flushed with success from Nathan Deakes’s victory in Osaka and Jared Tallent’s double silver in Beijing, the squad is bolstered by the inclusion of Luke Adams (sixth at 20km and tenth over 50km in Beijing).
iaaf.org
Flushed with success from Nathan Deakes’s victory in Osaka and Jared Tallent’s double silver in Beijing, the squad is bolstered by the inclusion of Luke Adams (sixth at 20km and tenth over 50km in Beijing).
iaaf.org
2006 winner Stef hopes to maintain consistency in the 2009 Race Walking Challenge
21/01/09 08:45 Filed in: Sports writing | Athletics reporting
In the short history of the annual IAAF Race Walking Challenge no woman can match Romania's Claudia Stef in terms of consistency.
In its six years she had been ranked five times in the top six (the last five), and four times in the first three positions. Her best placing was in 2006 when Stef took the overall title.
iaaf.org
In its six years she had been ranked five times in the top six (the last five), and four times in the first three positions. Her best placing was in 2006 when Stef took the overall title.
iaaf.org
Everything coming together for Olive Loughnane
11/02/09 20:09 Filed in: Sports writing | Athletics reporting
On a rain soaked morning in Beijing the Women’s Olympic 20km Race Walk was won by one of the firmest favourites for gold, in the slender shape of Olga Kaniskina. Notwithstanding an Olympic record time, the Russian didn’t appear to thrive in the conditions, allowing a big lead to diminish to 12 seconds by the finish. Of the other contenders racing up behind perhaps the most surprising was Ireland’s Olive Loughnane.
Obviously entirely impervious to a bit of a drenching, Olive powered through from 13th at half way to claim seventh place at the finish. Within about half a minute of a medal she smashed her personal best time to record 1:27.45 which was also inside the old Olympic record, and 92 seconds superior to her previous best set in the World Cup three months earlier.
iaaf.org
Obviously entirely impervious to a bit of a drenching, Olive powered through from 13th at half way to claim seventh place at the finish. Within about half a minute of a medal she smashed her personal best time to record 1:27.45 which was also inside the old Olympic record, and 92 seconds superior to her previous best set in the World Cup three months earlier.
iaaf.org
Heffernan asking the right questions ahead of Cheboksary
09/05/08 09:11 Filed in: Athletics reporting
Cheboksary, Russia - For a long time Robert (Robbie) Heffernan showed potential for honours at highest level - but injuries and disqualifications halted his progress for much of the time since his first IAAF Race Walking Cup in 1999. Now the guidance of Robert Korzeniowski and the environment of his training group seems to have turned round the career of the affable Cork man - meaning he is, perhaps, Ireland's top hope for an athletics medal in Beijing.
“I’m going well and you can’t write anything off”, said Heffernan in confident mood the day before traveling from his training base in Poland to Cheboksary, Russia for the 23rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup (10-11 May 2008).
“I’m going well and you can’t write anything off”, said Heffernan in confident mood the day before traveling from his training base in Poland to Cheboksary, Russia for the 23rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup (10-11 May 2008).
Schwazer is experienced yet young enough to believe “everything is possible”
07/05/08 12:47 Filed in: Athletics reporting
“I am sure that the Russians will dominate the race” he said, before departing for Cheboksary.
Feitor cautiously optimistic for Cheboksary and Beijing
08/04/08 10:30 Filed in: Athletics reporting
Approaching her fifth Olympic Games this summer Susana Feitor wants to believe she can finally “do something” in a World Race Walking Cup and Olympic year.
“I’m enjoying my training and I think I can finally achieve a result”, said the 33 year old Portuguese race walker who has relatively thrived in IAAF World Championships in Athletics (bronze in Helsinki, fourth in Seville and fifth last year in Osaka) yet did not finish in the last World Cup and has had an Olympic run of luck showing 13th as her best placing, back in the 1996 Atlanta Games.
“I’m enjoying my training and I think I can finally achieve a result”, said the 33 year old Portuguese race walker who has relatively thrived in IAAF World Championships in Athletics (bronze in Helsinki, fourth in Seville and fifth last year in Osaka) yet did not finish in the last World Cup and has had an Olympic run of luck showing 13th as her best placing, back in the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Korzeniowski: "'Paquillo' intentará ganar el oro olímpico, pero sabemos que no es el único aspirante"
07/03/08 11:13 Filed in: Athletics reporting
Paquillo article (below) re-reported in a Spanish newspaper website
MADRID, 3 (ATB NOTICIAS) El polaco Robert Korzeniowski, tetracampeón olímpico, confía en que su pupilo Francisco Javier 'Paquillo' Fernández se cuelgue una medalla en los próximos Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín y confía en que la misma preparación que ya le permitió obtener la plata en el Mundial de Osaka (Japón) dé sus frutos."Estamos seremos en nuestra confianza de lo que podemos lograr. Intentará ganar el oro olímpico, pero somos realistas y sabemos que no es el único aspirante. Sin embargo confiamos en que el 16 de agosto estará al cien por cien preparado", subrayó en una entrevista a la Asociación Internacional de Atletismo.
Coach Korzeniowski confident that Paquillo is on track to realise his Olympic dreams
03/03/08 16:23 Filed in: Athletics reporting
Speaking after a day at the office, with his daughter bouncing on his knee, Robert Korzeniowski now lives a far more conventional lifestyle than that of the full-time athlete. But away from his job in Polish television, the four-time Olympic champion still has a strong foothold in the world of race walking - in coaching his former rival Francisco ‘Paquillo’ Fernández, as well as promoting the Krakow leg of the IAAF Race Walking challenge.
Prior to travelling to the first event in the 2008 Challenge at Chihuahua, Mexico, next weekend, Robert asserted his confidence that Spain’s leading walker (shortened by Robert to Paco) is on track in his preparations and revealed some of their plans for helping him realise his dreams in Olympic year and beyond.
Prior to travelling to the first event in the 2008 Challenge at Chihuahua, Mexico, next weekend, Robert asserted his confidence that Spain’s leading walker (shortened by Robert to Paco) is on track in his preparations and revealed some of their plans for helping him realise his dreams in Olympic year and beyond.
Luke Adams determined to walk his own path
27/02/08 15:09 Filed in: Athletics reporting
A combination of Australian competitiveness, loving the journey and the friendships made (as well as sidestepping a bureaucrat or two) enabled Luke Adams to master the IAAF Race Walking Chal-lenge of 2007.
Ahead of a good hit out at the Australian 20km Olympic trials on 23 February, the popular 31-year-old looked back on last year’s events, and described what keeps him going through the hard work necessary for global success in walking.
Ahead of a good hit out at the Australian 20km Olympic trials on 23 February, the popular 31-year-old looked back on last year’s events, and described what keeps him going through the hard work necessary for global success in walking.
