PHOTO SOURCE: stefanobaldini.net

Here’s Italian marathoner and 2004 Athens gold medalist Stefano Baldini’s road to Beijing:

1. Participate in the 2008 London marathon as part of his Olympic preparation
2. Unfortunately develop a stress fracture in his left leg
3. Miss 30 days of training

It isn’t clear how much this reduced training period will affect Baldini’s goal to defend his Olympic title.

PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

But what exactly is “A-standard time”? Well, we don’t know but we might do a future post on it if we find out what it means. Hehe.

Anyways, the Sunday Star Times reports that one of those rejected by Athletics NZ, Liza Hunter-Galvan, has “engaged an American lawyer to fight her case to be in the New Zealand team for Beijing”.

Is this the first time, someone had to file a case to be included in an Olympic team?

Hunter-Galvan isn’t the only one frustrated with Athletics NZ. According to the Star-Times, marathoner Michael Aish, who’s also not picked has “had enough after a decade of frustration with Athletics NZ”.

From the Star-Times: Aish claims that Athletics NZ had been damaging his career by making him “jump through hoops” on the eve of big events. He claimed it had:

* Selected him for the 5000m at the 2003 world championships, then told him to switch to the 10,000m the day before the event on fitness grounds “but I hadn’t run a 10,000m all season”.

* Was told four days before the Athens Olympics 10,000m to do a flat-out workout to prove his fitness: “I never recovered for the race.” (He had asked to stay at altitude before the event but was sent to a sea-level training camp tailored for field athletes when other distance athletes were allowed to remain at altitude.)

* Was asked to run another near- qualifying 10,000m before the 2007 world championships despite clocking just short of the New Zealand record; Aish claimed there were no races available but Athletics NZ were “so bent on getting their race in they hadn’t thought of it”.

Whoo. If these allegations are true, then some thing’s not right at Athletics NZ. Making someone compete in an event he’s not prepared for? That’s not cool. Wasting an athlete’s energy four days before a race? That’s not cool too.

Anyways, we will keep you posted on whether Hunter-Galvan can manage to overturn the decision against her. Because this blog is all about Olympians, we hope she will.

Outside reading:
Runner takes legal aim at NZ selectors

Here’s his take on the matter according to Xinhua:

“Kenyan athletes won a total of 50 marathon races last year and so far they have won 25 therefore you will agree with me that coming up with six names from such a pool is a monumental task,” Kiplagat said.

Eventually, Kenya’s athletics officials named the following for the men’s marathon team: 2008 London Marathon winner Martin Lel, his runner up in the same race Samuel Wanjiru and this week’s winner of the Boston marathon Robert Cheruiyot.

World marathon Champion Luke Kibet and winner of this year’s Rotterdam marathon William Kipsang are on standby.

Meanwhile, the women’s team is comprised of world marathon champion Catherine Ndereba,
Salina Kosgei, Martha Komu and second runner up during this year’s Boston Marathon Rita Jeptoo.

So is this selection wise? Not according to one time world marathon champion Douglas Wakiihuri. Wakiihuri is worried that Kenya could lose the men’s Olympic title for fielding runners who have just taken part in grueling races.

“You cannot run two major marathon races in a year and expect to do well. Preparations for a race of the magnitude as the Olympic Games need at least six months,” said Wakiihuri.

INFO SOURCE: Xinhua.net

His run which clocked two hours, 30 minutes and 42 seconds is just too far away from those recorded by Athens 2004 medalists (where the bronze medalist clocked 2:12:11). Also, the current marathon world record is 2:04:26 by Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie. By the way, as we reported earlier, Haile has decided to not compete in the marathon because of health concerns.

Photo credit: Associated Press.

Because I live in a polluted city, I initially labeled them as wimpy whiners. So I was like, “Silly people. I eat pollution for breakfast. If you want to live in a pollution free world then let’s all walk/run/bike to work. Besides, how convenient for Westerners to be complaining about Beijing’s pollution when they benefit from it through cheaper goods. Silly, silly, nose up in the air , hypocritical, energy-guzzling people.”

But then I came across this report which states that distance runner Haile Gebrselassie has decided to not compete in the marathon because of Beijing’s pollution. So I went, “Aha. If an athlete would rather forgo a sure gold medal because of health concerns maybe those whiners have a valid point after all. Maybe it’s unfair to label them as “whiners”".

What do you think? Does Beijing need to clean up its air? Or is the pollution problem being unfairly blown out of proportion?