Australia –TRAINING will now be easier for the budding pole vaulters at the Mount Isa Athletics Club thanks to the generosity of local businesses.

ART Airconditioning and Sheetmetal, have just finished construction of vault box (rrp $650) which they have generously donated to the club.

Level 3 jumps coach and pole vaulter David Scott said: “Merv (Whitney) approached us one day at training and said if there was anything he could do to assist the club to just let him know.” Robert Dark, from the Mining Advocate, also generously donated a pole vault pole, which start around $500.

Mr Scott said: “As transport is a major issue due to the length of the poles the club intends to purchase an extra one along with the one from the Mining Advocate.

“As well the three adult vaulters, David Scott, Iain Faithful and Ken Dickson, were considering chipping in for a third.”

Mr Scott said: “We have had a great year for assistance from the community

FULL STORY

November 6 – A police force has been permanently posted to a favela near the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which will host the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2016 Olympic Games, as well as the final of the 2014 World Cup. The Mangueira slum, which has approximately 20,000 residents, has been allocated a Police Pacification Unit (UPP) to exert some control, with a fiesta of major sporting events coming to the city.The Rio state’s public safety department confirmed 400 officers would be in the UPP and this means all of the slums surrounding the stadium, which is undergoing essential renovation work, will have a police presence.
It is the latest move in the police’s battle to beat armed drugs gangs and they will hope to remove such elements from Mangueira. It is the latest move in the police’s battle to beat armed drugs gangs and they will hope to remove such elements from Mangueira.

Full Story

The traditional Laurel Queen of Sport Gala in Bydgoszcz on Friday saw pole vault world champion Pawel Wojciechowski and multi-events exponent Carolina Tymińska awarded the Golden Spikes which go to the best Polish athletes of the year.

Vicories at the World Championships and European Athletics U23 Championships saw Wojciechowski finish ahead of Adam Kszczot, who won the 800m titles at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and, like Wojciechowski, at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava back in July.

Tymińska was fourth in the pentathlon at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris and also in the World Championships heptathlon and that was enough to give her the verdict over the pole vaulter Anna Rogowska, the 2009 world champion.

Wojciechowski also took the ‘Surprise of the Year’ award while his mentor Wlodzimierz Michalski was named Coach of the Year.

Full story

London 2012 today confirmed all the communities through which the Olympic Flame will be carried by Torchbearers during the Olympic Torch Relay with over 95 per cent of the British population to be within just 10 miles of it at some point during its 8,000 mile journey across the UK.
The 70-day relay, which will presented by Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung, will pass through 1,018 villages, towns and cities with street by street details to be confirmed next year. In a unique twist, the Flame will travel via different methods of transport including horseback, bicycle, tram and steam-train with many Torchbearers set to face exciting challenges along the way..

The relay will visit UK landmarks like the Giant’s Causeway and Stonehenge.

 The Flame will arrive in the UK from Greece on May 18, 2012,after being lit on Mount Olympus which is the ancient birthplace of the Games. The relay will start the following morning at Land’s End in Cornwall and pass through every county in England and every Local Authority area in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales before arriving in London on July 20.

FULL STORY