First Six UK Athletes For Olympics Revealed

The first six members of the athletics squad that will represent Team GB at this summer’s Rio Olympics have been named by UK Athletics.

In the men’s marathon Derek Hawkins is included alongside younger brother Callum and Tsegai Tewelde, both of whom qualified at the London Marathon.

Alyson Dixon and Sonia Samuels also guaranteed their marathon spots in Sunday’s race in London.

Dominic King has also been selected for the 50km men’s race walk.

Callum Hawkins and Tewelde, who claimed asylum in Britain after competing for Eritrea at the 2008 World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, qualified as the first two Britons to cross the line in Sunday’s marathon.

Hawkins clocked a personal best time of two hours 10 minutes 52 seconds to finish eighth, while Tewelde was 12th in a time of 2:12:57 – both within the 2:14:00 qualifying time.

His brother Derek ran within the qualifying mark by clocking 2:12:57 to finish 14th and has now been awarded a discretionary place.

Dixon and Samuels, who finished 13th and 14th respectively, had already run the qualifying time of 2:37:00 in Berlin last September.

Sunderland runner Dixon tweeted: “Dreams do come true if you believe in yourself and work hard for it. I’M GOING TO THE OLYMPICS!!”

King competed for Great Britain in the 50km walk at London 2012.

The selection of the six athletes takes Team GB’s total for Rio 2016 to 53 across five sports, with 11 sailors, four slalom canoeists, six shooters and 26 swimmers having already been selected.

BBC

First Six UK Athletes For Olympics Revealed

Four Russian Athletes Fail Drugs Tests

Four Russian athletes have tested positive for the banned drug meldonium.

At least 16 Russian sportspeople, including tennis player Maria Sharapova, have tested positive for the substance since it was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency on 1 January.

The latest four are yet to be named.

Russia’s athletics federation is suspended from international competition for its alleged involvement in widespread doping, with a decision on potential reinstatement due in May.

Dmitry Shlyakhtin, head of the All-Russia Athletic Federation, said the latest positive tests will not “aggravate” that “complex” decision.

Russia’s international ban – which includes this summer’s Rio Olympic Games – applies only to its athletics federation and followed a Wada report last year that alleged “state-sponsored doping”.

Meldonium

Thought to improve stamina and endurance
Designed to treat ischemia and used by diabetes suffers
Banned by Wada since 1 January 2016
Featured on Wada’s watch list in 2015

Last week, Russia’s four-time breaststroke world champion Yuliya Efimova failed an out-of-competition test.

World number seven Sharapova, meanwhile, failed a drugs test at the Australian Open.

The 28-year-old said she had been taking meldonium since 2006 for health reasons.

According to Wada, a substance may be “considered” for the prohibited list if it meets two of the following three criteria:

Enhances performance
    Poses a threat to athlete health
    Violates the spirit of sport

A substance can be added to the prohibited list without first featuring on the watch list.

Credit: BBC

Four Russian Athletes Fail Drugs Tests

Abigail Kwarteng Qualifies for African Championship

Former Junior National Athlete Abigail Kwarteng becomes first athlete to qualify for the 2016 African Championships in Athletics after clearing 1.77m(PB) to meet the GAA’s B-Standard for the competition.

Abigail, 19, also the reigning Ghana University Sports Association high jump champion recorded a personal best jump at last Saturday’s National Open Championship held at the El Wak Stadium to book the first ticket for the championship slated for Durban, South Africa in July.

She comfortably cleared the mark by two metres at her second attempt, however, her feat did not meet the 2016 Summer Olympic Games high jump entry mark of 1.93m required to qualify for the global showppiece slated for August in Rio, Brazil.

An excited Abigail later told the sportscrusader.com that she was thrilled to have qualified for the African championship at her first athletics competition of the year.

She said, “I am very happy and very excited and I knew I was going to do it before I came here. I had already jumped 1.70 to win the Ghana University Sports Association (GUSA) high jump so my target was to qualify for the championship.

“The poor state of the tracks was a hindrance because you have to be careful in your run-up. I even twisted my ankle on my last jump which was very painful, so I wish the authorities would fix it for us because my major target for the saeson is to qualify for the Olympics.”

Meanwhile, other athletes who participated in the multi-sport national open failed to produce performances required to qualify for the 2016 Olympics and African Championships.

Abigail Kwarteng Qualifies for African Championship

Black Bombers Camp In Readiness For Rio 2016 Qualifiers

The Ghana amateur boxers nicknamed – Black Bombers are currently in a non-residential camping as the race to qualify for the Olympic games in Brazil, Rio 2016.

 

The athletes are scheduled to travel to participate in Olympic qualifiers with 10 male boxers and 2-female boxers have been grouped to participate in the qualifiers as Ghana aims for gold at the event.

Ghana Amateur Boxing Federation president, Gideon Quartey admitted preparations for the boxers are well outlined and planned as they gear up for qualifying competition and hopefully the main event in Rio.

 

But speaking to sportscrusader.com, the president opined what he believes is the total neglect of the sport by the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the Ministry of Youth and sports (MOYS) and this act is gradually destroying interest in boxing.

 

“It’s sad nobody cares about boxing; the boxers are training but their camping is a non-residential one. These are athletes who are going there to represent the nation (Ghana) and it is sad,” he told sportscrusader.com

 

“It is so sad going for an Olympic qualifier and the boxers feel neglected as if no one cares. It happened last year when the boxers were preparing to travel to Casablanca (Morocco), we had our budget slashed and we were forced to improvise and seek late sponsorship deals,” he added.

Black Bombers Camp In Readiness For Rio 2016 Qualifiers

Ghana projects record breaking 25 athletes for Rio 2016

Ghana’s Rio 2016 Chef de Mission has projected that the country will be represented by a record-breaking 25 athletes at this year’s Olympic Games in Rio, Brasil.

Chris Essilfie, Chef De Mission of Team Ghana at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games said in an interview that “We‘re still hoping to qualify more and if there are funds to do that we could qualify more athletes to the Games”.

He added that, “After meeting with the Federation’s heads and listening to what they have on paper, it is clear we are going to qualify at least 25 athletes to the Games.”

Essilfie was confirmed as Ghana’s Chef de Mission in August of last year having been appointed to the same role at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Ghana won two bronze medals at Glasgow 2014; Razak Abugiri in the men’s 60 kilogram judo competition and Abdul Omar in the men’s flyweight boxing tournament.

The country made its Olympic debut at Helsinki in 1952 and has won a total of four medals, a silver and three bronzes.

Its last medal came at Barcelona in 1992 when its men’s football team won bronze.

Ghana won two gold medals at last year’s African Games in Brazzaville through Wisdom Na Ajdrago and George Darko in the men’s doubles tennis, and its women’s football team, who beat Cameroon 1-0 in the final.

If Chris Essilfie’s prediction comes to fruition, it will comfortably break the West African nation’s record of nine athletes sent to both Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

Ghana projects record breaking 25 athletes for Rio 2016