SPORT NEWS

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• Mo Farah distanced from Jama Aden after controversial coach is arrested in doping raid

  Jun 21, 2016 by Admin / 290 Views

  British Athletics has insisted Mo Farah is no longer associated with a controversial athletics coach who was present at the double Olympic champion’s training sessions last year and was arrested by Spanish police on Monday morning after performance-enhancing drugs were found in a colleague's room in his hotel during a dawn raid.

  Jama Aden was described as an “unofficial facilitator” after it emerged that he was present at some of fellow Somali-born Farah’s sessions in Ethiopia last year.

  Farah was then pictured with Aden this February as the double Olympic champion worked alongside some of Aden’s athletes at another training camp in Ethiopia.

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• Kenenisa Bekele's exclusion has unearthed athletes' general discontent with the federation

  Jun 16, 2016 by Admin / 347 Views

  Ethiopian running great Kenenisa Bekele has railed against his "unfair" exclusion from the country's marathon team for the Rio Olympics, adding to the growing discontent at the athletics federation's management. The 34-year-old Bekele, a triple Olympic gold medallist and five-time world champion over 5,000 and 10,000m, had been hoping to revive his Olympic career in August over the longer distance.

  He won his first outing over the marathon in Paris in 2014, but suffered an Achilles injury that put paid to the 2015 season. After that long lay-off, Bekele made his comeback with a third-placed finish in this year's London marathon after just six weeks training. But it was not enough to sway selectors, who instead picked Tesfaye Abera, Lemi Berhanu and Feyisa Lilesa for the men's team.

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• Brazil assures risk of Zika spreading during Olympics "is minimal"

  Jun 12, 2016 by Admin / 260 Views

  Brazil's government assured on Friday that the risk of illnesses transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito spreading during the Olympic and Paralympic Games "is minimal" and it confirmed that between February and May the number of Zika cases decreased by 87 percent.

  Between February and May the highest levels of Zika were seen the third week of February with 16,059 cases said Health Minister, Ricardo Barros, during a meeting with foreign media in Rio de Janeiro. However, in the first week of May, the number of cases fell to 2,053, added the minister.

  "According to a study released by the University of Cambridge (England), it is estimated that there will be less than one person infected out of all the 500,000 tourists that are expected to attend the Olympics," said the government official.

  Barros assured that due to the fact that the Olympics are taking place in Brazil's winter and due to the concentrated fight against the mosquito in Rio de Janeiro, the risk of catching the virus is minimal.

  Baros highlighted that the Olympic Games will have 2,500 people working in the health area and all the athletes will have repellent, specific clothes and the necessary materials to properly face the mosquito.

  The Rio Games will take place in August, right in the middle of austral winter which is when there are less mosquitoes.

  The Brazilian Health Minister reminded that during the World Cup 2014, many people were scared to travel to Brazil due to tropical diseases.

  "During the World Cup, only three cases (of tropical diseases) were registered among tourists. The statistics show that the period of the Games isn't endemic. This is mainly due to the fact that in winter rain is less frequent which makes it difficult for mosquitoes to breed," said Barros.

  Barros added that the Brazilian government has invested 64.5 million reais (around 18.8 million U.S. dollars) on the state of Rio de Janeiro's health network.

  Source : Fana Broadcasting 

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• Ethiopia Team Doctor to AP: 5 Athletes Failed for Meldonium

  Jun 5, 2016 by Admin / 264 Views

  

  Five of the six Ethiopian athletes suspended and under investigation for doping by the country's authorities tested positive for the newly banned substance meldonium, the national track team doctor said on Friday.

  Two of the six would have likely made Ethiopia's team for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro "if they were clean," Ayalew Tilahun told The Associated Press in an interview coinciding with a visit to the East African country by a delegation from the World Anti-Doping Agency.

  Ayalew didn't give any names or say what substance the sixth athlete tested positive for.

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• Almaz clocks second fastest 5000m ever – IAAF Diamond League

  Jun 3, 2016 by Admin / 277 Views

  

  Almaz Ayana missed out on the women’s world 5000m record by just over five seconds at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rabat two weeks ago and came, agonisingly, even closer in Rome as she stopped the clock at 14:12.59 on Thursday (2), just 1.44 off the mark set by her Ethiopian compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba eight years ago.

  It was an IAAF Diamond League record. It was a meeting record at the Italian one-day showpiece. It was the fastest time run this year. It was the second fastest time ever run.

  But, despite her dazed smile in the aftermath of achieving all those accolades, it wasn’t what Almaz wanted.

  As the last pacemaker dropped away with seven laps remaining, Almaz was in a race of her own, more than half-a-lap clear. She was running easily, no strain showing on her face, and passed 3000m in 8:30.43.

  The laps clicked down, and it seemed the world champion was on the brink of reaching the prize she has sought all season.

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