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ATHLETICS

Bolt seeks revenge in Stockholm sprint

Usain Bolt returns to action in the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm on Friday hoping to erase bad memories of last year's defeat.

Bolt seeks revenge in Stockholm sprint

Twelve months ago, the Jamaican, who is the reigning world and Olympic champion as well as world record holder at 100m and 200m, suffered a shock defeat in the 100m at the hands of the American Tyson Gay.

However, he has been lured back to the Swedish capital for the 11th stop on the Diamond League circuit — his appearance fee is two million kronor ($310,000) according to local media — and will feature this time in the 200m, which he considers his better distance.

“I will be back — and I will not lose,” said Bolt, who is gearing up not just for next month’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea but for next year’s London Olympics.

His biggest competition on Friday is likely to come from Panama’s Alonso Edward, who collected silver behind Bolt at the 2009 world championships, and Norway’s Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, both of whom have run under 20 seconds.

While some may shudder at the amount of appearance money being paid out to

Bolt, the Swedish organisers rate it as good value.

“He was worth it last year, and I think he’ll be worth it this year too,” said competition director Rajne Söderberg. “That’s what I hope, at least.”

The second fastest sprinter in women’s history Carmelita Jeter admits that she has her eyes firmly set on winning herself a 1-carat diamond, valued at $10,000 which the organisers award to anyone who breaks a stadium record.

“I would love to get a diamond,” said the American who will run the 100m.”Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”

The stadium 100m record currently belongs to Irina Privalova who ran 10.90 in 1994, a time that is well within Jeter’s best of 10.64.

She will be up against Jamaican Kerron Stewart, the world’s seventh fastest woman with 10.75 and a season best of 10.87, as well as the evergreen 35-year-old Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas.

Yelena Isinbayeva will continue her comeback in the pole vault after a lengthy self-imposed 11-month lay-off.

The Russian, who won in Belgium last week with a height of 4.60m, still a long way short of her world record of 5.06m, will be hoping that a wrist injury suffered last week will not affect her progress towards the world championships.

Another woman on the comeback trail is the women’s 800m world champion Caster Semenya. The 20 year-old South African won in Paris, finished second in Eugene and third in Oslo, her 1:58.61 seasons best coming in the Norwegian capital.

A field that boasts 10 runners who have clocked under 1:59.00 this season, including season leader Moroccos Halima Hachlaf, should give her a decent test.

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SPORT

Nuns on the run: Vatican launches its first athletics team

Faster, higher...holier. The newly-formed Vatican Athletics team, which is aiming to compete in international competitions, including the Olympics, was officially launched on Thursday after reaching a bilateral agreement with the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).

Nuns on the run: Vatican launches its first athletics team
Priests take part in a fun run in front of St Peter's in 2013. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

So far there are 60 members of Vatican Athletics — the first Sports Association constituted in the Holy See — which includes nuns, priests, Swiss Guards and other workers.

Monsignor Melchor José Sánchez de Toca y Alameda, president of Vatican Athletics, said at the launch that the Olympic Games were “the dream but not in the short term”.

“The dream that we have often had is to see the Holy See flag among the delegations at the opening of the Olympic Games,” he said. But in the immediate future Vatican Athletics would like to be present at smaller competitions such as the Mediterranean Games.

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Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) president Giovanni Malago praised the latest initiative at the Holy See, which already has football and cricket teams.

“It will be necessary to affiliate with other federations,” he told Vatican News. “I'm sure this will happen, today we have started a courageous and winning start up.”

The CONI agreement allows the team to take part in national and internationally sanctioned events and to have access to Italian national coaching and medical facilities.

Team members wearing navy track suits with the Holy See's crossed keys seal were present at the launch. The youngest athlete is a 19-year-old Swiss guard, and the oldest a 62-year-old professor of the Vatican Apostolic Library.


Priests play football by the Vatican as part of the Clericus Cup. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

Two young Muslim asylum seekers, Jallow Buba, a 20-year-old Gambian, and Anszou Cissè, a 19-year-old Senegalese, have also been registered as honorary members.

Vatican pharmacist and runner Michela Ciprietti said she welcomed the initiative as “sport is the means of bringing people together.”

The team's first official event will be the Corsa di Miguel on January 20th, a 10km race in Rome honouring Miguel Sanchez, an Argentine distance runner who disappeared during the country's dictatorship.