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Newsletter
# 01- 17th JANUARY 2008
Official bulletin of the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships
SUMMARY CONTENTS
PUBLISHED BY
Preliminary entries......................pag.
Big stars in Palau Luis Puig .....pag.
The Worlds in Christmas... .......pag.
Valencian athletes in Palau.........pag.
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Organising Committee
Valencia 2008
COORDINATION
Ignacio Mansilla
Toni Prósper
Luis Urrutia
Valencia World Indoors, heading for
a new participation record
814 athletes from 139 countries have registered in the preliminary entries
The 12th edition of the IAAF
World Indoor Championships,
which will be held in Valencia from
7th to 9th March could break the
participation record for this event.
The Organising Committee has
already received all the preliminary
entries from the different Member
Federations with final figures totalling 814 athletes from 139 countries.
Although there are still two
months to the staging of the Championships and the figures can
change, at the moment they are
higher than those of all previous
Championships. The Paris edition
of the World Indoor Championships
in 1997 currently boasts the highest number of participants, 712
athletes, nearly a hundred less
than the ones entered in Valencia
2008. The Budapest edition in
2004 on the other hand registered
pants in this IAAF World Indoor
Championships will be revealed as
that day is the deadline for the final
entries.
the record for participating countries received the participating
countries with 139, the same number that have shown their intention
to participate in this 12th edition.
Out of the 814 athletes’ entries,
455 are men and 359 women. In
addition, the “secondary” protagonists of the Worlds Indoors will
increase these figures considerably. Based on this first estimation,
including athletes, coaches, delegates and medical personnel, the
competition in Valencia could count
with 1.361 persons from the different participating countries.
Spain has announced the third
highest number of athletes with 42,
20 men and 22 women, just behind
the two main powers of this sport,
Russia (53) and the United States
(50).
On 25th February the exact number and the names of the partici-
On the 2nd of March, five days
prior to the beginning of the Championships, the first delegations will
start arriving at Valencia.
An image of the 60 metres hurdles final of the last IAAF World
Indoor Championships held in Moscow in 2006.
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World starts to illuminate
the Palau Luis Puig
In brief
The Organising Committee of the 12th IAAF World
Indoor Championships in Athletics, to be held in Valencia
from 7th to 9th of March 2008,
and the “Junta Central Fallera”
have reached a cooperation
agreement in order that the
“falleros” and “falleras” belonging the six commissions of
the Benimamet quarter, the
neighbourhood in which Palau
Luis Puig is located, will take
part in the competition’s
Award Ceremonies.
Two representatives of each
“fallera” commission wearing
the traditional dress will
accompany athletes and officials in each one of the 26
Award Ceremonies. All of
them have shown their interest in becoming volunteers
and collaborate in an altruistic
way with the World Indoor
Championships.
The delegate city councillor
of Ferias and Festivities of
Valencia City Council and President of “Junta Central Fallera”, Félix Crespo, has expressed his “hapiness for this
agreement that will mean that
the Benimamet neighborhood
and all the city will live the
World Indoor Championships
as their own, taking advantage
of the proximity of the Fallas
Festivities”.
The presence of the Fallas
representatives in the Award
Ceremonies of this Championships comes in addition to
the invitation made by the
Organising Committee to the
Benimamet Schools, allowing
local children to attend the first
morning session of events in
Palau Luis Puig and with the
“Volta a Peu a Benimamet”
race, the last leg of the Popular Races Circuit of the city of
Valencia, whose finish line will
be within the premises hosting
the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics only five
weeks later.
Valencia’s Palau Luis Puig,
which was renovated for the
World Indoor Championships,
will host the most important competition of its history since its
construction in 1992. The best
athletes of the moment don’t
want to miss the showcase competition of the winter season and
a lot of them have publicy declared their intention of competing
in Valencia.
Among the ones who have
stated their will are numerous
Olympic, world and European
Champions; superstars of this
sport and outstanding names
who will surely offer an impressive spectacle in the Valencian
facility during the three days of
competition.
Given the names of the athletes who have announced they
will be present in the Luis Puig,
the jumping events are expected
to be superlative. Top stars like
pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva,
Croatian high jumper Blanca Vlasic or Bahamian Donald Thomas
-all of themWorld champions in
Osaka- have advised of their
intention of capturing gold
medals in both Valencia and Beijing 2008. The Carribean high
jumper will have to face strong
rivals like Swede Stefan Holm,
who has already won three
World Indoors or Russian Yaroslav Rybakov, the current World
indoor champion. The latter’s
teammate Yelena Slesarenko,
also a gold medallist in Moscow
2006 in the women’s event, will
try to give strong competition to
Vlasic, as will with Spanish
record holder Ruth Beitia.
The long jump also promises
strong emotions taking into
account that, if all goes according to the plans, the top three
athletes of the 2007 world lists
will compete in the World Indoors. Greek Louis Tsatoumas,
Panamenian Irving Saladino and
Italian Andrew Howe will be
among the athletes fighting for
the medals. The last time the first
three of the previous season had
all contested this event at the
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Kenyan athletes will be the main protagonists in the middle
and long distance events.
World Indoor Championships
was in the edition held in Maebashi 1999.
The shot put starring American Reese Hoffa as one of its
best attractions, and the races
look set to be as thrilling as the
jumps. Track races, from the
shortest ones -60 metres and 60
metres hurdles- to the longest 3.000 metres- will make spectators vibrate with emotion. With
less than two months to the staging of the Championships thrilling duels have been announ-
ced like the one in the 60 metres
hurdles between Chinese World
record holder Xiang Liu and
Cuban Dayron Robles, the silver medallist in Moscow. The
show in the track will continue
with some of the Osaka medallists, Kenyan Shadrak Korir
(1.500), Ugandan Moses Kipsiro
(5.000) and the World leader in
the 3.000 metres steeplechase,
Kenyan Paul Kipsiele Koech, all
likely to battle it out in the 3.000
metres, according to the declarations of the protagonists.
Blanca Vlasic could be one of the big stars of Valencia 2008.
Valencia Worlds
protagonist in
Christmas festivities
The city of Valencia
demonstrated a huge enthusiasm during last Christmas
festivities for the upcoming
IAAF World Indoor Championships, which fugured at
the heart of three social activities like Expojove, San Silvestre race and “Cabalgata
de Reyes”.
Expojove is an important
Feria for young people and
was held in the Valencia Trade
Fair. This year it has celebrated its 25th edition and covered a surface of 50.000 square metres. In this exhibition
area, visitors of all ages could
enjoy a variety of leisure activities like Feria attractions,
sports, adventure circuits,
workshops, dancing and other
activities catering to all tastes.
One of the activities, entirely
dedicated to the World Indoor
Championships
generated
great enthusiasm among the
visitors to the Feria.
In addition, the city experienced the traditional San
Silvestre race, the last competition of 2007. Close to
9.000
participants
said
goodbye to the year running
Valencia City Hall facade during San Silvestre race, with the World Indoor Championsips
mascots in the front.
Palau Luis Puig.
Finally, in the evening of
5th January, the most emblematic streets of Valencia city
witnessed the traditional
“Cabalgata de Reyes”, which
included a float dedicated to
the 5.900 metres of the event
over a new course in the city
centre. Throughout the race
the fans of athletics in Valencia were reminded of the
World Indoors that are going
to be held next March in the
the IAAF World Indoor
Championships in Athletics.
Spectators in the stands
located in front of Valencia
City Hall gave this float the
most resounding applause of
the evening.
IAAF World Indoor Championships symbols start being an usual elements in all sports activities hold in the city of Valencia. On the left one
image of Expojove.
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Valencia region’s best
athletes tested Palau
Luis Puig’s new track
Valencia region’s best athletes with the Luis Puig’s new track on the back.
Valencia region’s best athletes were the first last
December to test the new
track installed in Palau Luis
Puig, the venue of the 12th
IAAF World Indoor Championships to be held there from
7th to 9th March.
Athletes representing the
most outstanding clubs of
Valencia region performed a
symbolic 200 metres lap on
the track that in March will
host the best athletes in the
world.
Niurka Montalvo, current
Sports Director of Valencia
Regional Government and
long jump World champion in
1999, had the honour of firing the gun for this special
race, showcasing the best
athletes
from
Valencia
Region.
Niurka Montalvo, current Sports Director of Valencia Regional
Government and long jump World champion in 1999, was the person in charge of shooting the gun to this symbolic race.
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The event was attended by
the President of Valencia
Region Athletics Federation,
Vicente Revert accompanied
by athletes who have contributed to history of athletics
in Valencia like Glory Alozie,
Iván Mocholí, Marta Fernández de Castro, Ana Torrijos,
José
Antonio
Redolat,
Josephine Onyia, Elena Córcoles, José Emilio Bellido,
Joan Estruch, Jorge Gimeno,
Miguel Ángel Sancho, David
Canal, Concha Montaner and
Juan Carlos Esteso.
All participants closed the
function with a toast for a successful year 2008. “We hope
to obtain some medals for
Spain and for Valencia athletics in the World Championships” declared Niurka Montalvo”.
Valencia region’s best athletes toast for the new year and for the
success of the World Indoor Championships 2008 that are going
to be held next March in the city.