Posted: March 30, 2006

Athletics: News & Notes, Volume 7, Number 20

U.S. stars to headline GOLDZONE II at Kansas Relays

The GOLDZONE feature that showcased many of America's finest track and field athletes and revitalized the Kansas Relays last year will return to Lawrence this spring featuring a variety of exciting match-ups.

The men's main event on April 22 at Memorial Stadium will showcase Maurice Greene and Justin Gatlin, both Olympic champions in the 100-meter dash, facing off as anchors of their respective 4x100-meter relay teams. The women's featured race has world champions Allyson Felix and Muna Lee and world champs silver medalist Rachelle Smith squaring off in the 100-meter dash. Felix was also the Olympic silver medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games.

"This year is all about matchups -- not just in the two events we announced today, but carried throughout GOLDZONE II," said meet director Tim Weaver. "Each of our featured events will have at least two champions competing for the Relays crown -- and the attention of our fans."

The theme of "champion vs. champion" will be seen throughout the course of the three-hour GOLDZONE II. Greene's team, HSI, will also feature World Champions John Capel and Leonard Scott. Joining Gatlin will be Olympic Champion Shawn Crawford and Dwight Thomas, ranked #4 in the world in the 100-meter dash. The men's main event will also feature Hobson's Choice, a team from Kansas City directed by Greene's first coach, Al Hobson. It includes Mark Jelks, Mardy Scales and Rae Edwards -- all members of the U.S. 4x100-meter relay pool at the 2005 World Outdoor Championships.

World Junior Champion Ashley Owens will join the other gold medalists in the Women's Invitational 100-meter dash.

Last year's inaugural GOLDZONE brought over 24,000 people to the meet, the second-highest attendance in the history of the event. Participants in the 12 other invitational events will be released over the next two weeks.

For more information on the 2006 Kansas Relays, visit kuathletics.collegesports.com.

Bydgoszcz, Moncton to host World Junior Championships

The IAAF Council selected venues for two IAAF World Athletics Series events Wednesday on the second and final day of its meeting in Osaka, Japan, the city which next year will host the 11th edition of the IAAF World Outdoor Championships in Athletics.

The 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships will take place in Bydgoszcz, Poland, venue of the first ever IAAF World Youth Championships in 1999. Irena Szewinska, President of the Polish Athletics Federation and IAAF Council Member, led the delegation from the city known as the Capital of Polish Athletics.

The victory of Bydgoszcz was a narrow one, since the rival candidate, the city of Moncton, Canada, also made an impressive presentation to Council with a delegation led by the Mayor of Moncton, Lorne Mittan, and the President of the University of Moncton, Yvon Fontaine. In the first round of voting, members were split equally 13-13, with Bydgoszcz prevailing 15-11, when a second round of votes was counted.

Council then unanimously decided to award the 2010 edition of the IAAF World Junior Championships to Moncton.

The city will now begin construction of a brand new athletics stadium at Moncton University, which will become the first top class athletics facility in the New Brunswick region of eastern Canada. "Council fully supported the ambitions of Moncton and Athletics Canada to organize a top class event which will promote the sport but also leave a lasting legacy in the shape of this new track," said IAAF President Lamine Diack.

Council also agreed to award the 2008 edition of the IAAF World Road Running Championships to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The proposed date is October 5.

Miler, Sullivan Award winner MacMitchell dies

Leslie MacMitchell, who won the 1941 AAU Sullivan Award as the nation's finest amateur athlete as an undergraduate student at New York University, died March 21 in San Jose, Calif. He was 85.

Known as one of the nation's finest milers in the 1940s, MacMitchell won the NCAA and national 1,500m titles in 1941, along with the mile in all five Madison Square Garden intercollegiate indoor meets that year. In the Baxter Mile he equaled National Track & Field Hall of Famer Glen Cunningham and Chuck Fenske's world indoor mile record of 4 minutes, 7.4 seconds.

MacMitchell, who won national schoolboy championships in cross country and in the indoor 1,000 yards, retired from track and field after failing to make the 1948 U.S. Olympic Team.

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