London wins 2017 World Athletics bid

THE future of the Olympic Stadium in London is secure after they won the rights to stage the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships.  It will be the first time that Britain has hosted these championships since the concept began in Helsinki way back in 1983.  Britain’s bid came out on top at a World Athletics gala dinner in Monte Carlo last Friday.  It beat a strong bid from Doha, Qatar by 16 votes to 10.  The prestigious event will be staged in the £496 million Olympic stadium, ensuring use for a glorious setting after next year’s Olympics.

DELEGATION: The 2017 team were successful in their bid

       Lord Coe, Denise Lewis and the Mayor of London Boris Johnson were all present at the announcement and reacted with delight and relief at the fact that another top sporting class event will be heading to these shores.  Coe said; “We’ve got the Olympics in 2012, the world athletics championships in 2017 and world championships in virtually all other sports.  It’s an extraordinary clean sweep for British sport.”

       Back in London, David Cameron expressed his satisfaction at overcoming a strong Qatar bid, as the rich oil country was denied a second major sporting event after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup last December.  “There is no better way to follow the Olympics and to build on its legacy, than by welcoming the world’s greatest athletes back to London for the 2017 World Championships.”

         It will strengthen Britain’s armoury of hosting some of the biggest world events over the next decade.  Wembley recently got the news that it will stage the 2013 UEFA Champions League final, after this year’s success.  The Rugby World Cup in 2015, the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2019 Cricket World Cup will also be hosted in the UK.  Sports minister Hugh Robertson had previously said that the Olympic Stadium would remain, despite the prospect of no sport being played after West Ham withdraw from a contentious plan to use the stadium for football after the Olympics in 2012.  On Friday, Robertson’s theory was proven right and he said; “I am delighted that London has won the rights to hosts the IAAF 2017 World Athletics Championships.  Our bid showed the passion that our nation has for athletics and this will leave a fantastic legacy for the sport.”

         Despite being favourites going into the vote, there were no guarantees, especially with the money Qatar has at its disposal.  On this occasion, tradition and legacy has won and rightly so.  UK Athletics is on a crest of a wave and London will be brilliant hosts in 2017.

Qatar MotoGP 2011 - Searing Stoner makes winning bow

AUSTRALIAN Casey Stoner made a winning start to life at Honda in the opening MotoGP event of the 2011 season.  Stoner, who switched from Ducati to the Repsol Honda squad in the winter, took the honours in the Qatar Grand Prix at the Losail circuit.  The 2007 champion beat reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo and his team-mate Dani Pedrosa under the lights.

WINNING: Stoner made a great start with Honda

     Stoner started on pole position, as he confirmed Honda’s blinding pre-season testing pace.  However, he lost the lead off the line to the fast-starting Pedrosa and Lorenzo, who led over the line for the first time.  The Spaniard was eventually overwhelmed by the Honda boys and Stoner and Pedrosa swapped themselves around on several occasions in the early exchanges.  Stoner was saving his tyres up and made the move stick at around half-distance.  Pedrosa fell back rather rapidly, and then got engrossed into a brutal battle with his countryman Lorenzo.  Eventually, the Yamaha rider prevailed and whilst Stoner and Lorenzo looked delighted with their opening efforts, Pedrosa was annoyed, confirming he had a problem with his left arm, which harmed his chances in his battle with Lorenzo.

     Honda dominated the first race, with the third Repsol Honda rider, Andrea Dovizioso finished fourth, ahead of Marco Simoncelli, who gave Dovizioso some headaches during the race.  Ducati were off the pace badly here, but Valentino Rossi still managed a creditable seventh on his opening bow for the Italian team.  Rossi also produced the save of the race, when he took his legs off his bike when Ben Spies overtook him to stop the frontend sliding away from him.  On his debut in the premier motorcycling class, Cal Crutchlow finished a creditable 10^th.  It was a miserable evening for the Premac Honda team, with Randy de Puniet crashing on the first lap, and Loris Capirossi injuring himself as he attempted to miss his team-mate.  At least they started, which is something Alvaro Bautista couldn’t do.  He crashed on Friday and broke his left leg.  With John Hopkins unable to get out to Qatar in time, it meant that Suzuki were without a rider in the top class for the first time since 1974.

     On this indication, Casey Stoner looks like he will be the man to beat in MotoGP this year, but he has never been very competitive at the next track in Jerez.  Throw in the lack of straights and it being Lorenzo and Pedrosa’s home event, Casey will do extremely well to produce his Qatar dominance again in a fortnight’s time.

Tomizawa Tragedy At MotoGP Meeting

Motorcycling is in shock tonight, after the tragic death of promising 19-year old Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa.  Tomizawa died in hospital from fatal head injuries, suffered during a Moto2 event on the Misano circuit in San Marino. 

Moto2, which is the class below the premier MotoGP circuit, was hosting the twelfth round of the season and Tomizawa was 7^th in the championship standings, having won the season opening event in Qatar.  He was in the leading bunch when he came off his bike on Lap 15.  Tragically, he was then hit by Italian Alex de Angelis, an experienced MotoGP rider and Britain’s Scott Redding.  Both Redding and de Angelis were propelled into the gravel trap and though Redding suffered minor concussion, both riders escaped serious injury.

When medics got on the scene though, it was quite clear that Tomizawa was in an awful state, with reports circulating that he had hit his head on the track, before being struck at full speed by the other riders.  He was rushed into hospital and quickly got placed into an induced coma, but a statement on the MotoGP website confirmed his death at 1.20pm UK time from “subsequent cranial, thoracic, and abdominal trauma.”

The Moto2 race was stopped and restarted, won by Spain’s Toni Elias.  Despite the reluctance of some MotoGP riders, it was agreed that their race went ahead, which was comfortably won by Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.  Jorge Lorenzo finished second to keep a comfortable championship lead, with his Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi on the podium at his home event.  Despite all the top-class riders knowing that the accident was bad, none of them knew the severity of Tomizawa condition until after the race.  As a mark of respect, celebrations were muted and no champagne was sprayed on the podium.

This is the second death at motorcycle events in two weeks, after 13-year old Peter Leinz was killed in a warm-up event for the Indianapolis MotoGP event last Sunday.  Like Tomizawa, Leinz was also hit by another rider.  It is the first death on the proper MotoGP circuit since Dajiro Kato lost his life two weeks after a smash in the 2003 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Like the rest of the MotoGP paddock, my thoughts go out to the family and friends of Shoya Tomizawa.  A promising talent, whose dreams of success will turn out to be tragically unfulfilled.

SHOYA TOMIZAWA (December 10^th 1990 – 5^th September 2010) RIP