European Athletics (EAA) – News – Kleinert not ready to park the shot just yet

Nadine Kleinert has decided to continue her career for one more year. The European shot put champion had originally decided to retire after the Olympic Games, but her poor showing there has persuaded her to continue.

After winning the European title with 19.18m, the 36-year-old from Magdeburg failed to get past the qualifiers in London, finishing 13th with a best of 18.36.

"My gut feeling tells me that I cannot walk away after my Olympic disaster," Kleinert told a local newspaper. "It is just not my thing to leave without ceremony. Apart from that, a lot of my rivals have told me that I am still good enough to mix it with the best. And the German girls have also said, 'Don't give up, we still need you'."

Kleinert took Olympic silver in 2004 as well as three world silvers in the course of her career. Her European gold this year was her only major gold medal, but she has amassed 14 national titles. Her season's best of 19.67, ninth best in the world at that stage, came in the Doha Diamond League where she finished third. Her lifetime best of 20.20 came in front of her home public when she captured silver in the 2009 Berlin World Championships, eight years after her second world silver.

Lindingöloppet attracts record numbers

The world's longest mass-participation cross-country race, Lindingöloppet, takes place this weekend. The main race is over 30km and was won last year by the Finland based Kenyan, Lewis Korir, in 1:34:54, over two minutes outside the all-time record. Over the weekend there are several races attracting a total so far of 41,950 registered entrants, 20,000 of those in the 30km.

Amongst the most famous names to enjoy wins over the 15km distance were former marathon world record holders, Grete Waitz (11 straight wins) and fellow Norwegian, Ingrid Kristiansen. Waitz still holds the record of 51:03.

One of the growth areas in Lindingöloppet is the women's 15km: "The trend is the same as it is in the whole of Sweden that there are more and more women competing," said general secretary, Tomas Haszek.

Sweden's marathon ace, Isabellah Anderson, is looking for her third straight 10km win.

Becker turns 70 

1968 Olympic pentathlon champion, Ingrid Becker, celebrates her 70th birthday today Wednesday September 26. Mickler-Becker as she is now known took up athletics at the age of 15 and the following year finished ninth in the high jump at the Rome Olympics as the youngest member of the German team.

Four years later in Tokyo she missed out on a long jump medal by 2cm while finishing eighth in the pentathlon. Gold followed in Mexico City, but her finest hour came at her home town during the Munich Olympics when she formed part of the quartet that beat the GDR to sprint relay gold.

New athletics stadium for St Petersburg

A new athletics stadium in St Petersburg, Russia, was inaugurated last week by former middle distance triple Olympic champion, Tatyana Kazankina and the governor of the city, Georgiy Poltavchenko. Next year Moscow plays host to the IAAF World Athletics Championships.