14th AUG
adidas Beijing SPORTS NEWS VIDEO
MEDIA ADVISORIES
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This online location will also provide updated information on extra SPORTS NEWS VIDEOS added to our schedule in Beijing.
SPORTS NEWS VIDEO 1
Story: 1500m Preview with Mehdi Baala of France
Duration: approx 4min
Delivery format: mini DV
Online: Mpeg2
Location: Beijing, China
Language: French
STORY:
1500m medal hopeful Mehdi Baala of France says the heats and the semi-finals will probably be harder than the final. Baala who is widely considered the greatest French middle distance runner of all time believes there is a lot of competition for places in the final and not much to separate the athletes. Although Algerian in origin Baala speaks of great pride in wearing the French colors, he was born in France and feels completely French. From Strasbourg, Baala holds four French records the eight hundred meters one thousand, two thousand and his preferred 1500meter distance. Add these to the two European titles, a silver medal at the World Championships in 2003 and you have a strong contender for a medal here in Beijing. The French man who was disqualified from the World Championships in Osaka Japan last year for causing the fall of two other athletes, says he put this behind him quickly with the Olympics in mind.
SOUNDBITE: Mehdi Baala
q.how are you preparation for the 1500m?
As I said everything is going very well I was in Osaka for training I adapted very well the climate is the same as Beijing now I am here and everything looks good.
SOUNDBITE: Mehdi Baala
q.how long did it take to get over Osaka?
I got over it very very quickly and got straight back into things in Zurich and that meeting I won it and it is also an Olympic year so I had to completely focus so I forgot about it very quickly.
SOUNDBITE: Mehdi Baala
q. what do you know about your field?
There’s a lot of competition for the 1500m and to be honest the heats and the semi-finals will probably be harder than the final, I just have to remain focused and get to the final then anything can happen.
SOUNDBITE: Mehdi Baala
q. are you mentally relaxed and confident?
It is true that your mental capacity and strength are very important but of course you have to take each race in a relaxed form it is also probably my last Olympic games so I am also here to enjoy myself and collect a lot of good memories, that is also very important to me.
SOUNDBITE: Mehdi Baala
q.what kid of race are you expecting?
Of course it is going to be tactical I hope they don’t go away too quickly for me, In every championship race there is always going to be a certain amount of movers, we will just have to see how it pans out on the day.
SOUNDBITE: Mehdi Baala
Q. what makes an Olympic champion, fitness, mental strength & luck?
It is all those things and it can also be something magical, it depends on the day everything has to just fall into place, and then we see what happens.
SPORTS NEWS VIDEO 2
Story: Women’s pole-vault preview with World and Olympic Champion Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia.
Duration: approx 4min
Delivery format: mini DV
Online: Mpeg2
Location: Beijing, China
Language: English
STORY:
Russian pole-vaulting sensation Yelena Isinbayeva says she broke her world record in Rome this year just to prove a point. The Russian who has predominately stayed quiet about talk of a challenge to her pole vault crown from America’s Jennifer Stuczynski amongst others admitted the media hype of rivalry has irritated her considering the gap between her and other athletes. The 26-year old Reigning Olympic, World and European Champion also predicted breaking her own world record by jumping over 5.04m during the defence of her title here in China.
After winning at the adidas Track Classic in May Jennifer Stuczynski made an attempt at 5.02m, naught point one centimetre higher than the Russian’s world record height at the time, although she failed to clear on all three attempts.
Isinbayeva who will represent Russia at the Olympics for the second time in her career admits that she tries to clear every height at the first attempt during competition because it makes life more difficult for her opponents.
Speak at the Sport in Art Exhibition in Beijing where a painting produced by her is currently hanging alongside other top athletes work such as Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner Isinbayeva says she has changed her vaulting technique and expects to jump even higher now. The works of art that give insight into the minds of the athletes that created them will be auctioned for the Charity ‘Right to Play’ by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong this September.
The Russian however is not invincible she surrendered an unbeaten streak of 23 competition wins to fierce rival Svetlana Feofanova in Poland after failing to clear 4.81m. Her first indoor defeat in four years was partially blamed on traveling, as she had attended the Laureus World Sports Awards in St. Petersburg, Russia only 48 hours before competing.
SOUNDBITE: Yelena Isinbayeva
q. Does being a champion put greater pressure on you?
No I don’t have any pressure and I don’t feel any pressure because I know why I am here not because everybody expects something from me but because I want to defend my title. But not really defend but just to win it one more time, because everything I have done before I forget this, now I am like nobody and I should prove again who I am and fight like it is the first time.
SOUNDBITE: Yelena Isinbayeva
q. did you plan to break the world record in Rome this year?
Yes because it was my first competition and I was hungry for all those journalists and all those people who start to talk in the wrong direction I didn’t start my season then everybody start to say things I don’t like so that was my ‘proof-ment.’
SOUNDBITE: Yelena Isinbayeva
Q. this the record a result of your changed technique?
Because before I had all things separate but now I have all things together my run up my plant my roll back everything so now I feel 100% good, or perfect maybe bout my jump
SOUNDBITE: Yelena Isinbayeva
q. Does it annoy you when the media make a big thing of Jennifer Stuczynski and others being a rival to your pole vault crown?
I can stay quiet when they are right but when they are wrong why should I stay quiet? They say when she jump 4:90 woow, but I jump this height 4 years ago it is nothing special, now it is nothing, what is the reason why everybody is so, I don’t know, happy? When I do this jump every competition nobody cares about this, they say oh well it is Isinbayeva she can jump 5:20 we don’t care, but when they jump it is all woow, this I don’t like.
SOUNDBITE: Yelena Isinbayeva
q. What will happen to the painting you made?
After the Olympic games in Beijing it is going to go to Hong Kong and it will sell in auction and the money will go to charity.
SOUNDBITE: Yelena Isinbayeva
q. Why is it important for you to do something for Charity?
It is just because I come from the beginning not from a poor family but a bit lower than the middle and so I know how it is to be needing money and not being able to buy what you want, if it is chocolate or something. So now that I earn everything that I have by myself and the sport give me everything I have, so now I have the possibility to share what I have with other people.
GVs of Yelena Isinbayeva at Sport in Art Exhibition
External GVs of Sport in Art Exhibition
SPORTS NEWS VIDEO 3
Story: 400 meter Preview with Christine Ohuruogo (GB), De'Hashia ‘Dee Dee’ Trotter (USA) and Novlene Williams. (JAM)
Duration: 8 mins approx
Delivery format: mini DV
Online: Mpeg2
Location: Beijing, China
Language: English
Overview:
Aug 16th
Women's 400m, round 1, National Stadium, 9 a.m.-1:10 p.m.
Aug 17th
Women's 400m semi-final 1, National Stadium, 7-11:25 p.m.
Aug 18th
Women's 400m, semi-final 2, National Stadium, 7-10:10 p.m.
Aug 19th
Women's 400m, final, National Stadium, 7-10:50 p.m.
STORY:
The women’s 400m world Champion Christine Ohuruogo of Great Britain says she considers everybody to be a potential rival for the Olympic gold medal and that no body in the field will bring anything other than their A game. World Champions Ohuruogo also said it was sometimes exhausting trying to live up the title she won in Osaka Japan last year so she tries sometimes to forget about it. Ohuruogo only managed to make it to the semi-final stage four years ago in Athens. She has a personal best time of 49.61.
America’s De'Hashia Trotter better known as ‘Dee Dee’ says she is looking forward to winning the 400m Gold medal. Trotter’s confidence is incredible considering that she almost failed to qualify for Beijing after suffering an unusual accident with a car door! Trotter says she opened her car door only to have it bounce back unexpectedly and hit her right knee. The knee swelled up to what she describes as the size of a grapefruit. Despite the injury Trotter took part in the US trails although while not training she was forced to wear a knee brace and have the knee drained of fluid periodically, she is still sporting that brace.The 25 years old from Knoxville managed just third but qualified for the US Team.
She was also part of the winning 4x400m relay team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, although only managed 5th overall in the individual event. She has a personal best of 49.64.
Novlene Williams of Jamaica says she will give the race everything she has got in the hope of taking that gold medal home. Williams who picked up a Bronze medal in the 400m event at the World Championships in Osaka Japan last year and the same medal at Athens 2004 where the Jamaican team came third in the 4x400m relay believes winning is about showing guts on the day and suffering more than the next girl.
SOUNDBITE: Christine Ohuruogu
q. Is there greater pressure on you being that you are the world Champion?
its difficult, its not really something i remember all the time you know as world champion it can be quite exhausting, but i just see myself as another athlete who wants to put on the best show that they can for themselves.
SOUNDBITE: Christine Ohuruogu
q. who do you think is a strong challenger for the gold medal?
when you enter your competition when you enter your event potentially anyone is a competitor, anyone is a rival. You don’t kind of put people in boxes and put them in different categories. As far as im concerned everyone is someone that you have to be out to beat. Everyone is someone you have to be wary of because it is the Olympic games and people are going to come to games with maybe they want to correct themselves from last year they want to redeem themselves you dont know what stage people are in so you always expect people are going to come in with their A game and their A game could be nothing that we have expected so as far as im concerned everyone is a rival and everyone is a competitor
SOUNDBITE: Christine Ohuruogu
q. have you put the ban behind you?
things happen and you have to deal with it and move on,& I think that is really what i have been teaching myself. Obviously it is still there you cant run away from it, but you have to learn to use the negatives and how to use them to work for you in the future
SOUNDBITE: Christine Ohuruogu
q. what do you think about Paula Radcliffe competiting in the Olympics?
I give her a huge thumbs up for turning up and competiting & I believe that you would not come to the Olympic Games if you did not think you can compete to the best of your ability. So I give her full credit for turning up and believing that she will compete well enough and the number one thing is self belief and she has that and you dont know what one person can achieve if they have that self belief behind them and i wish her well anyway.
General views of Christine Ohuruogu
SOUNDBITE: De'Hashia ‘dee dee’ Trotter
q. what is your mental state?
for me mentally is harder than training. You can have it all together and blow it not being mentally strong enough. As far as i work with the mental thing i put alot of emphasis on that i put a lot of emphasis in prayer, I put a lot of emphasis in faith in just making sure that I can believe in myself 100% becuase any doubt in your mind could cause you the race.
q. Can she go better than the 5th she got in Osaka?
you know what? I have been 5th several times, I was 5th in 04, 5th in the World Championships 05, 5th in the World Championships 07 so I have had a lot of fives. Im not looking forward to anymore fives at all, ever. I’m thinking making the podium is a very big step for me and i think its well over due. You know i have had opportunites again again and again and im felling that if I can remain in that top 5 there has to be some point where you take that and you rise up.
SOUNDBITE: De'Hashia ‘dee dee’ Trotter
q. has the injury knocked your confidence?
I’m looking forward to winning and people keep saying how do can you think your going to win, your knees messed up, you haven’t been running so well since the trials..you know why do you think so highly? Because I feel like I’m here for a reason, if there was ever a year where I wasn’t going to make the team this was the year. I have made every team since 2003. If there was ever a team I wasn’t going to make then this is the one but im here. You know I went out there with one good leg and im still here so there must be a purpose and im thinking it is to bring home the gold.
SOUNDBITE: De'Hashia ‘dee dee’ Trotter
q. what makes you think you can win gold?
Just as well as I went from being US Champion to 3rd, you can go from being World Champion to 3rd, you can go from being World Champion to not making the finals, you know there are things in the element that people can’t control and being that we are in the Olympic Environment you can break under the mental pressure and there are lots of things that can happen.
General views of De'Hashia ‘dee dee’ Trotter
SOUNDBITE: Novlene Williams
q. how is your confidence?
Its important more than anything because now I know what im capable of doing, getting a gold medal would mean more than anything to me. I lost my coach last year so you know it was hard finishing this season without him, but at the same time I know what I did have to do so this year I know that going out to get a gold medal I have to be confident and I have to believe in myself.
SOUNDBITE: Novlene Williams
q. how will you approach the races?
the person that run without no guts because if you go out there to run and you don’t want to get hurt then you don’t want to feel the pain then your not going to come home as a champion, so you just have to go out there and give everything you have on that day.
SOUNDBITE: Novlene Williams
q. what are you thinking when you are getting into the blocks?
just finish the race (laughs)….,you know just hurry up and finish the race you know, just go out there and give everything you have. I think about it like ‘am I gonna hurt?’ then they gonna hurt too so that is just what I think about, as long as I’m hurting they are hurting too so I’m just gonna give everything I have.
SOUNDBITE: Novlene Williams
q. What does it mean to you to win a medal?
It will mean everything in this world to me because you only get to complete at the Olympics every 4 years. My whole family is in Jamaica so I know they will be watching I know I have a lot of fans at home so it would mean everything to me to go home with that medal, the gold one.
General views of Novlene Williams
PREVIEW OF AUGUST 15th ADIDAS SPORT NEWS VIDEO ADVISORIES:
SPORTS NEWS VIDEO 1 WOMENS Sprint Preview with Marshevet Hooker & Allyson Felix
SPORTS NEWS VIDEO 2 Jeremy Wariner at Sport in Art & 400m preview
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