Athletics: Veronica sets sights on World Indoors

2009/11/16

MONTEGO BAY: World and Olympic gold medal-winning sprinter Veronica Campbell Brown has set her sights on next year's World Indoor Championships in Doha. If she does make the Jamaican team for the March 12-14 championships, it would be her first time at the event, and her upcoming campaign marks her first return to indoor competition in three years.

Veronica won gold in the 100m at the outdoor World Championships in Osaka, Japan, in 2007 and in the 200m at the Olympics in 2004 and 2008.

The 27-year-old recently changed her coach and home base, moving from central Florida to the Atlanta suburb of Marietta where she will train under Anthony Carpenter after being guided by Lance Brauman for the last six years.

After an injury plagued 2009 season where she missed a large chunk of training, Veronica is back in training and says so far everything is running smoothly.

"I resumed training two or three weeks ago and I am pleased with how things are going so far," she said.

Veronica was in Jamaica this week for the launch of her book, 'A Better You'. She also donated sports gear to two primary schools.

Despite her injuries last season, Veronica took silver in the 200m and fourth in the 100m at the World Championships in Berlin.

l YOKOHAMA: Russia's Inga Abitova defeated the Beijing Olympic gold and silver medallists to win the inaugural Yokohama international women's marathon yesterday.

The 27-year-old Russian made a break away after passing the 30-kilometre mark and she never faced a serious challenge afterwards, crossing the finishing line in 2:27:18 seconds.

Japan's Kiyoko Shimahara came in second in 2:28:51, followed by Beijing Olympic silver medallist and two-time world champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya third in 2:29:13.

"It was not a race against the Olympic medallists, but a race against myself, which I won. Everybody prepared very well and ran a good race, but the fastest runner won it in the end," said Inga. -- AFP