East Africa

Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot, will tussle with Ethiopia's double Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba in the two-mile race at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham on Saturday with Ethiopian Meseret Defar's world record of 9:06.26 minutes in their sights.

Kenya's David Rudisha, the fastest man over 800m in the world in 2009 will throw down the gauntlet to Australia's top track athletes when he lines up at the Sydney and Melbourne legs of the Australian Athletics Tour across two fast and furious nights of track and field action.

Ethiopian star Kenenisa Bekele is looking forward to breaking the 5000m and 3000m indoor and outdoor world records in 2010.

Kenyan Edwin Soi has won the 2009 BOclassic New Year Eve run in Bozen/Bolzano (Italy) in a time of 28.44.3.

World Cross Country champion Gebre Gebremariam will attempt to add the Bupa Great Edinburgh International Cross Country (IAAF Permit) to his list of top honours in the New Year, according to the organisers.

Ethiopian Derartu Tulu, one of history's all-time great distance runners, has won her first New York City marathon after pulling away from Russia's Ludmila Petrova in the last mile to finish in two hours 28 minutes and 52 seconds.

Jamaican Usain Bolt, the fastest human on the planet, has challenged Athletics Kenya to convince the younger athletes to break from the mould and try out the shorter distances for the country to unearth talents in the sprints events.

Jamaican sprinter and Olympic champion Usain Bolt today launched the Long Run Initiative aimed at supporting global ecotourism projects, which the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says are vital for conserving natural and cultural heritage.

Kenyans Moses Kigen and Irene Jerotich, who also triumphed here in 2006, both set new course records for this year's Standard Chartered Nairobi International marathon to take home the grand prize of 1.75 million Kenyan Shillings each.