World Briefs -- Legacy Lives Cancelled, First Stage of 2010 Ticketing Over

Legacy Lives Canceled for Vancouver

The economic downturn in North America is cited as one of the reasons for the cancellation of the Legacy Lives conference scheduled for Jan. 26 to 30 in Vancouver.

"This downturn has had a significant impact upon the number of delegates able to afford to attend the event," says a communique from conference organizers.

The Vancouver meeting would have been the third for the conference, which is devoted to exploring legacy issues for cities and countries which host sports events. In 2007, London played host, this year Barbados was the site for the meeting.

Organizers of the conference also note two other conferences in March make for "event overload" against which Legacy Lives could not compete. The biennial IOC World Conference on Sport and Environment is now scheduled for March in Vancouver, while at the end of March the annual SportAccord convention will take place in Denver.

A new date and venue for Legacy Lives is promised in the future.

Phase One of 2010 Ticketing Draws to a Close

If you're a Canadian resident and applying for Vancouver 2010 tickets at 11:59 p.m. PST on Friday, you'd better be quick. The first phase's ticket window closes just a minute later.

VANOC began the application phase Oct. 3 and Caley Denton, vice president of ticketing and consumer marketing, is pleased with the response.

"Obviously hockey has been our number one requested sport," Denton said.

"Ninety-three percent of all our accounts are requesting more than one sport. Canadians seem to be embracing the idea of a once-in-a-lifetime sport and seeing sports they don't see every day."

VANOC is selling 1.6 million tickets via partner Tickets.com and hoping to raise C$231.8 million [$195 million] in revenue. Approximately 70 percent of tickets are for public sale.

Denton would not say how many requests have been made since Oct. 3 or offer a revenue projection for phase one.

CoSport's parallel ticket application process for the United States, Australia and parts of Europe also closes Friday.

Denton wouldn't comment on any technical glitches or attempts by brokers to order blocks of tickets.

"We look for things that might get our attention and we want to make sure it's legitimate people buying tickets," he said.

Sometime next week he expects that high-demand events will be determined so that lotteries can be held to decide allotments in late November. Applicants will learn the fate of their requests in early December.

Those who registered for phase one, regardless of success, will be eligible to make further requests for a limited time in December.

Martina Gets Court Date for 200-Meter Dash Case

Sprinter Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles will get a hearing in his bid to win reinstatement as a silver medalist in the men’s 200-meter dash at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said Friday it had set a Dec. 5 date to head an appeal filed by the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee against Martina’s disqualification from second place in the 200 behind Jamaica’s Usain Bolt for running out of his lane.

A victory on appeal for the 24-year-old Martina would give him a new national record and cost the U.S. an Olympic medal, with U.S. sprinter Shawn Crawford currently holding the silver medal and American Walter Dix the bronze medal.

At the Beijing Olympics, Martina crossed the finish line in second place with a time of 19.82, finishing behind Bolt’s world-record time of 19.30, but was disqualified along with third-place finisher Wallace Spearman of the U.S. for running out of his lane.

Tokyo Stages Anti-Terror Exercise in Olympic Bid

Tokyo staged its biggest anti-terrorism exercise on Friday, days after the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency boosted rival Chicago’s chances, in an attempt to prove its credentials for staging the 2016 Summer Olympics.

"We wanted to prove that we are capable of dealing with whatever disaster should occur," said Rikaya Kondo, an army officer who serves as director for crisis management for the Tokyo city government.

Japanese media have been speculating that Tokyo could lose out in the race for the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, the hometown of U.S. President-elect Obama, but officials in the Japanese capital are encouraged about their chances after Tokyo gained the top score in a technical assessment in June.

G. Larry James, 61

G. Larry James, gold medalist in the 4x400m and silver medalist in the 400m at Mexico City died of cancer on Thursday, he was 61. James most recently served as Athletic Director for Richard Stockton College in New Jersey. After his Olympic career, he continued to be a part of the Olympic movement, holding various positions within USA Track and Field. James was inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 2003. He was born in Greensboro, N.Y.

World Champion Boxer Won’t Go Pro

Raushee Warren, the amateur flyweight world champion boxer said he will remain an amateur to become the first U.S. three-time Olympian in boxing.

"Becoming the first three-time Olympian in U.S. Boxing history is a great opportunity for me," commented Warren. "With the changes and improvements that USA Boxing is making for London, I’m very much looking forward to representing the United States again."

Warren was one of Team USA's captains, and lost his first-round bout by one point. He was the first U.S. amateur world champion since 1999.

...Briefs

...Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie's world-record time of 2:03:59 at the Berlin Marathon Sept. 28 was among the several world track & field records that have been ratified by the IAAF. The federation also ratified the world-record marks of Denis Nizhegorodov of Russia in the men’s 50K race walk (2:34:14) set on May 11, Barbora Spotakova of Russia in the women’s javelin throw (72.28m) set on Sept. 13, Mykata Nestereko of Ukraine in the junior men’s discus throw (70.13m, 68.48m) on May 24 and Aleksey Bartsaykin of Russia in the junior men’s 10K race walk (39:57) on May 10.

...The Nigeria Olympic Project, a non-governmental initiative geared towards developing the next generation of Olympic athletes in Nigeria, will be launched during the National Sports Festival Feb. 15-25, 2009. Project founder Alistair Soyode, the founder of BEN TV -- the first Afro-Caribbean television station in Europe – came up with the idea of the project following Nigeria’s disappointing showing at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The goal is to prepare Olympic athletes for future Games, beginning with the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The project is a completely private initiative, but will have the backing and approval of the Nigerian government.

...George Kliavkoff, the NBC executive in charge of the networks online Olympics broadcasting is leaving the company. Kliavkoff, 41, notified NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker of his decision on earlier in the week. "George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital," said Zucker in a statement. "We asked him to help us change the fundamental orientation of a traditional media company from an analog to a digital mindset. George did that, and did an outstanding job for us." Kliavkoff will leave NBC at the end of the year. More than 1 billion visitors went to NBC’s Olympics website.

...Chinese Olympic icon Liu Xiang will undergo Achilles' Tendon surgery in the United States. His coach said last week that surgery would be a last resort, but said doctors quelled his fears. "We were less worried about the operation after hearing the U.S. medical experts' advice. They all said it is necessary and safe."

...A Pakistani sports minister is calling for cricket to be in the Olympics. Mohammad Ali Shah, sports minister for the Sindh Province told local media his own format, 15-Fifteen, should be added to the program of the Olympic and Asian Games. "With the new format of 15 overs the duration of match can be brought within two hours, much closer to the time-duration of a football match" he said. "With this change I expect that cricket can easily find its place in Olympics and Asian Games. If 16 teams participate in Olympics and three to four matches can be played in such a big event like Olympics. The cricket event in it would not take more than a week."

...The International World Games Association and the international sports consultancy TSE Consulting signed an agreement to review the bidding process for the World Games in 2017. The two will ensure the host cities can get the most benefit from hosting the games. IWGA President, Ron Froehlich, said: “we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of promoting and organizing the games are continually improved and developed. The World Games are a magnificent showcase of sporting achievement, and we are happy to be working with TSE to ensure that we have an event that works to the benefit of our host cities.”

Written by Greg Oshust.