Bolt, Button win Laureus awards

Usain Bolt was named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the second year in succession.

While Britain's Jenson Button was honoured for winning the Formula One world title.

Bolt won the 100 and 200 metres at the World Championships last year, breaking his own world records in both for good measure, and also took gold with his Jamaican team-mates in the 4x100m relay.

The Jamaican superstar is the first man ever to hold the world and Olympic 100 and 200m titles at the same time following his staggering performances in Berlin and Beijing.

Button won the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award after lifting his first F1 drivers' title in the penultimate race of the season in Brazil, and his Brawn GP team was named Team of the Year.

Button has since moved to join 2008 world champion and fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton at McLaren, and the new season gets under way at the weekend in Bahrain.

Tennis star Serena Williams was named World Sportswoman of the Year at the ceremony in Abu Dhabi, the American having won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2009.

Another tennis player, Belgium's Kim Clijsters, won the Comeback of the Year award after her remarkable return to the sport, which culminated in her winning the US Open title in just her third tournament following a two-year absence.

South African swimmer Natalie du Toit received the Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award, while Australian world surfing champion Stephanie Gilmore was named Action Sportsperson of the Year.

Asked whether 2009 had been as good a year as 2008, when he won three Olympic gold medals, Bolt said: "For me it was even better because I had a car accident and bounced back and it shows me that with hard work and determination, anything is possible.

"I have got to the stage where I know what winning is and how to keep winning and I want to keep running, breaking records and winning championships."

Speaking about his Breakthrough Award, Button joked: "I think someone forgot to tell Laureus that I'm actually 30 years old.

"It's a very special feeling to be stood here. Before I started last season I didn't know I would be racing in Formula One so to clinch the title with Brawn in our first season was very emotional for me.

"This is perfect for wrapping up my 2009 season. Tomorrow I start the 2010 season and hopefully I can come back here next year and be close to winning one of these awards again."

Phillips Idowu's withdrawal hits British medal chances

Britain's medals hopes at this weekend's World Indoor Championships in Doha have been dealt a blow by the withdrawal of defending triple jump champion Phillips Idowu.

The 31 year-old, who won the world indoor crown in Valencia two years ago and added the outdoor title in Berlin last summer, said the recent birth of his second child had interrupted his preparations for the championships and he no longer felt able to do himself justice.

"I am gutted not to be representing the GB team in Doha and passing up the opportunity to defend my title," he said.

"However, the late arrival of my baby boy has meant that my training has been severely disrupted and I decided after talking with my coach that I'd not had the preparation we agreed was needed to do the British team proud.

"I was hoping to avoid this by competing in a larger than usual number of events early in the season, but it hasn't worked out that way.

"Instead I will increase the training with a focus on the European Championships in Barcelona. I wish the team the best of luck in Doha."

Idowu's duel with Sweden's Christian Olsson had been one of the most eagerly awaited clashes of the three-day championships, which begin on Friday, and his absence means Britain will be without one of their best gold-medal prospects.

The country's main hopes will now rest with Jessica Ennis in the pentathlon, Dwain Chambers in the 60 metres and Jenny Meadows in the 800m.

Charles van Commenee, UK Athletics' head coach, said: "I am disappointed that Phillips is not competing this week as he was a clear medal prospect.

"However, I need to respect his decision and I look forward to him resuming winning ways in the summer."

British hurdler Callum Priestley faces drug ban following positive test

UK Athletics has been rocked by its third drug case in the space of a month after it was announced on Friday that Callum Priestley, one of the country’s most promising young prospects for the London Olympics, had tested positive for the banned drug clenbuterol.

The 21-year-old, who is ranked No 3 in Britain in the 110 metres hurdles and who won a bronze medal at last year’s European Under-23 Championships, has been provisionally suspended after testing positive in an out-of-competition drug test in South Africa in January.

The Leicester athlete, who is a member of the Woodford Green and Essex Ladies club, was attending a warm-weather training camp organised by the governing body.

The news comes less than a month after it was confirmed that two young British shot putters, Kieren Kelly and Jamie Stevenson, had been charged with a doping offence after refusing to take an out-of-competition drug test during a training day in Loughborough.

Like the two throwers, Priestley will now have the opportunity to defend himself at a disciplinary hearing. If found guilty of a doping violation, he faces an automatic two-year ban and, under the British Olympic Association’s bylaw, a lifetime ban from the Olympic Games.

The announcement of three drug cases in such quick succession is a setback for UK Athletics, which had enjoyed an unblemished record since Christine Ohuruogu was banned for one year in 2006 for missing three random tests.

The last case of an elite British athlete failing a drug test was Dwain Chambers’ positive test for THG in 2003 as the BALCO scandal unravelled.

Niels de Vos, the UK Athletics chief executive, said: “I am hugely disappointed that there has been a failed test. UKA continues to give 100 per cent support to the work of UK Anti-Doping and we maintain our full commitment to drug-free sport.”

Priestley, a former county-level footballer, was elevated to second-tier ‘development’ Lottery funding by UK Athletics in December after a series of impressive performances last year.

He finished runner-up behind Andy Turner in the 110m hurdles at the Aviva World Trials and UK Championships in Birmingham, beating the highly regarded William Sharman, and he also ran a personal best of 13.56sec in Loughborough.

Last month he continued his progress by winning the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor trials in Sheffield and he set a lifetime best of 7.68sec at the Birmingham Games – just 0.03sec outside the qualifying standard for next week’s World Indoor Championships in Doha.

Tests carried out on two urine samples provided by the athlete confirmed the presence of clenbuterol, a drug used for the treatment of asthma but which is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency because of its ability to reduce body fat and therefore enhance athletic performance.

Charles van Commenee refuses to set medal target for Doha World Indoor Championships

Charles van Commenee, UK Athletics’ head coach, on Tuesday announced a 38-strong squad for the 13th IAAF World Indoor Championships in the Qatari capital, Doha, on March 12-14. Mysteriously, however, he failed to preface the championships with a medal target for the team.

The Dutch overseer will be looking for commanding performances from defending triple jump champion Phillips Idowu, Dwain Chambers, who shared the silver medal with former world champion Kim Collins in Valencia two years ago, and Jessica Ennis, intent on shaking off an ankle complaint that sidelined her from recent events at Sheffield and in Birmingham. Ennis, if fit, has the goods to take gold. No question.

Chambers, banned for two years for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs, but re-born into honest sprinting, remains the fastest man in the world this year over 60 metres after ripping out at 6.50sec two weeks ago.

In that event, he is joined by powerful 21-year-old Harry Aikines-Aryeetey — the former world junior 100m and 200m gold medallist — who took the second place, with 6.55sec, a personal best, at the UK trials in Sheffield.

The Londoner saw off competition from Scot Nick Smith, who ran 6.60 to finish third at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham last Saturday.

No medal target from Commenee is arguably a cautious indicator of the GB and Ireland team attending these Games. In Valencia in 2008, GB returned with five medals bagged — one gold and four silver medals, and it is understood the Dutch supremo anticipates similar numbers.

Commenee admitted the scheme of a large squad was based on an exercise to gauge how several GB neophytes would perform at world level in the Aspire Indoor Arena. “This competition gives athletes an opportunity to gain championship experience on a global level, the endurance athletes especially have taken this chance with lots of new faces in those disciplines,” he said. “The team is slightly bigger than I would have anticipated at the start of the winter season which positively shows the depth of the pool of athletes we have.” "We have names which will make the podium if they perform to potential and there is always room for outsiders.”

The surprise package could be world No 2 ranked Jenny Meadows. Slower on paper than Russian Yevgeniya Zinurova, Meadows demonstrated her improving speed last weekend by breaking Kelly Holmes’s seven-year UK record by 0.1secs in 1min 59.11sec. “I actually had more in the tank, but was kicking myself afterwards because I wasted 150m thinking about whether I should go for it or not.”

Good signs. As she revealed this week, if she had to wear any fancy dress outfit, it would be Wonder Woman. If she can find the confidence to spin hard, Meadows could yet become a golden (super)hero at these championships.

Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the World Indoor Championships, Doha, from March 12-14.

Men
60metres: Dwain Chambers, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey; 400m: Richard Buck, Dale Garland; 800m: Andrew Osagie, Ed Aston; 1500m: Tim Bayley; 3000m: Scott Overall; 4x400m: Richard Buck, Dale Garland, Chris Clarke, Nigel Levine, Conrad Williams, Luke Lennon-Ford; High Jump:Samson Oni, Tom Parsons; Pole Vault: Steve Lewis; Long Jump: Greg Rutherford, Chris Tomlinson; Triple Jump: Phillips Idowu; Shot: Carl Myerscough.

Women
60m: Joice Maduaka; 800m: Jenny Meadows, Vicky Griffiths; 1500m: Helen Clitheroe, Charlotte Best; 3000m: Gemma Turtle, Barbara Parker; 60mH: Gemma Bennett; 4x400m: Victoria Barr, Hayley Jones, Dawn Hunt, Lee McConnell, Perri Shakes-Drayton, Kim Wall; High Jump: Vikki Hubbard; Pentathlon: Jessica Ennis.

Jenny Meadows breaks Kelly Holmes’s seven-year-old British indoor 800m record

Wigan’s Jenny Meadows may be diminutive, yet she grows by the event. On Saturday she consigned to dust Kelly Holmes’ seven-year-old British indoor 800m record, reducing it by one tenth of a second as she clocked 1min 59.21sec at the Grand Prix meet at the NIA, Birmingham.

Meadows lived pretty much in the shadows until her epiphany in Berlin last August, where she claimed the 800m World Championship bronze medal in an event notable for the ordeal faced by Caster Semenya, who faced gender testing after taking the gold medal.

Meadows took an early lead, pursued by Ukrainian Yuliya Krevsen, and maintained a smooth rhythm all the way, roared on by a near-capacity crowd as she crossed the finish line.

“I have had my eye on breaking the record, and knew I was in the right shape to have a serious go,” the

28 year-old admitted afterwards.

Like Holmes, Meadows could be saving the best until her early thirties, as she continues to build in confidence. “Kelly didn’t run indoors often, but it’s still a fantastic time so I’m honoured and thrilled.”

Indeed it was Holmes who provided the inspiration for Meadows take up the 800m. “When she did the double in Athens I was still running 400m and only decided that winter to move to 800m. When you see a British athlete win it makes you think you have a chance.”

Meadows also admitted to having glanced to Vancouver where skeleton slider Amy Williams claimed the first individual gold medal in a Winter Olympic Games since Robin Cousins in 1980.

“It was such an inspiring tale, I was watching that on the news last night and it gives you goose bumps when someone from Britain does that sort of performance.”

Former Olympic and world triple-jump champion Christian Olsson admitted that Phillips Idowu was now the man to beat as made his comeback.

Olsson has not competed at a major event since winning the European title in Gothenburg in 2006, after being dogged by injury. He was unable to defend his Olympic crown in Beijing or compete at the World Championships in Berlin when Idowu took the gold.

Olsson won the 21st of his 23 meetings with Idowu. “I’m really happy with that, 17.32m is my longest jump through all my injuries. I’m just trying to enjoy myself as much as possible.

“Phillips wasn’t jumping at his best, and although this means nothing towards the World Championships, it feels good for me right now.”

It might have been a disappointing result for Idowu, but he did jump a season-best 17.25m.

In the men’s 1500m, Deresse Mekonnen set a new UK all-comers’ record, the Ethiopian leading home Augustine Choge, of Kenya in 3min 33.10sec.

Jessica Ennis pulls out of Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham

World heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis has withdrawn from Saturday's Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham due to her foot injury.

Ennis, who also missed the World Indoor Championship trials in her home city of Sheffield last weekend, wants more time for the injury to heal completely.

She still plans to compete in the World Indoors in Doha, in three weeks' time.

Ennis, 24, said: "The scans a week ago showed a slight ligament sprain and the advice was to rest the foot and take it day by day.

"New scans of my foot today show it has healed a lot, but with the World Indoors only a few weeks away the advice from the UKA [UK Athletics] medical team is to give it a little more time to completely heal and focus on the World Indoors."

She added: "I am of course disappointed at missing the opportunity to compete in Birmingham, but know being cautious is the best course of action.

"I am really happy with the way my foot is healing, training has not stopped and Toni, my coach, will gradually increase the intensity with all the focus on Doha."

Comfortable win for Ritzenhein

Dathan Ritzenhein and Shalane Flanagan dominated their respective races at the USA Cross Country Championships in Spokane.

Ritzenhein claimed a third title when breaking clear after nine kilometres to win the 12km race in a time of 34 minutes 24 seconds with Patrick Smyth finishing 18sec in arrears and Scott Bauhs third in 35min 01sec.

Flanagan led from start to finish for a fourth success at the championships, winning her 8km contest in 25 minutes 10 seconds.

Molly Huddle was the only opponent to offer any challenge in the early stages but fell away to lose by 51sec with fast-finishing Amy Hastings on her shoulder in 26min 01sec.

Usain Bolt blasts to 400m victory in Jamaica

Usain Bolt opened his 2010 season with 400 metres victory in a meet record time at the Camperdown Classic in Jamaica.

The 23-year-old - winner of three Olympic sprint golds in Beijing and three World Championship titles in Berlin last summer - stopped the clock in of 45.86 seconds at the National Stadium in Kingston.

The time was 0.49secs better than the previous best, set by Bolt in winning the same race in 2009.

The Racers Track Club sprinter is the world record holder at 100m and 200m, but the 400m has been used in recent seasons as a way for him to blow away the cobwebs of winter training.

Bolt said: "It was a good race; to run 45 seconds was a good sign.

"I never feel as good as I wanted.

"I guess I am getting there, I would say."

"I just want to get my fitness up, I don't think I am where I would want to be."

Jessica Ennis faces Nataliya Dobrynska rematch at World Indoor Championships

Jessica Ennis faces a testing rematch with Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska after the Ukrainian confirmed her participation in next month’s World Indoor Championships in Doha.

Ennis defeated Dobrynska to take the world heptathlon title in Berlin last summer and will be looking for a repeat performance as the pair compete for the indoor pentathlon crown.

It will be the third time Dobrynska has taken part at the World Indoors following her silver medal in 2004 and her fourth place in 2008. The pentathlon is limited to just eight athletes, six of whom are invited based on their 2009 outdoor performances.

Ennis, 24, will be making her debut in the event but looks to be in the form of her life after setting a British record of 7.95sec in the 60m hurdles and a high jump personal best of 1.94m in Glasgow last Saturday.

Meanwhile, Mark Lewis-Francis will go head to head with former GB team-mate Dwain Chambers when the pair contest the 60m at the Birmingham Games tomorrow.

Lewis-Francis, the 4x100m gold medallist from the 2004 Athens Olympics, has already signalled a return to form after serious injury by running 6.59sec at last week’s London Games — his fastest indoor time for five years.

Jessica Ennis on track for further personal bests after Glasgow triumphs

One of Jessica Ennis's claims to fame is that, with the exception of one rain-affected contest in 2007, she has improved her lifetime best points total in every multi-events competition she has taken part in.

On the evidence of her brilliant form in Saturday's Aviva International in Glasgow, it is a trend that looks certain to continue when she attempts to add to her world heptathlon title by claiming the world indoor pentathlon crown in Doha next month.

With a best of 4,716 points for the pentathlon – the 60 metres hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800m – her coach, Toni Minichiello, is confident she will exceed 4,800. But even that seems a deeply conservative estimate. Such is her momentum, one cannot rule out an attack on Irina Belova's world record of 4,991.

"Outstanding" was the verdict of the country's head coach, Charles van Commenee, after watching the 24 year-old produce one of the races of her life to inflict a rare defeat on the world indoor 60m hurdles champion, American Lolo Jones.

Her winning time of 7.95sec, which obliterated her previous best of 8.12, also trimmed 0.01sec off Sarah Claxton's British record.

That was the seventh indoor personal best Ennis has set since embarking on her winter campaign three weeks ago and it was not long before she was recording an eighth, clearing 1.94 metres in the high jump to finish second on a countback to American Chaunte Howard, a former world silver medallist.

"It's obvious that when you score personal bests you are on the right track and that gives us something to look forward to, not only in Doha but also in the summer," Van Commenee said.

Van Commenee will hope Ennis will be firing on all cylinders not just in Doha but at this summer's European Championships in Barcelona, where he has set an ambitious target of 19 medals – one more than Britain's best haul yet, in Split in 1990.

The signs were certainly encouraging on Saturday as Britain took the overall trophy in the five-way international, with individual wins from Jenny Meadows, Chris Tomlinson, Leon Baptiste, Helen Clitheroe and Craig Pickering.

British hurdles record falls to red-hot Jessica Ennis in Glasgow

There is just no stopping Jessica Ennis. Five months after she returned from a career-threatening injury to take the heptathlon gold at the World Championships, Ennis took another swipe at the world order with an extraordinary 60 metres hurdles victory in Saturday’s Aviva International Match in Glasgow.

The 24 year-old admitted she was in a state of shock after crossing the line ahead of the world indoor champion, American Lolo Jones, and in a time of 7.95sec that was not only a British record but is the fastest time in the world this year.

“I can’t believe I won, to be honest,” she said. “I know you should always come and expect to win but I was just aiming to have a quality race and push my personal best, not necessarily to win it.”

If that was not enough for one day, the Sheffield athlete then equalled her indoor high jump best of 1.94m as she was narrowly beaten on a countback by the American former world silver medallist, Chaunte Howard.

It was the second highest jump of Ennis’s life, indoor and outdoor, and augurs well for the World Indoor Championships in Doha in March, where she looks odds-on to confirm her status as the world’s best all-rounder by adding the pentathlon title to the outdoor heptathlon crown she won in Berlin.

The momentum is certainly with her, having already recorded eight indoor lifetime bests since opening her season just a few weeks ago.

“When you do so well there’s always the worry about maintaining that standard so to come out so strongly at the beginning of the year is really good,” she said.

However, she confirmed that she would miss October’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi because it did not fit into her schedule.

Ennis’s hurdles display, in which she smashed her previous best of 8.12sec, was as lucrative as it was satisfying, earning her a $5,000 bonus for shaving 0.01sec off Sarah Claxton’s British mark and a further $1,500 for being judged the performance of the day.

Jones, who finished 0.02sec in second place, looked as stunned as Ennis. The last time she was beaten indoors in a race she had finished was in Karlsruhe two years ago, and on that occasion it took a world record by Sweden’s Susanna Kallur to defeat her.

The fact that she surrendered her winning streak to a multi-eventer was all the more uncomfortable for the American.

“I felt like a boat in that race, really sloppy, weaving from side to side, no control,” Jones said. “I’m looking forward to getting smooth again and not letting heptathletes, who practise every event, beat me when I’m only working on one thing. That’s kind of crazy.”

Ennis’s final reward as captain of the British team was the honour of lifting the overall trophy after home athletes won the five-way match by two points from the United States — a result that was still in the balance going into the final race, the men’s 60m, before Craig Pickering made sure of victory with a win in 6.66sec from American Mark Jelks. Germany finished third with a Commonwealth Select team in fourth and Sweden last.

The other individual British winners were Leon Baptiste in the 200m, who took the notable scalp of 2004 Olympic 200m champion Shawn Crawford, Jenny Meadows in the 800m, Chris Tomlinson in the long jump and Helen Clitheroe in the 3,000m.

Meanwhile, Oxford athlete Hannah England underlined Britain’s strength in depth in women’s middle-distance running with a victory in the mile at the Millrose Games in New York.

The 22 year-old, who won silver at last summer’s World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki, outpaced American Sarah Hall and Kenya’s Sally Kipyego over 11 laps of the Madison Square Garden circuit to triumph in 4min 31.48sec.

Lagat relishing Baddeley match-up

Bernard Lagat is bidding to win a record eighth Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games.

The American star is also delighted to see Britain's in-form Andy Baddeley in the field.

Lagat, the former 2007 world outdoor 1500 metres and 5000m champion, tied Ireland's "Chairman of the Boards" Eamonn Coghlan 12 months ago when he claimed his seventh Wanamaker victory at the prestigious indoor meet and he will return to Madison Square Garden in search of making history.

Yet the presence of Baddeley and Kenya's Asbel Kiprop in the field means the Kenya-born American will have his work cut out on the tight confines of the Garden's banked track.

Both men defeated Lagat outdoors in 2009, Kiprop outsprinting the defending world 1500m champion for the silver medal in Berlin last August.

A month later Baddeley reeled in a front-running Lagat and then out-kicked him and the field for victory in the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York.

The Englishman will go to the Millrose meet having run an indoor personal best of 3:55.64 to claim the New Balance Invitational Elite mile at New York's Armory last Saturday - a world-leading time with his 1500m split of 3:40.6 the second best in the world so far.

"Andy Baddeley beat me at the Fifth Avenue Mile and when we looked at his results from this past week he did incredibly good, 3:55 is a good time," Lagat said.

"With Kiprop and Andy in the race it actually makes me prepare much better. I'm prepared for them.

"I really want to win this eighth one badly. I am happy that Asbel is here and Andy because they will make it go fast. I like running under pressure.

"When I look at these guys, they're not easy guys. They've beaten me before so there is that feeling of uncertainty that I may not win. That drives me crazy during the race and I like that."

Also in the Wanamaker field are American 800m specialist David Krummenacker, Mexico's Pablo Solares, South Africa's Peter van der Westhuizen and Britain's Mark Draper, who made it a British 1-2-3 behind Baddeley and Ricky Stevenson last Saturday at the New Balance Games in a personal best 3:56.8.

Kenya's Sally Kipyego and American duo Sarah Hall and Sarah Bowman headline a women's mile field that also features Britain's Hannah England on the start list and Ireland's retired European Indoor 400m bronze medallist Karen Shinkins.

Two-time Olympic 200m gold medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica returns to the Millrose Games for the first time since winning the women's 60m in 2006 and she faces a strong American contingent including Muna Lee, Marshavet Hooker Myers and Lisa Barber.

American Michael Rodgers leads a men's 60m field also including compatriots Travis Padgett and Leroy Dixon.

Gebrselassie wins but misses record

Haile Gebrselassie clinched the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon title for the third successive year.

But it was an unconvincing victory in a slow time of two hours six minutes nine seconds.

Despite achieving his hat-trick, Gebrselassie failed by a big margin to challenge his 18-month-old world record of 2hr 3min 59sec in an attempt which never materialised from the start of the race.

The race began at a snail's pace and the nearest margin the pacemakers got to the figure he set in Berlin was 38 seconds when the pack went through nine kilometres in 26 min 43sec.

Thereafter it went even further off schedule and instead of it passing through the halfway point in 61min 59sec, a pack of seven went through in a time of 62 min 51 sec.

Gebrselassie seemed to have another success sewn up when breaking clear after 31 kilometres but received a shock when fellow countryman Chala Dechase came on his shoulder just over two kilometres later.

However he did not panic and finally pulled away on his own just after 37km to finish ahead of Dechase by 24sec and Eshetu Wendimu, who made it a clean sweep for Ethiopia when repeating his third place of 12 months ago in a time of 2hr 6min 46sec.

Mamitu Daska won a much closer women's race by eight seconds ahead of fellow Ethiopian Aberu Shewaye in 2hr 24min 18sec with Helena Kiprop of Kenya third in 2hr 24min 54sec.

Shalane Flanagan wins in Houston

Shalane Flanagan claimed the Aramco Houston half-marathon title today to mark an impressive debut over the distance.

Olympic 5000 metres bronze medallist Flanagan, who claimed the United States title staged in conjunction with the event, posted a time of one hour nine minutes 41 seconds to better the previous course record by a healthy one hour and 14 seconds.

Serena Burla was runner-up, 28 seconds behind Flanagan, with fast-finishing Amy Hastings claiming third in 1:11:19.

Antonio Vega clinched the men's race in 1:01:54 ahead of Patrick Smyth and Brent Vaughn to win the first US title of his career.

Caster Semenya free to compete internationally, says coach

Caster Semenya, the South African world 800 metres champion, is aiming to return to competitive action within the next few weeks despite still waiting for the official all-clear to compete as a woman.

The 19 year-old’s future remains in limbo as she awaits the results of a gender verification test carried out on her after last summer’s World Championships in Berlin but her coach, Michael Seme, confirmed on Wednesday that she intended to take a full part in the South African domestic season, including the national championships.

Seme also claimed that Semenya planned to compete on the European circuit later in the year and was also considering running in a South African vest at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October.

That may be wishful thinking on the part of Semenya and her coach since the International Association of Athletics Federations will surely have ruled by then on whether she is eligible to compete in women’s races. But until that decision is reached, there is nothing to prevent her from resuming her athletics career.

The IAAF confirmed that the teenager is not suspended pending the outcome of its investigation and she is therefore free to compete.

It would not put a timescale on how long the investigation was expected to continue.

“We are still in the same position as before and cannot comment until the end of the inquiry,” said IAAF spokesman Nick Davies.

Semenya’s runaway victory in Berlin was the last time she competed. She pulled out of a 4km race in South Africa a month later amid media reports, unconfirmed by the IAAF, that her gender test had revealed she was a hermaphrodite with internal testes and no ovaries.

The controversy over her ambiguous gender erupted into a major political row between the world governing body and the South African government.

Seme said Semenya, who has continued to train as normal, would open her season at the first domestic 'Yellow Pages Series’ meeting. It is likely to be staged at the end of this month though the date and venue have yet to be confirmed.

“She will run in at least three Yellow Pages races this year," said Seme. “We don’t have the fixtures yet but we are sure she will run in the first meeting.”

He added that Semenya would compete in only one 800m race before the national championships and would concentrate instead on 400m races to improve her track speed.

Next on her agenda, said Seme, would be to compete in some of high-profile meetings in Europe. Theoretically, she could even be invited to compete in next month’s Aviva Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham “Last year there were obviously problems and she was not able to compete in those big events,” said Seme.

“She received many invites after winning the world title, and even before that, but because of what happened she chose not to take part. But this year is different and she is planning to compete in some of those events.”

All her plans will become academic should the IAAF investigation confirm that she has an inter-sex condition that gives her an unfair advantage over her female rivals.

But the issue of defining gender is so fraught with difficulty that the International Olympic Committee has asked some of the world’s leading experts to draw up guidelines at a high-powered gender symposium that begins in Miami on Friday.

While Semenya waits to hear her long-term fate, the position of the beleaguered former president of Athletics South Africa, Leonard Chuene, should soon become clearer, however.

Chuene, who admitted he lied about his knowledge of a gender test carried out on the athlete prior to Berlin, was suspended for his bungled handling of the affair and faces a disciplinary hearing later this month.

Bolt to miss Commonwealth games

Usain Bolt is likely to miss this year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi, according to the sprinter's manager.

Ricky Simms was quoted on Sunday as saying the Jamaican - the Olympic and world champion over 100 and 200 metres and the 4x100m relay - could not consider the October event a priority.

Simms said in the Mail on Sunday: "It's now looking unlikely Usain will be going to the Commonwealth Games. His priorities have to lie elsewhere.

"First and foremost is his four-year plan leading up to the next Olympics, which is exactly what he did prior to Beijing in 2008.

"It's started well enough with what he achieved at last summer's Berlin World Championships, but this year is all about the Diamond League and a continuation of his preparation for 2012. He also views the World Championships in 2011 and 2013 as crucially important."

Bolt broke his own 100 and 200m world records in Berlin, lowering his 100m mark to 9.58 seconds and his 200m mark to 19.19secs.

Simms added: "The timing of the Commonwealth Games is the issue here. By the start of October, Usain will have needed to have rested and then began his pre-season which, as every athlete knows, is massively important.

"If you don't get your pre-season right, then you won't get the following summer right. If Usain ran in Delhi, it would not only require him to stay at his best from pretty much May through to October, but then delay his pre-season until Christmas or the new year.

That would be far too late if he wants to emulate his feats so far on a global stage in 2011. It's not as if Usain doesn't want to be at the Games, it's more the case that he most probably can't afford to be there."

Great Britain 4x400 relay team finally awarded World Championship gold medals

Britain's 4x400 relay runners will finally receive gold medals, thirteen years after they were beaten at the World Championships by a drug-tainted US team.

World athletics' governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, stripped the US team of Antonio Pettigrew, Chris Jones, Tyree Washington and Jerome Young of their 1997 World Championship title in November 2008 after Pettigrew later admitted using performance-enhancing drugs.

The U.S. quartet was disqualified and the British team - that also won silver at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta - upgraded from second to first in the results from the 1997 championships in Athens.

Retired British runners Roger Black, Jamie Baulch, Iwan Thomas and Mark Richardson will receive the gold medals at a ceremony organised by UK Athletics.

Baulch says he can now finally tell people he was a world champion.

I have missed out on 13 years of telling people I am a world champion," joked Welshman Baulch, who also won relay silver for Wales in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

"There is a little bit of bitterness that we were robbed of the gold. It is a bit of a disgrace as I missed an opportunity to celebrate in front of 100,000 people as the sport was at its peak, it was the golden days of athletics.

"When you think of it and to put it into perspective, we ran four seconds faster than the current GB team ran last year - so that was how fast we were.

"It is a bit sad that it has happened the way it has but that's the way the cards have been dealt to me - so you may see us in a medal ceremony in the next amount of months.

"Your guess is as good as mine as to when we are to receive the medals as I don't know where the medals exactly are now."

Mark Lewis-Francis among top athletes who fear sponsors fraud scam

Several leading athletes, including the Olympic gold medallist, Mark Lewis-Francis, hurdler Andy Turner and sprinter Abi Oyepitan, are believed to have concerns over a company that promises to match sports stars with lucrative sponsorship deals in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics.

The Metropolitan Police has launched a fraud investigation into Global Sponsorship Group, a company based in Croydon, south London, which claims in its marketing material to have “an anticipated portfolio of over £35 million in sponsorship packages available from major FTSE 100 companies”.

A police spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that South Norwood police are investigating an allegation of fraud in relation to a sponsorship company based in Croydon.”

Athlete internet forums have recently been awash with allegations that the company asks some athletes to pay £500 up front before any sponsorship deal has been signed.

Leading British athlete Tasha Danvers, who won a bronze medal in the 400 metres hurdles at Beijing, posted a message on the Twitter website to urge other athletes with concerns to contact the police.

The company, which was launched last July, describes itself as an “online facilitator” that matches athletes with corporate sponsors, though its website has been off line since the weekend.

In November, Lewis-Francis said the company had promised to pay his medical and physiotherapy expenses after he was dropped from the Lottery programme.

“It’s nice just to know that someone out there has belief in me,” said Lewis-Francis, whose gold came in the 4 x 100m relay at Athens in 2004.

“This has definitely saved my career and given me a second chance to go out there and prove to the world that I’m still a decent sprinter.”

On Tuesday, Lewis-Francis said he was prevented from saying anything about Global Sponsorship on legal advice but confirmed that he was in dispute over his deal.

“Fortunately, I’ve got a good agent and a good coach looking after me,” he said. “UK Athletics have also been very helpful.”

Mark Cas, the chief executive of Global Sponsorship Group, said yesterday that it was untrue that athletes were asked to pay money in advance and that legal proceedings would be issued next week against “various people”.

“We sacked some staff and that has given rise to this whole thing,” he said.

“I will talk about it next week once proceedings have been issued against people. All I will say is that none of the athletes like Lewis-Francis were asked to front up any money.”

He added that the website was off line because back-end work was being carried out on it and that it would be running again today.

While Lewis-Francis, Turner and Oyepitan are Global Sponsorship’s most high-profile clients, other athletes are believed to include British No 3 hurdler Callum Priestley, promising triple-jumper Trevor Okoroafor, long-jumper Gary Wilson and heptathlete Lucy Boggis.

Athletes against random drug searches

Athletes' representatives have warned that random drugs searches in the Olympic Village at London 2012 would be "utterly disastrous".

The British Athletes Commission will seek reassurances tomorrow that 'stop and search' tactics will not be used on Olympic athletes at random.

British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan has proposed a new bill in the House of Lords that would boost the police's search powers and allow them to raid the Athletes' Village at London 2012.

Under the bill, officers would be allowed search for performance-enhancing drugs and possibly criminalise competitors caught with banned substances.

British Athletes Commission chief executive Peter Gardner has warned, however, that random drugs searches are not the best approach.

Gardner will raise the issue at a meeting with BOA chief executive Andy Hunt tomorrow.

Gardner told Press Association Sport: "If this bill gets through we want to know how exactly would they go about exercising the new powers.

"We do not want to see random 'stop and search' in the Village - that would be utterly disastrous for the London Olympics.

"It's one thing for us to be seen to be taking a tough stance on doping, but it's quite another to make athletes feel like criminals.

"If there is a good reason for a search based on intelligence then fine, but we don't want to see random searches."

Gardner added that he thought it extremely unlikely that anyone would risk taking performance-enhancing drugs into the Village - those that would be using drugs were more likely to do so in privately-rented accommodation.

"There is nothing wrong in having a deterrent but the likelihood of anything being in the Village is almost non-existent," he added.

"So long as we realise that and target our anti-doping efforts in the best places then that is fine."

Jana Rawlinson has breast implants removed to improve London 2012 medal chances

Hurdler Jana Rawlinson has had her breast implants removed to boost her chances of winning a medal for Australia at the 2012 Olympics, a magazine has reported.

Rawlinson, whose private life has often made headlines in Australia, said she enjoyed having larger breasts but did not want to "short-change Australia".

"I absolutely loved having bigger boobs, but finally I've grown up enough to know myself; to be honest about who I am when I look in the mirror," Rawlinson told the Woman's Day magazine.

"I don't want to short-change Australia either - I want to feel the most athletic I can, to know that I'm standing on the track in London the fittest I can be."

The double 400m hurdles world champion told the magazine she had the implants because she was unhappy with her athletic figure.

"When I looked in the mirror I just saw muscled arms, broad shoulders and big, strong legs," she said. "These are assets I need to run well, but they didn't make me feel like an attractive woman.

"There are a couple of girls - who I won't name - in world athletics who are Olympic champions, but they look like men and I don't want to be like that."

Rawlinson won the 400m hurdles at the 2003 Paris world championships and four years later in Osaka, Japan.