Work begins February on new running track at G C Foster College

Thursday, January 15, 2015 | 4:53 AM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Work is set to begin next month on a new running track for the G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sport in St Catherine.

General Manager of the Sports Development Foundation (SDF), Denzil Wilks made the disclosure recently.

“We are now finalising the contract and we are expected to begin work by mid- February,” he said.

The SDF head also informed that the new track, which has been contracted to the German company Berleburger Schaumstoffwerk, will cost some $168 million and should be completed by early May.

He explained that the contract will involve construction of a protective base.

“The base that is laid and for which the track will be placed is absolutely critical and that is dependent on the nature of the surface. In the case of G C Foster, what you have is a clay surface that tends to expand when wet and contract when dry, and so you cannot have a track, which is laid on a base that will do that, hence a protective base will have to be built to protect the track,” he outlined.

Work will also include the installation of a drainage system as well as surface conditioning.

The new track is set to receive Level II International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) certification when completed.

 “We expect that it (the track) will give us excellent service for a minimum of

10 years,” Wilks said.

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Work begins February on new running track at G C Foster College

"Time running out" for Iran deal

27 September 2014 Last updated at 05:14 Hassan Rouhani: “Under no conditions can sanctions be thought of as the right path”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned that time is running out for negotiating a permanent agreement on his country’s nuclear programme.

He said that talks this week between Iran and six world powers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York had made very slow progress.

A deadline for a permanent deal has been set for 24 November.

However, Mr Rouhani said he believed that relations between Iran and the US did not have to remain hostile forever.

The US, EU and other powers suspect Iran of secretly seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a claim it denies.

Talks are focusing on the lifting of Western sanctions on Iran in exchange for a scaling-back of Iran’s uranium enrichment programme.

An interim deal struck in Geneva late last year froze or capped key elements of Iran’s nuclear programme in return for limited relief from sanctions.

“There have been steps forward, but they haven’t been significant,” Mr Rouhani told a news conference.

He said that Iran had shown the necessary flexibility and that it now was up to the six powers – the US, UK, China, France, Russia and Germany – to advance the talks.

“Time is short,” he said.

Sanctions ‘melted away’

Analysts say the talks remain stuck over uranium enrichment. Iran says it needs a robust enrichment programme to make reactor fuel and for other peaceful purposes but the US and others fear it could also be used to make a nuclear weapon.

President Rouhani said that Iran would never accept any agreement that required it to stop enriching uranium, and that sanctions must “be melted away”.

“Iran will never surrender its legal right to the pursuit of civil peaceful nuclear activity,” he said.

On a more positive note, he added: “It is not written in stone that the relationship between Iran and the US must be hostile forever.

“One day this will change.”

Since the election of President Rouhani last year, Iran has promised to further co-operate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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"Time running out" for Iran deal

Bolt almost gave up running after being booed in "06

News

Thursday, September 12, 2013

USAIN Bolt has revealed that he came close to giving up sprinting in 2006 when he was booed by Jamaican fans for pulling out of a race injured.The star, who was only 19 at the time, began his leg of a 4×400-metre race at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, but soon had to stop after pulling his hamstring.As he limped off the track, some home fans decided to boo him. Some even shouted that he’d simply given up because he knew he wasn’t going to win.In an exclusive extract from his new book, Faster Than Lightning: My Autobiography, serialised in The Times, Bolt describes how the incident left him questioning his ability as a top-level sprinter and his desire to continue his promising career.Bolt wrote: “Honestly, I had never imagined a time when a Jamaican crowd — my own people that had cheered me on so loudly when I’d won the World Junior Championships in 2002 — would boo me as I came off the Kingston track.“Forgot the pulled hamstring, this was pain on another level. I was only 19, and the criticism hit me hard.“First of all I questioned my ability: ‘I’m not good enough for this sport…’ I questioned the Jamaican fans: ‘Wow, I got booed in front of my national crowd when I was giving it my best.“Then it got worse: ‘Three years ago I started this life. Three years I’ve been injured. Is this really working? Should I really continue? All these things that I do, no matter how hard I try, this might not be for me. This track-and-field thing is tough…’.Luckily for the world of athletics, a chat with his coach Glen Mills was enough for Bolt to see sense and continue on his way to becoming the world’s fastest man. Daily MailTrack and field star Usain Bolt is a picture of contemplation at a recent press conference overseas.Bolt strikes his famous ‘to di world’ pose after winning the 100-metre dash at the 2013 World Athletic Championships last month in Moscow, Russia. (OBSERVER FILE PHOTOS)

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Bolt almost gave up running after being booed in "06

Texas prison system running out of execution drug

News

Thursday, August 01, 2013 | 11:00 AM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The nation’s most active death penalty state is running out of its execution drug.The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says its remaining supply of pentobarbital expires in September. Department spokesman Jason Clark says officials are exploring all options but have yet to find an alternative.Texas has lethally injected 11 death-row inmates so far this year, most recently yesterday Wednesday July 31. Two executions are scheduled in September and at least five others are set for following months.It wasn’t immediately clear if the September executions may be delayed.Other death penalty states have encountered similar problems as drug manufacturers have balked at using their products for capital punishment.Texas has executed 503 inmates since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume. Virginia is second at 110.

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Texas prison system running out of execution drug

Texas prison system running out of execution drug

Latest News

Thursday, August 01, 2013 | 11:00 AM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The nation’s most active death penalty state is running out of its execution drug.The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says its remaining supply of pentobarbital expires in September. Department spokesman Jason Clark says officials are exploring all options but have yet to find an alternative.Texas has lethally injected 11 death-row inmates so far this year, most recently yesterday Wednesday July 31. Two executions are scheduled in September and at least five others are set for following months.It wasn’t immediately clear if the September executions may be delayed.Other death penalty states have encountered similar problems as drug manufacturers have balked at using their products for capital punishment.Texas has executed 503 inmates since 1976, when the Supreme Court allowed executions to resume. Virginia is second at 110.Like our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jamaicaobserverFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamaicaObserver

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Texas prison system running out of execution drug

Inmates "running Honduras prisons"

3 August 2013 Last updated at 00:12 ET The Honduras government has effectively given up on rehabilitating criminals and left prisons to be controlled by their inmates, according to a new report.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the country’s prisons were impoverished, overcrowded and corrupt.

It called on the authorities to deal with what it called a deep structural crisis.

The report comes after a fire killed some 360 prisoners in February 2012.

Inmates at the Comayagua prison north of Tegucigalpa were trapped in their cells when the blaze broke out.

‘Totally collapsed’

Government figures show more than 12,000 people in Honduras are currently incarcerated in prisons that were built for just 8,000.

The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said the jails are under the de-facto command of inmates – often belonging the country’s violent criminal gangs – who even set rules and enforce physical punishments.

It also said women share prisons with men and are often victims of abuse.

“The prison system in Honduras is dehumanised, miserly, and corrupt,” said commission spokesman Escobar Gil.

“It is essential that the state take on this crisis in the prison system as one of its priorities, because the system has totally collapsed.”

The report highlighted a lack of staffing, resources and organisation, saying the government had abandoned its responsibilities towards funding and rehabilitation programmes.

“The state’s response to problems of crime and citizen insecurity must not consist exclusively of repressive measures, but also of preventive ones,” said the spokesman.

“We should include prison-system improvement programmes designed to promote work and education in prisons as an appropriate means to reintegrate prisoners into society.”

It criticised the government’s response to the Comayagua prison fire and urged further investigation into the cause.

The authorities are yet to comment.

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Inmates "running Honduras prisons"

Texas "running out of death drug"

2 August 2013 Last updated at 00:11 ET Texas is planning at least five more executions this year The US state of Texas is running out of a key drug used for lethal injections, according to officials.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said that the state’s supply of pentobarbital would end in September.

Texas has the highest execution rate in the country, with 11 inmates put to death so far in 2013.

Some drugs companies have objected to their products being used for capital punishment.

Texas has used pentobarbital, a drug used to treat severe epilepsy, in executions since July 2012.

‘Clamped down’

The state was forced to change to the single-dose sedative when supplies of sodium thiopental, one of three drugs used previously, were cut off.

But state officials are now having difficulties with the availability of pentobarbital, which is also typically used to put down animals.

“We will be unable to use our current supply of pentobarbital after it expires,” the Associated Press news agency quoted department spokesman Jason Clark as saying. “We are exploring all options at this time.”

The state is planning at least five more executions this year.

Reuters quoted Mr Clark as saying that Texas was confident it would be able to continue with the deaths, despite the shortage.

Richard Dieter, who heads the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, said other states would be having similar problems.

“The states really scramble to go all over to get drugs,” he told AP.

“Some went overseas, some got from each other. But these manufacturers – a number them are based in Europe – don’t want to participate in our executions. So they’ve clamped down as much as they can.”

The first US prisoner put to death using pentobarbital is believed to be 58-year-old John David Duty.

Duty, who killed a cellmate in 2001, died in Oklahoma in December 2010.

Texas is reported to have executed more than 500 death row inmates since 1982 – the highest of any US state. Virginia came in second with 110, AP said.

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Texas "running out of death drug"

Edwin Moses running for WADA president

LONDON, England (AP) — Former Olympic hurdles great Edwin Moses has entered the race to become the next president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The two-time Olympic gold medallist in the 400-metre hurdles submitted his candidacy last week, become the third — and likely final — contender for the job, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said yesterday.Also in the running are IOC vice-president Craig Reedie of Britain and former IOC Medical Director Patrick Schamasch of France.The 57-year-old Moses, who won gold medals at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics, has been active in the anti-doping movement since retiring from competition. He has been chairman of the US Anti-Doping Agency since September 2012.Moses was the most dominant one-lap hurdler in the world for more than a decade, winning 122 consecutive races — including 107 straight finals — from 1977-87. His world record of 47.02 seconds stood from 1983 to 1992.It’s the turn of the Olympic movement to nominate a successor to former Australian government minister John Fahey, who steps down as WADA president in November after six years in the job.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is sending a document summarising its position on the anti-doping fight to the three candidates, who have until August 7 to reply in writing.The IOC executive board will put forward one candidate for the WADA presidency at a meeting in Moscow on August 9 on the eve of the World Athletics Championships. The nominee will then be put up for formal election at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg from November 12-15.Reedie, who sits on the WADA executive committee, is considered the favourite.The election campaign comes at a time of increasing scrutiny on WADA, which was set up by the IOC in 1999 to lead the global anti-doping fight. The IOC and Olympic movement provide 50 per cent of WADA’s annual budget, with governments paying the other half.The role of WADA has come under fire in recent months, with sports federations saying the organisation is spending millions of dollars on drug-testing without catching the serious drug cheats. The IOC and federations have also insisted that WADA is a “service organisation” created to support the sports bodies, not to criticise them and order them what to do.IOC President Jacques Rogge has called for more targeted, out-of-competition testing in high-profile sports.Former WADA President Dick Pound recently submitted a report detailing the ineffectiveness of the current drug-testing system.Despite increased testing and scientific advances to detect more sophisticated substances, Pound said drug cheats are getting away scot-free because of a lack of will among sports organisations, governments and athletes. The report cited statistics showing that, of 250,000 drug tests per year, less than one per cent produce positive findings for serious doping substances.In this September 10, 2010 file photo, former Olympic hurdles great Edwin Moses speaks during a press conference before the Triathlon World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. (PHOTO: AP)

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Edwin Moses running for WADA president