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11 December 2008 – Boston, USA – Australia’s Olympic Pole Vault champion Steve Hooker, along with fellow Beijing medallists Jenn Stuczynski (USA) and Nick Willis (NZL) will be among the headliners at the 2009 Reebok Boston Indoor Games on 7 February 2009.

12 December 2008 - Gulnara Galkina, Russia’s Olympic gold medallist and World record holder in the Steeplechase, and seven-time winner Sergiy Lebid of Ukraine will be the most prominent athletes in Sunday’s 15th SPAR European Cross Country European Cross Country Championships, which are held in Brussels’ Parc de Laeken (14 Dec).

10 December 2008 - Sally McLellan's post race interview in Beijing would go down as one of her most engaging performances ever. "Did you see me?" she excitedly asked millions of Australians watching at home, while she seemingly was unable to stand still as she spoke.

9 December 2008 - Spain’s top-miler Juan Carlos Higuero, the 2007 European Indoor champion, enjoyed his most successful season ever on the international scene in 2008. After grabbing the World 1500m indoor bronze on home soil in Valencia last March, he managed fifth place in his specialist event at the Beijing Olympics.

Approaching the age of thirty seven (on 18 January), and having seemingly achieved neat enough symmetry to her Olympic career in Beijing by winning a silver medal in what will be her last Games to match her achievement in the first Olympic outing in Sydney back in 2000, you’d have been forgiven for expecting Norway’s Kjersti Plätzer to be planning a quieter 2009.

11 December 2008 - African athletics is in mourning following the death after a along illness of the renowned Cameroonian coach Emmanuel Bitanga who was for many years the Technical Director of the International Centre of athletics of Dakar (CIAD), an IAAF High Performance Centre.

11 December 2008 - New York, USA – Britian’s Olympic 1500m fourth placer Lisa Dobriskey will ring in the New Year at the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run on 31 December in Central Park, an event which will attract 5000 participants.

13 December 2008 - Kisii, Kenya - 2006 World Junior Cross Country champion, Mangata Ndiwa appears to be making a successful transition to the seniors men’s division, just like his counterpart Pauline Korikwiang is doing in the senior women’s side of the sport.