European season winds down with meets in Padova & IAAF Continental Cup...

The European outdoor track & field season continues its final legs of 2010 with the Meeting Citta di Padova on Friday in Padova, Italy, and this weekend's IAAF Continental Cup in Split, Croatia.

Aretha Thurmond from Federal Way, who finished sixth in Zagreb, Croatia on Wednesday, is entered in Padova, where she will face US teammate and reigning Olympic champion Stephanie Brown Trafton in the discus.

Thurmond's season best in 2010 is 204-11 (62.47m), set in Sacramento on May 29th.

The start list for the Meeting Citta di Padova is available here.


IAAF/VTB BANK CONTINENTAL CUP THIS WEEKEND IN SPLIT...

The IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup takes place in Split Saturday and Sunday. Originally known as the World Cup, the Continental Cup is reformatted as four teams representing the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific go head to head against each other.

In the lane and field events, each Continental team is allowed two athletes per event; however only one athlete from each country can represent a continent in an event (i.e., two Jamaicans cannot represent the Americas in the 100 meter dash, etc; in the mens 100, the Americas will run Daniel Bailey of Antigua and Rae Edwards of the USA).

Washington State University hall of famer Bernard Lagat, who set the American record in the 3000 meter run of 7:29.00 on Sunday in Rieti, is entered in both the 3000 and the 5000 meter runs.

Lagat will run the 5000 on Saturday, and the 3000 Sunday.

Individual winners are eligible for cash prizes based on $30000 for the winner, all the way down to $1000 for eighth place.

In the women's javelin, Vancouver's Kara Patterson, who finished second to the Czech Republic's Barbora Spotakova in the season long Samsung Diamond League series, is one of the two throwers on the Americas squad, along with Yainelis Ribeaux of Cuba.

Patterson will throw on Saturday.

The entry list by team for this weekend's IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup is available here.

LUKEZIC GIVEN TWO YEAR SUSPENSION BY USADA…

In the "you've gotta be kidding me" department, former Auburn HS and Georgetown University All-American Chris Lukezic was handed a two year suspension by the United States Anti-Doping Agency for refusing to take a doping control test on April 20th.

Lukezic, who retired from the sport after the 2009 season, apparently had not filed the paperwork with both USADA and USA Track & Field indicating that he had retired from competition.

In a short note received from Lukezic, he says that his ineligibility only goes into effect if he comes out of retirement, noting that he's about 160lbs (from 125 last summer) and have only mustered about 5 runs in the past year. "I can proudly say my running days are long behind me."


Lukezic now works in the travel industry for startup company AirBnB.

The USADA release is available here.

FLOTRACK RATES HUSKIES AS #2 TEAM TO WATCH...

In its continuing series of videos, media partner Flotrack rates the University of Washington Huskies women's cross country squad as its #2 preseason pick.

Flotrack writes, "This team just missed getting the preseason top spot by one spot, but with a healthy summer of training and contributions from some of the incoming freshmen, this team could see themselves on the top of the podium...again."

Washington opens its Pac-10 title defense with a dual meet against Washington State Friday in Ephrata.

You can watch the video here...

Meantime, University of Washington freshman Megan Morgan shared her thoughts as the Huskies prepare for the 2010 cross country season at their training camp at Fort Flagler State Park.

You can read Megan's diary of cross country camp here.