AROUND THE TRACK: July 30, 2013...

Things will be a little bit slow as we approach the dead period before the start of the IAAF world track & field championships in Moscow starting on August 10th.

Team USA has started its pre-world championships training camp this week in Linz, Austria, as athletes are making their way over, either from their European training bases (for those who have been competing on the European summer circuit), or in the case of athletes like University of Washington graduate Jeremy Taiwo, who stayed in town after the USA championships, left Seattle on Sunday with UW multi-events coach Atanas Atanassov for camp.

Incidentally, the official release naming the team is available here.

paulmerca.blogspot.com will be on site at Luzhniki Stadium for daily coverage of the IAAF world track & field championships beginning August 9th.

JUNGMARK OUT OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

According to the Swedish federation web site, high jumper Ebba Jungmark (left/photo courtesy www.friidrott.se) has withdrawn from the Swedish team for the world championships.

Jungmark, who won an NCAA indoor title for Washington State University in 2008, has struggled with a foot injury during the outdoor season.  Her best this season was 6-5 (1.96m) at the European Indoor championships in her hometown of Gothenburg, and 6-2 1/4 (1.89m) outdoors at the Herculis meeting in Monaco on July 19th, where she finished eighth.

Because of the injury, she, along with her coach Emil Predan made the decision to withdraw from the Swedish team, noting that she didn't want to risk any further damage that could jeopardize her participation in the 2016 Olympics.

FAN VOTING UNDERWAY FOR THE BOWERMAN

Fans of collegiate track & field will have their voices heard in the next two weeks as online voting for The Bowerman — the nation’s top award for collegiate track & field student-athletes — got underway as of noon ET on Monday, July 29.

Voting will take place at TheBowerman.org through Tuesday, August 13, to help narrow the three male and three female finalists down to a men’s and women’s winner who will take home the iconic The Bowerman trophy. The results of the online fan vote will account for one full vote in the overall balloting process.

Voters will choose between women’s finalists Arizona’s Brigetta Barrett, Stanford’s Kori Carter and Clemson’s Brianna Rollins; and men’s finalists Derek Drouin of Indiana, Lawi Lalang of Arizona and Julian Wruck of UCLA.

When placing votes, fans should only consider performances that occurred from the beginning of the indoor season through the end of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. Any performance that occurred during that timeframe — even if it wasn’t a purely collegiate competition — can be counted. Anything before that time (cross country) or after (USA Championships, select Diamond League meetings, etc.) should not factor into the decision.

The award, in its fifth year of existence, will be presented in a ceremony at the USTFCCCA Convention on December 18 at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes in Orlando, Fla.

Detailed information on the six finalists can be found here.

paulmerca.blogspot.com once again is honored to hold a media vote for this prestigious national award.

NOTE: The USTFCCCA, USA Track & Field and the Swedish Athletics Federation contributed to this report.