Italy: Alberto Castagnetti, head coach to Italy and personal coach to Federica Pellegrini, is recovering from heart surgery and will remain in hospital for a further week after a four-hour operation. Among his visitors on Friday will be the world 200m and 400m champion. Before then, she will attend a youth festival in Rome alongside controversial Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

France: While Alain Bernard and many other French team members have returned to training after a post-worlds break, Amaury Leveaux  is yet to make a stroke in the right direction if he wishes to defend his European s/c titles in Istanbul in December. L'Equipe reports that coach Lionel Horter has left the date of return down to Leveaux in the wake of a season that was overly long, particularly so because of the sad suits saga that first worked in the French sprinter's favour (Rijeka 2009) but ultimately worked against him.