Thursday, October 13, 2011

Slovenia : 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist



Primož Kozmus (born September 30, 1979 in Novo Mesto) is a Slovenian hammer thrower and the current Olympic champion. His gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2009 World Championships in Berlin made him the first ever Slovenian athlete to win both titles.
His personal best throw and Slovenian record is 82.58 metres, achieved in September 2009 in Celje, Slovenia.
On 8 October 2009, Kozmus unexpectedly announced his temporary retirement from athletics. On 25 October 2010, he announced his return. After moderate achievements in the 2011 season, Kozmus stated his goal at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was to place in the top eight in the finals. Still, he won bronze with 79.39 m.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Slovakia Stamp: 2010 Winter Olympic Games Vancouver

Tehnical details: Issue number: 468
Date of Issue: 15. 01. 2010
Face value: 1 €
Dimensions: 40,4 x 27,2 mm
Layout/Format: TL
Stamps per TL: 50
Number in set: 1
Stamp designer: Peter Uchnár
Printer: Poštovní tiskárna cenin Praha, a. s.
Print technology: Offset
FDC designer: Peter Uchnár
FDC engraver: Arnold Feke
Cancellation design: Peter Uchnár
FDC Printer: TAB, s. r. o., Bratislava
FDC Print technology: WAITE

Friday, October 7, 2011

Liechtenstien Stamps: Winter Olympic Games Vancouver 2010



By longstanding tradition Liechtenstein issues special series of stamps for each Winter and Summer Olympic Games. What started in 1964 with the first official Liechtenstein Olympic stamp, on which the flags of the two host countries Austria (Innsbruck – Winter) and Japan (Tokyo – Summer) were jointly featured, has been regularly continued since the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and will be continued this year too to mark the XXI Winter Games in Vancouver (Canada). As for last year’s Olympic stamp (Peking 2008), for this series too an artist from the country hosting the Games has been sought and found. Mark Heine is the Canadian artist entrusted with the task of supplying the artwork for this series and has created two large-format dynamic oil paintings, the first showing a downhill racer in the Alpine Skiing programme (face value CHF 1.00) and the second a cross-country skier in the Nordic Skiing programme (face value CHF 1.80). The sportsmen are shown in the new kit, which when the stamps were printed was still completely unknown to the general public. These outfits are intended to enable Liechtenstein’s winter athletes to continue the great successes of earlier years and perhaps help to bring about another sporting triumph. The time is surely ripe.