Oslo, Norway - The men’s 100m at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway, on Friday 3 July, the second leg of the six meeting ÅF Golden League has been boosted by the recent return to high class international athletics of Norway’s exciting sprint prospect Jaysuma Saidy Ndure. 

Ndure, the former Gambian blasted to 10.06 (100m) and 19.89 sec (200m) Norwegian records at the 2007 World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, coming second in the dash and winning the longer sprint. 

Following his early season improvement in 2008 (9 May, Doha) of his 100m national record when he ran 10.01, Ndure experienced an otherwise generally frustrating year of competition with persistent injuries but now the 25-year-old is showing confident signs that his career is taking off again in 2009.

Last weekend, running at the European Team Champs League One match in Bergen, Norway, Ndure gave strong evidence of his re-discovered fitness and sprinting prowess with a remarkably easy 10.14 clocking (+0.5m/s). He also won the 200m in 20.94 into a heavy headwind (-4.6).

The task now for the Norwegian is not only to face the challenge of some of the best sprinters in the world in Oslo but also to become an historic figure in Norwegian and Nordic athletics as the first such man to break 10 seconds for the 100m.

There will be no greater rival for Ndure at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games than Jamaica’s Asafa Powell. They have raced each other frequently since 2007 when the Norwegian was making his entrance onto the world stage, but as yet with the exception of the 2008 Rome Golden Gala when a groin injury to Powell forced him to miss the final, the Jamaican in their eight meetings (finals only) has not been bettered by Ndure.

Powell, the 2007 World Championships bronze medallist and former World 100m record holder, has not been at his very best recently as he overcomes the effects of an ankle injury, however his 10.07 second place in Eugene on 7 June might be an indication of better things to come.

Also in the Oslo field are Daniel Bailey of Antigua, who has set a personal best of 9.99 this season in Belem (24 May). Bailey of course has most to lose on 3 July because as the winner of the opening ÅF Golden League meeting in Berlin on 14 June he has another victory and the $1 Million Jackpot on his mind.

Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles, who was fourth in the Beijing Olympic final, is another to watch-out for having dashed to a 9.97sec victory in Hengelo. Then there is the current world season leader Michael Rodgers of the USA to consider. Rodgers recorded 9.94 when he won at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene ahead of Powell.

Just gaining a start in the Bislett men’s 100m will be a task in itself, and with athletes of the stature of French record holder Ronald Pognon, Britain’s U23 European champion Simeon Williamson, second in Berlin on the 14 June, and Trinidad’s Olympic 100m finalist Mark Burns, third in Berlin, also set to be in the mix come 3 July its going to be a 100m dash to remember.

Chris Turner for the IAAF