Rieti, Italy - The return of Asafa Powell to the track where he ran his 9.74 secs World record last year and a World record attempt in the women’s 5000m by Ethiopian long distance running star Tirunesh Dibaba will be in the spotlight at the 38th edition of the Rieti IAAF Grand Prix meeting scheduled for Sunday 7 September, one of the two Italian legs of the IAAF World Athletics Tour.

Powell will return to Rieti one year after his 9.74 world record which made the central Italian town and its spectacular meeting famous all around the world. During an eventful 2008 for world sprinting Powell lost this 100m World record to his compatriot Usain Bolt who ran 9.72 in New York and later 9.69 to win the Olympic final in Beijing, but Powell’s achievement will remain for a long time in the memory of those who attended the Rieti meeting last year. Not surprisingly Powell is the “poster boy” of this year’s meeting.

Powell made up for the disappointment at last year’s World Championships where he finished third by storming to the record in the heats before winning the final in 9.78, shutting down in both races..

This year Powell finished a disappointed fifth in 9.95 in the Olympic final but bounced back with an impressive anchor leg in the 4x100 relay which contributed to the Jamaican victory in a New world record of 37.10.

Powell’s season has been plagued by a chest injury during the spring but he had a solid campaign in the IAAF World Athletics Tour. In a busy post-Oympic week, Powell won in Gateshead in torrential rain and two days later improved to a spectacular 9.72 in Lausanne improving his PB by 0.02 seconds, the second fastest time in history. Powell arrives in Rieti just two days after the fabulous 100m clash against Bolt in Brussels where he finished second in 9.83 to Bolt’s 9.77 into a 1.3 m/s headwind on a cool evening.

Powell’s training partners Michael Frater and Nesta Carter will be the other top names in the men’s 100 metres. Both Frater (sixth in Beijing with 9.97) and Carter (9.98), who contributed to the 4x100 World record for Jamaica in Beijing and dipped under the 10-seconds barrier this season, are looking to improve their PBs on Powell’s wake.

Fraser, Simpson and Stewart reunite as well

The Jamaican trio who went to the podium in Beijing led by gold medallist Shelly Ann Fraser and joint silver medals Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart will line up in the women’s 100m. In the post-Olympic meetings Fraser, who won in Beijing in the fastest time in the world with 10.78, backed up his Beijing triumph with another win in Lausanne in 11.03 beating Stewart.

Stewart (also Olympic bronze in the 200m) and Simpson will double in Rieti running the 200m against 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams and double sprint finalist Debbie Ferguson McKenzie from the Bahamas.

As Beijing double follow-up, another assault on 5000m WR by Dibaba

Rieti has been well-known for the World records in middle and long distance races set on the track of the Raul Guidobaldi Stadium during the past 37 editions.

This year the women’s 5000m will be staged for the first time in the history of the Rieti meeting. In Beijing, Ethiopian distance running legend Tirunesh Dibaba became the first woman in Olympic history to win gold at both 5000 and 10,000m, repeating the feat achieved by her counterpart Kenenisa Bekele. Dibaba, who also won the World Cross Country title in Edinburgh in March and ran the second fastest time in history in the 10,000 metres running 29:54.66 in Beijing, will attack her own World record set in June at the Bislett Games in Oslo where she ran 14:11.15.

Tirunesh will not be the only member of the successful Dibaba family to run in the 5000m in Rieti. Older sister Eyegayehu, world bronze medallist in the 10,000 metres in Helsinki 2005, and 17-year-old Genzebe, world junior cross country champion in Edinburgh and world junior silver medallist in the 5000m in Bydszgosz this year, will line up in Rieti.

Bungei, Jamal and Kiprop headline the middle distances

Rieti has always produced some of the best men’s 800 metres races in the recent history of middle distance running. The Rieti meeting has attracted fresh Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei who knows the track the Raul Guidobaldi Stadium very well after setting his PB of 1:42.34 (the fifth fastest time in history) in 2002, and 2007 World champion Alfred Kirwa Yego who also set his lifetime best in Rieti running 1:43.89.

Bahrain’s Maryam Yussuf Jamal bounced back from her fifth place in the women’s 1500m final with a 1:57.80 in the 800m in Zürich followed by a solid win in her favourite 1500m race in 3.59.86 in Lausanne. Jamal returns to the Rieti track where she set the Asian record of 3:56.18 in 2006. On Sunday afternoon Jamal will run against fresh Olympic champion Nancy Lagat and 800 metres World champion and Olympic silver medallist Janeth Jepkosgei, Olympic silver winner Iryna Lishinska from the Ukraine, Olympic fourth placer Lisa Dobriskey from Great Britain and Paris Golden League second placer Shannon Rowbury from the USA.

Kenyan junior middle distance rising star Asbel Kiprop, Olympic silver medallist in Beijing at 19, is the top name of a high-quality men’s 1500m. Kiprop showed that he could be a factor in the 800m in the years to come following his win in Lausanne last week in a new 1:44.71 PB.

World indoor champion Tariku Bekele from Ethiopia and 5000m Olympic bronze medallist Edwin Soi from Kenya (3000/5000m winner at last year’s World Athletics Final), will pursue a very fast 3000m race which has always produced great performances on the Rieti track.  

New national records may fall in a fast women’s 3000m Steeplechase which features Marta Dominguez from Spain, Area record holder Donna McFarlane from Australia, World junior record holder Ruth Bisibori from Kenya and Olympic finalist Zehmed Ahmed from Ethiopia.

Mbango v Lebedeva in the Triple Jump

The women’s Triple Jump features the gold and the silver medallists from the Olympic Games. Francoise Mbango from Cameroon, who won her second consecutive Olympic Triple Jump gold in Beijing leaping to 15.39m, the second best performance in history, will face again Olympic silver and bronze medallist Tatyana Lebedeva from Russia. Slovenia’s Marja Sestak, sixth in Beijing with a new national record of 15.03m, Anna Pyathykh, 2005 World championships bronze medallist and eighth in Beijing, and Oksana Udmurtova, who beat Lebedeva in Padua last week, will also be in the Rieti line-up which is expected to provide another memorable 15m clash.

Local hero Andrew Howe, reigning European outdoor and indoor champion and world silver medallist, suffered from a series of injuries which ruined his build-up to Beijing where he did not get through the qualifying round. In front of his fans on the home track Howe, who recently finished second with an encouraging 8.06m in Zürich, will be looking to make up for his Beijing disappointment with a confidence-boosting result.

Melaine Walker, the second Jamaican in history to win the Olympic 400m Hurdles gold when she clocked a new Olympic record of 52.64, is expected to continue her successful campaign facing Olympic bronze Tasha Danvers from Great Britain.

The men’s 400m is set to be a European battle between Olympic finalists Martyn Rooney from Great Britain and Johann Wissman from Sweden. 

Last year’s world bronze medallist Marek Plawgo from Poland and 2008 Olympic fourth placer Danny McFarlane from Jamaica are the top names in the men’s 400m Hurdles. 

The women’s High Jump should be a clash between Russia and the Ukraine with former Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko and this year’s World indoor bronze medallist Vita Palamar.

The women’s Hammer Throw will be staged for the first time in Rieti. The top two from the Beijing Olympic Games Aksana Miankova from Belarus (gold) and Yipsi Moreno from Cuba (silver) plus fourth placer Darya Pchelnik from Belarus and Clarissa Claretti from Italy, seventh in Osaka and Beijing, will offer a spectacular battle well over the 70m barrier.

Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF