World-class track and field returns to Shanghai Stadium for the fourth annual IAAF Shanghai Golden Grand Prix this Saturday (20) evening. The field features sixteen medallists from the 2008 Olympics, including seven gold medallists, and a total of seventeen medallists from last weekend's World Athletics Final held in Stuttgart.

This fourth edition of the Shanghai meeting has been designated as the start of the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Tour, a qualifying event for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final 2009, with athletes competing at the meet able to get a head start on qualifying for next year’s final, to be held 12 - 13 September 2009, in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The event was first held in 2005 as part of the season-ending single-day Asian meets held after the World Athletics Final. In the last four years the meet has enjoyed solid popularity as the sport's profile continues to grow in the world's most populous country, particularly in the wake of the Beijing Olympics. This year's event takes place in the afterglow of the successful athletics competition at the Bird's Nest last month; but for the first time in its four outings, it also takes place without China's top athletics star, 110m hurdler Liu Xiang. Liu, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist and 2007 World champion, pulled out of the Olympic competition with an Achilles tendon injury and is expected to be recovering from that injury well into next year.

Originally the hurdles event was to have featured Olympic champion and world record holder Dayron Robles, but he withdrew from the meet with a foot injury. Olympic bronze medallist David Oliver is the new headliner for the race, an appropriate position for him as the newly crowned World Athletics Final champion.

The weather is sure to be a factor as warm, rainy conditions are forecast for the weekend in Shanghai. As of Friday morning European time, the weather forecast called for temperatures topping out at 29 degrees Celsius (a vast improvement over the World Athletics Final, where competition-time temperatures bottomed out around 11 degrees), but with an 80% chance of rain during the day.

As always at this event, the top performers will be joined by a solid entry of up-and-coming Chinese athletes sure to be crowd favorites as they were at the Beijing Olympics. That includes men's 100m performer Hu Kai, who made the quarterfinals at the Olympics and wears his trademark glasses while competing, a style reminiscent of absent hurdler Robles.

Following are event-by-event previews based on entry lists provided by the meet organizers as of Thursday evening Shanghai time:

MEN -

100m – Despite the absence of Jamaica's top runners (Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell), the Island nation that took the world by storm in Beijing still has the headliners, with Nesta Carter and Michael Frater challenging Ronald Pognon of France and the United States' Travis Padgett. Carter and Frater went 2-3 in the World Athletics Final last weekend.

110m Hurdles – David Oliver is the headliner (see above); compatriot Ryan Wilson (3rd in Stuttgart) is also entered.

200m – Christian Malcolm, fifth in the Olympic final that saw a World record by Usain Bolt, takes on Jamaican Christopher Williams, who placed fourth in Stuttgart. American Rodney Martin has the top 2008 performance in this field (19.99) but did not make the ultra-competitive American Olympic squad, finishing fifth in the Olympic Trials in July.

400m – A handful of 400m hurdlers cross over to this event, led by Olympic intermediate hurdles champion Angelo Taylor. Taylor also placed fourth at the 400-meter distance at the World Athletics Final. He faces the Olympic 400m Hurdles bronze medallist, American Bershawn Jackson, and Gary Kikaya of the Democratic Republic of Congo (6th at 400m at the WAF).

800m – Olympic gold medallist Wilfred Bungei of Kenya is the class of this field, which also includes sub-1:44 performers Pavel Czapiewski of Poland and Mohamed Al-Salhi of Saudi Arabia. Up-and-comer Geoffrey Rono of Kenya (4th at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Beijing) is also entered.

5000m – Sileshi Sihine, the Olympic silver medallist at 10,000m, is the headliner. Other Olympians in the field include James Kwalia, Kenyan-born but now representing Qatar (8th in Beijing), Kenyan Thomas Longosiwa (12th in Beijing), and Uganda's Boniface Kiprop (10th in the 10,000-meter race in Beijing).

High Jump – Poland's Michal Bieniek has the top career mark in this field (2.36m) but had a terrible Olympics, placing 24th in qualifying. He made up for it with a post-Olympics 2.35m mark in Zamosc and a win on Thursday at the Pedro's Cup meet in Szczecin. The top Olympic performer in this field is Jesse de Lima of Brazil, who tied for 10th place in Beijing. American Jesse Williams and Linus Thornblad of Sweden (third and fifth in Stuttgart, respectively) are among the top challengers.

Long Jump – Walter Davis, the 2005 World champion and 2007 World bronze medallist in the Triple Jump, headlines this field, which also includes 2008 World Athletics Final champion Fabrice Lapierre of Australia and Spain's Luis Felipe Meliz, seventh in Stuttgart.

Shot Put – One of the marquee events at this meeting, the Shot Put features three of the top four performers from Beijing: Olympic silver medallist Christian Cantwell of the United States, gold medallist Tomasz Majewski of Poland, and fourth-place finisher Dylan Armstrong of Canada. Majewski took first place in Stuttgart; the USA's Dan Taylor, also entered here, came third last weekend.

WOMEN -

100m – Four of the participants in the Olympic final will square off in this event. Americans Lauryn Williams and Torri Edwards (4th and 8th in the Beijing final, respectively) face Jeanette Kwakye of Great Britain (6th in Beijing) and the Bahamas' Debbie Ferguson (8th).

100m hurdles – Beijing Olympic gold medallist Dawn Harper of the United States headlines this field, which also includes Olympic heptathlon silver medallist Hyleas Fountain. Olympic finalists Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica (6th) and Sarah Claxton of Great Britain (8th) are also entered, along with the United States' Nicole Denby, whose personal and season-best mark of 12.54 places her firmly in the mix.

1500m – Olympic silver medallist Iryna Lishynska (third in Stuttgart) and Ethiopia's Gelete Burka (second in Stuttgart) are the headliners. Burka's countrywoman Meselech Melkamu, also entered here, opted for the 5000m race both in Beijing and in Stuttgart, placing 8th at the Olympics and third at the World Athletics Final.

400m – Olympic gold and silver medallists Christine Ohuruogu of Great Britain and Shericka Williams of Jamaica face off in a rematch of the Beijing final. They'll be joined by fellow Olympic finalists Tatyana Firova of Russia (6th) and Rosemarie Whyte of Jamaica (7th). Heptathlete Kelly Sotherton of Great Britain, fourth in that event in Beijing, is also entered.

400m Hurdles – Five of the eight Olympic finalists are entered here. Beijing silver medallist Sheena Tosta of the United States and bronze medallist Tasha Danvers of Great Britain will be joined by Olympic fourth-place finisher Anastasiya Rabchenyuk of Ukraine (second last weekend in Stuttgart), fifth-place Anna Jesien of Poland, and eighth-place Tiffany Ross-Williams (third in Stuttgart).

Pole Vault – Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva set yet another World record in the Beijing final (5.05m) and looks to improve on that mark in Shanghai. Vaulting for second place will be an up-and-coming field that includes Olympic 6th-place finisher Caroline Hingst of Germany and Asian record holder Gao Shuying of China. Veteran Stacy Dragila, still competing internationally eight years after winning the first women's Olympic pole vault competition in Sydney, is also entered.

Triple Jump – Another Olympic 1-2 rematch is in store as Beijing gold medallist Francoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon faces off against silver medallist Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia. Lebedeva placed second last weekend at the World Athletics Final behind her countrywoman Anna Pyatykh, who is also entered in Shanghai.

Mary Nicole Nazzaro for the IAAF