San Juan, Puerto Rico - World Indoor 60m champion Angela Williams and 2008 Olympic 110m silver medallist David Payne lead the strong field for the 3rd Ponce Grand Prix, to be held in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on 16 May.

Both USA athletes will be defending their meet victories from 2008, as will Antigua and Barbuda’s Brendan Christian, who took the sprint double a year ago.
 
The Ponce Grand Prix is also one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on 12-13 September in Thessaloniki, Greece.
 
Meeting director Victor Lopez announced a list of 18 former and current Olympic and world championships medallists, who will take part in 17 events.
 
Williams set a meet record last year in the 100m with 11.32 secs, and for the 2009 edition, the 29-year old is expected to meet Laverne Jones-Ferrette of the US Virgin Islands and her fellow countrywoman Ebonie Floyd-Broadnax, who followed her in the 2008 final, as well as the Bahamas’ multiple Olympic and world medallist Chandra Sturrup, and USA’s 2005 World Long Jump champion Tianna Madison, who will also do her specialist field event.
 
Payne, who was also the 2007 World championships 110m Hurdles bronze medallist, made his 2008 outdoor debut in Ponce, five months before clinching the Olympic silver in Beijing.
 
Christian is also in the headlines after his double victory in Ponce, where he ran 10.11 and 20.21 in 2008. In the 100m, the 25-year old will face 2003 World champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts & Nevis, the Netherlands Antilles’ Churandy Martina, who finished fourth at 100m in the Beijing Olympics, and Britain’s 2009 European Indoor champion Dwain Chambers.
 
Three USA sub-10 men, Coby Miller, Mark Jelks and 2006 World indoor champion Leonard Scott will also be in the battle.
 
In the 200m Christian the 2007 Pan American Games champion over that distance will meet Miller and Scott, as well as Canada’s 2006 world junior silver medallist Brian Barnett.
 
Other top names confirmed for the Puerto Rican meet are Jamaica’s 2004 Olympic 400m hurdles runner-up Danny McFarlane, the Bahamas’ 4x400m World and Olympic medallists Andrae Williams and Michael Mathieu, as well as 2003 World Indoor Long Jump bronze medallist Miguel Pate. Australia’s Fabrice Lapierre, who leads the 2009 world lists with 8.29, also features in the latter event.
 
Athletes from 20 countries from the Americas, Africa and Australia will contest 17 events.
 
Men and women will take part in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, the sprint and the 400m hurdles, the Long Jump. Men will also run both 4x100m and 4x400m relays and women only the former.
 
Local athletes will also contest the relays and the men’s Pole Vault.
 
Following the successful organization of the Iberoamerican Championships in 2006, Ponce has staged its annual Grand Prix, a NACAC Area Permit meeting, under the guidance of Central American and Caribbean Confederation (CACAC) president and IAAF Coaches Commission chairman Victor Lopez.
 
Puerto Rico’s Sports Minister Henry Neumman confirmed the full support of the Ministry, including the prize money, while Direct TV will broadcast the Grand Prix to over 21 million households in the United States, Central America and the Caribbean.

Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF