Usain Bolt powers around an extremely wet bend in Lausanne, Athletissima 2009 (© Olivier Allenspach)
World Athlete of the Year Usain Bolt, and another four IAAF Diamond League Ambassadors have been announced by the organisers of Athletissima for the meeting which will take place in Lausanne’s Pontaise stadium on 8 July.
The 35th edition of Athletissima, which is the seventh stop in the 14 meeting IAAF Diamond League series in 2010, will take place on a Thursday and not on a Tuesday, as in the past.
Bolt, the triple World and Olympic champion and triple World record holder (100-200-4x100) will again run the bend in Lausanne. After dominating the 200m last year when clocking an incredible 19.59 sec in the pouring rain, a performance which, for many specialists, equalled the stature of his World record run in Beijing, the Jamaican star will for sure stage a great performance again over 200m at this year’s meeting.
Elsewhere on the splendid entry list, Australia’s World and Olympic champion Steven Hooker will again display his talents in the Pole Vault, against the other two Berlin medallists, Romain Mesnil and Renaud Lavillenie of France.
Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica, the Olympic and World 100m champion, will face World silver medallist Kerron Stewart in the women’s dash.
In the men’s Javelin Throw, the classic dual between Norway’s 2009 World and double Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen and the 2007 World champion Tero Pitkämäki will continue. The Finnish thrower currently leads against the Norwegian by 26 victories to 23 in their career head to head statistics.
Aside these five IAAF Diamond League Ambassadors, there will many other star names including Cuba’s Dayron Robles, the Olympic champion and World record holder in the 110m Hurdles, who was the winner at the Pontaise stadium last year. Other global title holders competing are South Africa’s World 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, and Maryam Jamal of Bahrain, the double World 1500m champion, who resides in Lausanne.
The budget for the meeting has increased to nearly 4 Million USD. The prize money (over 500,000 USD) has increased as well. There will be 18 events, of which 15 are part of the IAAF Diamond League. In those events, the presence of the current world best’s athletes is guaranteed.
IAAF Diamond League
