Yelena Isinbayeva acknowledges the crowd in Shanghai, 20 Sep 2008 (© Getty Images)
The Colorful Daegu PreChampionships meeting, the fourth annual international meeting in Daegu, Korea, takes place tomorrow Thursday 25 September.
There is another strong line-up at the 66,000 capacity Daegu Stadium, which will be the venue for the IAAF World Championships, Daegu 2011. A total of 132 athletes of which 91 are from abroad have entered for this year’s meeting which in its previous editions is probably best remembered for the 19.65sec PB 200m performance by Wallace Spearmon (USA) in 2006. This time still makes Spearmon the fifth fastest runner of all-time at the distance.
Isinbayeva - Win streak now into double figures
The most decorated athlete competing is Russian world record holder and multiple global champion Yelena Isinbayeva who comes to Korea from in Shanghai, China last weekend where she won her tenth straight Pole Vault competition. The 26-year-old has a combined total of 24 World records indoors (10) and outdoors (14) and has cleared 4.70m in 61 competitions during career. Her 5.05m World record and Olympic winning result was the fourth World record during this season, 1 indoors and 3 outdoors.
Another Russian favourite in Daegu is 32-year-old Tatyana Lebedeva, who took two silvers from the Beijing Olympics. The 2004 Olympic and 2007 World Long Jump champion reached her season bests in both Long Jump (7.03m) and Triple Jump (15.32m) in Beijing, but somehow the gold medal narrowly eluded her in both events. Lebedeva, who has also twice been World outdoor champion (2001 / 2003) at the Triple Jump, competes in Long Jump in this meeting.
Another top name here is Funmi Jimoh (USA) who has jumped 6.91m this season and competed in the final of the Olympic Games.
Bungei in top form and back to winning ways
On the men’s side, 800m Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei (KEN) is the top name of this meet. The 28-year-old Kenyan is in good form and set a season’s best 1:44.63 last weekend in Shanghai which ended a run of four straight defeats since he took the Olympic title in Beijing on 23 August. The Kenyan is challenged by Mohammed Al-Salhi (KSA), who was sixth in the Beijing Olympics.
Competing in the 100m is Michael Frater, who was part of the world record breaking (37.10s) Jamaican team in the 4x100m relay in Beijing. Frater also competed in the individual 100m and set a personal best 9.97s for sixth place there. The Jamaican recently won in Shanghai with a fast 10.05s time and was 3rd at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart. Frater is accompanied by 25-year-old American Rodney Martin, who ran in the unlucky US 4x100m team in Beijing and has set 9.95s personal best this season.
In other men’s events, 2005 World champion Bershawn Jackson (USA), the bronze medallist from Beijing is challenged by Danny McFarlane (JAM), who was fourth at the Olympics behind the American. Another Olympic bronze medallist Leevan Sands (BAH) heads the triple jump field and Tero Järvenpää (FIN),fourth in Beijing is the top name in the Javelin Throw.
Americans Ryan Wilson and Joel Brown are two expected to contest the win in the 110m Hurdles, while Silas Kipruto (KEN) and James Kwalia (QAT), 8th in Beijing, fighting for the 5000m win.
Return to record territory
Back to the women’s division and other top names include 20-year-old Kenyan Ruth Bisibori Nyangau, who improved her World Junior 3000m steeplechase record when winning here last season in 9:24.51. This year Bisibori, now 20-years-old, has set a personal best 9:17.35, the time with which she achieved sixth place at the Olympics. Romanian Cristina Casandra, fifth in Beijing with a national record 9:16.85 will challenge the young Kenyan.
Brigitte Foster-Hylton (JAM) is the top 100m hurdler in this meet, while Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (BAH) competing in the 200m. American Olympic finalists Lauryn Williams (4th) and Torri Edwards (8th) will probably decide the 100m win. Williams is the 2005 World Champion and Edwards is a joint world leader this season with 10.78sec time she ran at the US Olympic Trials in June.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
