Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) after winning Sydney Olympic 10,000m (© Getty Images)
Stuttgart, GermanyThree current indoor World-record holders are among the featured athletes for this Sunday's 17th Sparkassen Cup meeting - 2 February 2003.
The three all have obtained records in past meetings on the fast oval at Stuttgart's Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, and they'll each be back running in those same record events.
After bypassing last year's indoor season to prepare for his initial marathon race last April, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia will return to the boards in the 3000 metres, the event in which he was an indoor debutant seven years ago in Stuttgart with a 7:30.72 time. That memorable performance lowered the existing record by more than four seconds, and has been bettered only four times since, twice by Geb himself.
Among those keeping Haile company over the fifteen laps on Sunday will be Stuttgart's local hero, two-time Olympic medallist Dieter Baumann, as well as a trio of Geb's countrymen--Sydney 5000m champion Million Wolde, Hailu Mekonnen, and Abioyote Abate.
Like Gebrselasse, Denmark's Wilson Kipketer was absent from the 2002 indoor season, but after a splendid summer last year, highlighted by his first-ever win at the European Championships in the 800 metres, he can be expected to produce a fast time in the 1000 metres.
Kipketer thrilled the spectators on his last visit to Stuttgart by eking out a 2:15.25 World record in the kilometre distance by a narrow 0.01 margin, eliminating the eight-year-old mark by Noureddine Morceli. Sunday, he will be pushed by William Yiampoy of Kenya, and Botswana's Glody Dube.
Last year's headliner, Berhane Adere, will be back again in the 3000 metres. The Ethiopian's appearance at the 2002 Sparkassen Cup marked her initial career outing under the roof. But despite her total inexperience with the banked board track, she showed all of the poise of a veteran, methodically clicking off the laps en-route to a deceptively easy 8:29.15 World record. Until then, the event standard had been the 8:33.82 by Holland's Elly van Hulst, set almost 13 years earlier at the 1989 World Indoor Championships in Budapest.
Giving Adere strong competition will be last year's Grand Prix Final winner in the 1500 metres, Yelena Zadorozhnaya of Russia, and Moroccan Zhor El Kamch.
After eleven months away from the track, Austria's Stephanie Graf will begin a "new life" (her words) in Stuttgart with an 800-metre race. In winning the silver medal in last year's European Championships, Graf was shocked in front of a home crowd in Vienna, when Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak won the race, breaking a 14-year-old World record in the process.
Now, after a dormant outdoor season made necessary by a leg operation, Graf has just returned from a successful training camp in the Canary Islands. A speedy 600-metre time trial on Thursday of this week in Vienna would seemingly predict a classy time on Sunday.
At last count, there were thirteen entrants in the women's High Jump, which should keep the capacity crowd in place long after the running events have ceased. Of special interest is the appearance of the previously unheralded Anna Chicherova of Russia, who suddenly and surprisingly moved to the top of this season's list with a 2.04 jump in early January.
The 20-year-old will have to show much of that early-season form to fend off four other members of the "two-metre club", including European Champion (and world indoor champion) Kajsa Bergqvist of Sweden and reigning European indoor champion Marina Kuptsova of Russia.
With ten competitors entered at 4.40 or higher, the women's Pole Vault might rival the High Jump for elapsed time. It certainly has the same high quality standard, contributing to which are Germany's Annika Becker (already over 4.60 this season), European bronze medallist Yvonne Buschbaum, Edmonton bronze medallist Monika Pyrek of Poland, and rapidly-improving Tatyana Polnova of Russia (4.50 two weeks ago).
Sydney champion Nils Schumann of Germany will draw the most attention from the fans in the 800 metres, but he will have his hands full in battling the Kenyan trio of Wilfred Bungei, Joseph Mutua, and Nicholas Wachira.
The top long jumper from last year's outdoor season, Savanté Stringfellow of the US, will lead the field in that event. Other top jumpers on the start list include Dwight Phillips of the US, Luis Méliz of Cuba, and former European indoor champion Petar Dachev of Bulgaria. Sydney fifth-placer Kofi Amoah Prah of Germany is also scheduled to participate, but after a year's absence due to injury, he may have aggravated the old problem in a competition last weekend in Berlin.
A potentially strong field in the women's 400 metres includes former European Champion Grit Breuer of Germany, reigning European indoor champion Natalya Antyukh of Russia, and two-time (and current) World indoor champion Sandie Richards of Jamaica.
Ed Gordon for the IAAF
