News27 Feb 2003


Gebrselassie, Kipketer, Edwards and Szabo head list of athletes for Jackson's farewell to continental Europe in Karlsruhe

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Colin Jackson (GBR) (© Getty Images)

The LBBW Meeting in Karlsruhe will mark the final competition for hurdler Colin Jackson in continental Europe, and a wide array of stars from the world of athletics will be on hand to say "adieu" to the indoor and outdoor World record holder on Friday night (28 Feb).

Jackson broke into the international scene with a silver medal in the 1985 European Junior Championships and made his first claim to future stardom a year later with the same finish in the Commonwealth Games. 

Now, in his nineteenth season of global athletics, the Cardiff native has no intention of going out with a whimper, as his retirement becomes complete at next month's World Indoor Championships. 

With a 7.51 best this year, Jackson's thirty-six years seem in stark contradiction to his still-youthful appearance.  And the presence of Olympic champion Anier García of Cuba - who only started his indoor season last weekend with a 7.50 performance - will likely extract yet another fine performance from Jackson.

Others in Friday night's field include García's countryman, Yoel Hernández, plus Jackson's training partner, Elmar Lichtenegger of Austria, who was the silver medallist in last winter's European Indoor Championships. A pair of present and past German champions--Mike Fenner and Falk Balzer--are also part of the mix. 

Accompanying Jackson to Karlsruhe is another British athlete of the same age, and one who is still performing at the top level. Olympic champion Jonathan Edwards is coming off a 17.44 Triple Jump in Birmingham last weekend - the third-best of his indoor career - and will be challenged by Cubans Alexander Martínez and Yoelbi Quesada, the Athens World Champion.  Former World Junior champion Marian Opera of Romania is also in the field. 

Haile Gebrselassie will return to the indoor boards just one week after his demolition of the world-best time in the men's Two Miles in Birmingham. On this occasion, his assignment in the 3000 metres will be only about one lap shorter, as the Ethiopian eyes the current World record of Daniel Komen (7:24.90), set five years ago.

The two-time Olympic champion doesn't run this event too often indoors, but when he does, the times are consistently fast.  Of his seven previous 3K appearances, all fall within the top nine performances of all-time, and his most recent World record in the event came on the oval of the Karlsruhe Europahalle, just twelve days before Komen snatched it away in 1998.

 
Accompanying Gebrselassie in the fifteen-lap race will be a pair of Moroccans, African 5K bronze medallist Mohammed Amine and African 10K fourth-placer Abderrahim Goumri. French steeplechasers Vincent Le Dauphin and Gaël Pencréach will also compete. 

After an uncharacteristically slow start to this indoor season, World record holder Wilson Kipketer will attempt to chalk up his first win of the campaign. The Dane was out of sorts in the Stuttgart 1000 metres in early February, as he had just recovered from a short illness, but his return to the track in Stockholm last week was greeted by an ambush from Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy in the 800m. Rare are the times when Wilson is 0-2. 

The 800m field in Karlsruhe will not be one Kipketer can take lightly, and includes Edmonton silver medallist Wilfried Bungei of Kenya and his countryman, Joseph Mutua, the Commonwealth silver medallist.  Hezekiel Sepeng of South Africa - who came within 0.02 of defeating Kipketer in the Seville World Championships - will be running, as will Sydney Olympic champion Nils Schumann of Germany.

With the World Indoor Championships only two weeks away, Gabriela Szabo of Romania is using this opportunity to test her condition after a long training camp. The three-time World Champion will be running the 1500 metres, with her main competition coming from another Romanian, Maria Cioncan, plus Hungary's Judit Varga, who finished fourth at last year's European Championships.

The women's 800 metres features indoor World Record holder Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia, who won both European titles last year. She will be joined by Diane Cummins of Canada, the Commonwealth silver medallist, and Belgium's Sandra Stals, who was sixth in the European indoor last year.

The women's Triple Jump field is led by the year's number two and three performers, Yamilé Aldama of Cuba and Françoise Mbango of Cameroun.  Mbango was a busy performer last year, taking the silver medal at the Commonweath games prior to winning the African Long Jump and Triple Jump, plus the World Cup Triple Jump. 

Although he doesn't turn thirty-six until October, sprinter Frankie Fredericks has been granted special entry into the "Old Boys' Club" in Karlsruhe, and will attempt to better the world-best time of 32.19 in the 300 metres, which was set by Robson da Silva of Brazil on the same track in 1989. Giving Fredericks a push will be Asian 200m champion Gennadiy Chernovol of Kazakhstan. 

The men's 1500 metres will be an interesting clash between European champion Mehdi Baala of France and World Junior Record holder Cornelius Chirchir of Kenya. Ukrainian Ivan Geshko also merits consideration. The 23-year-old has shown an impressive closing kick in all of his races indoors this season. 

 
Savatheda Fynes of the Bahamas, the Commonwealth bronze medallist in the 100m last year, heads the women's 60 metres list, along with Juliet Campbell of Jamaica, the Commonwealth 200m runner-up, and Russia's Marina Kislova, the European indoor 60m silver winner. 

The top two medal winners in the women's sprint Hurdles from the Commonwealth Games will square off in that event. Titlist Lacena Golding-Clarke and silver medallist Vonette Dixon, both of Jamaica, will be joined by Russia's Svetlana Laukhova. 

The men's Pole Vault will reunite the three medal winners from last year's European Championships. For the Munich gold medallist, Alex Averbukh of Israel, it will be a season debut. But he was a late starter last summer as well, and he came away with one of the year's biggest prizes.

Putting pressure on Averbukh will be the Munich bronze winner, Germany's Tim Lobinger, who has been the season's hottest jumper and leads the season with 5.82. 

With a year best of 5.72, Lars Börgeling, the silver medallist last summer, will be looking to reverse some ill fortunes in the German championships last weekend, while Holland's Rens Blom who has jumped consistently during February, has a fresh PB of 5.72 and could be a factor.

Also part of the very large, strong field are Birmingham-bound Michael Stolle - second in the German championships with 5.75 - and yet another German, Björn Otto, also with the year's apparent benchmark of 5.72. 

James Beckford of Jamaica heads the list of entrants in the Long Jump, which also includes African champion Younès Moudrik of Morocco, Sydney finalist Luiz Melíz of Cuba, Russia's Ruslan Gataullin (younger brother of pole vaulter Rodion), and the newest member of the indoor eight-metres club, German indoor champion Schahriar Bigdeli. 

Ed Gordon for the IAAF

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