Liège Meeting has impressive lineup in its debut edition

Ed Gordon for the IAAF – Liege, Belgium - Maria Mutola arrived in Belgium this week for races at two non-standard distances.  On Friday, the Olympic 800-metres champion will compete in the 1000 metres at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels, but before that, on Tuesday evening, she will visit the Wallonian city of Liège to take aim on the world-best time in the 600 metres. 

The mark she will be attempting to surpass is the 1:22.63 run by Cuba’s Ana Fidelia Quirot in a competition in Guadalajara, México, in 1997.  Pacing the race will be Belgian 400-hurdler Ann Mercken, as her countrywoman Sandra Stals will join Letitia Vriesde of Surinam and Russia’s Natalya Dziadkova as the other top runners in the event. 

The site for the record attempt will be the stadium in Naimette-Xhovémont, a suburb of Liège.  The sportsgrounds have recently undergone an extensive renovation costing six million Euro, and the province of Liège was eager to show off the upgraded facility by hosting a world-class competition.  With a full week of major meeting inactivity between the London and Brussels fixtures, the site and date worked out quite well.

Mutola pronounced the new track conducive to fast times.  She was particularly enthusiastic about the wide curves of the facility. 

An attack on the men’s world-best in the 600 is also on the programme.  This year’s world leader in the 800 metres, Joseph Mutua of Kenya, will join another Kenyan, former Commonwealth and African champion Japheth Kimutai, in an attempt to better the 1:12.81 run by American Johnny Gray in Santa Monica in 1986. 

With numerous meetings collapsing for financial reasons in the recent years, it is encouraging to see competitions such as the “Meeting International d’Athlétisme de la Province de Liège” enter the schedule and with such a strong list of competitors in its initial outing.

Colin Jackson will make what is most likely his final outdoor appearance in Belgium in the 110 hurdles. 

The women’s event also features top performers, such as current world indoor champion Anjanette Kirkland of the US, plus the top two Commonwealth finishers, Lacena Golding-Clarke and Vonette Dixon, both of Jamaica.  Edmonton finalist Jenny Adams of the US and recently-crowned African champion Rosa Rakotozafy of Madagascar are also in the field. 

The men’s 100 metres spotlights four American runners who have dipped under ten seconds this season—Bernard Williams, Brian Lewis, Shawn Crawford, and Coby Miller. 

The men’s pole vault also has a deep field, including European Indoor champion Tim Lobinger of Germany, World Indoor champion Lawrence Johnson and Tim Mack of the US, Munich finalists Štěpán Janáček and Adam Ptáček of the Czech Republic, and Sydney fifth-placer Viktor Chistiakov of Australia. 

An rarely-contested 300-metre race will feature two Sydney medallists, Angelo Taylor of the US (gold in the 400H) and Hadi Al-Somaily of Saudi Arabia (silver in the 400), plus Munich 400 finalist Cédric Van Branteghem of Belgium, and American 400H Olympian Eric Thomas.

The men’s triple jump winner in London last Friday, Walter Davis of the US, will join Aleksandr Glavatskiy of Belarus in testing the new jump runways at Naimette-Xhouémont. 

Kenyans Robert Rono, Henry Rotich, and Isaac Songok lead the field in the men’s mile, which also includes Sydney fifth-placer Kevin Sullivan of Canada. 

New African women’s 100-metre champion Endurance Ojokolo of Nigeria will be running her speciality, and double African titlist (200 and 400) Kaltouma Nadjina of Chad leads the list in the women’s 200. 

The compact evening programme of just over two hours will be preceded by an afternoon slate of events for young athletes.  Between the two sessions, three-time World Champion hurdler Gail Devers will offer a clinic in her speciality for budding Belgians . . . and anyone else who is interested.