in Birmingham
Chris Turner for the IAAF
18 February 2000 – Birmingham - Seven current world champions and six world record holders will gather on Sunday (20 February) at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena for the CGU Indoor Grand Prix, the star studded Final of the prestigious European Ricoh Tour.
Men’s 60m – Ricoh Tour Event
The world's fastest man Maurice Greene lines up against training partner, former world
200m champion Ato Boldon and British sprint sensation world bronze medallist Dwain
Chambers in the most spectacular sprint clash of the winter.
Greene will also face indoor specialists Greg Saddler and Leonard Myles-Mills who head the battle for the Ricoh title after a series of close clashes.
Men’s 60m hurdles – Ricoh
Tour Event
British world champion and record holder Colin Jackson makes his much awaited 2000 debut
as he starts his preparations to win that elusive Olympic title.
Olympic rivals Cuban Anier Garcia and American Tony Dees continue their epic battle for the Ricoh title. Garcia was given the verdict in Gent after both recorded identical times, before going on to win by two hundredths of a second in Lievin.
All three will compete twice with a warm up 50m hurdles preceding the main event.
Men’s long jump
Cuban world champion and undisputed world number one Ivan Pedroso faces rival Jamaican
James Beckford as the world's two finest long jumpers prepare to be inspired by the
intimate atmosphere of the NIA and the unique crowd participation created by the
'showcasing' of their event
Men’s 1000m – Ricoh Tour Event
Kenyan born legend Wilson Kipketer returns to Britain for the first time since 1993. The
three time world champion and 800m world record holder has started the year in fantastic
form and will attempt to break his own indoor world 1000m record – which he set in
Stuttgart earlier this month.
Britain's John Mayock, the reigning European indoor champion and Kenya's Laban Rotich the Commonwealth and African 1500m champion and world indoor silver medallist battle it out for the Ricoh Tour title. Mayock who started the Tour with an excellent victory over 2000m in Gent will hope to draw confidence from an impressive performance as he prepares to defend his European indoor title next weekend.
Men’s 2 miles
Ethiopians Millon Wolde and Haylu Mekkonen seek to follow Haile Gebrselassie's record
breaking example. Wolde, the world indoor bronze medallist heads the world rankings at
3000m whilst Mekkonen, the world junior cross country champion is top of the 1500m lists.
Both are being groomed by Gebrselassie - who has broken world records on his last two
visits to the NIA - to continue his remarkable legacy.
Kenyans Paul Bitok, Olympic 5000m silver medallist, and Moses Kiptanui, three times Steeplechase world champion and former 2 mile outdoor world record holder are also capable of winning the $50,000 bonus for breaking the 27-year-old record.
Men’s high jump – Ricoh Tour Event
Russian world champion and Tour leader Vyacheslav Voronin, heads a world class line up
including Swede Stefan Holm, who only lost to Vyacheslav on countback in Lievin, and
reigning Olympic champion Charles Austin. The event provides British team captain Dalton
Grant (returning from injury) and emerging star Ben Challenger with an excellent
opportunity to test themselves against the world's best.
Women’s 60m – Ricoh Tour Event
American 200m world champion Inger Miller faces a tough challenge in what promises to be a
spectacular race, with a mere seven hundredths of a second separating the top five.
Canadian indoor specialist Philomena Mensah enters the race as Tour leader, ahead of 1997
world 200m champion Ukrainian Zhanna Pintusevich and Sri Lankan former world silver
medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe.
Marcia Richardson, who made a major breakthrough when smashing her personal best to win the AAA indoor title last month, leads the British challenge with Joice Maduaka the British number one over 100m and 200m in 1999.
Women’s 800m – Ricoh Tour Event
Austrian Stephanie Graf, ranked fifth in the world last year, produced one of the biggest
shocks of the indoor season when beating world no1 Maria Mutola in Ghent.
Mutola, who narrowly missed the world record at the NIA last year, gets her chance to gain revenge, as she starts her campaign to win Olympic gold.
Women’s 3000m
Gabriela Szabo, the remarkable Romanian athlete voted 1999 IAAF Female Athlete of the
Year, has vowed to attempt the world indoor 3000m record having eclipsed her own Ricoh
Tour 2000m record by almost five seconds last week in Lievin.
Women’s long jump
Heike Dreschler, the world indoor record holder and former World, Olympic and European
champion, competes in Birmingham as she prepares to produce a fitting finale to her
illustrious long jump career in Sydney.
NB The first six in each of the Ricoh Tour events score points at each meeting, with the top three points scorers across the Tour eligible for a share of the $210,000 Ricoh Tour prize fund as follows: 1st - US$20,000; 2nd - US$10,000; 3rd - US$5,000.
See www.ricohtour.com for more information
