Previews25 Aug 2006


Howe’s homecoming – Rieti, PREVIEW

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Andrew Howe celebrates his Long Jump victory in Gothenburg (© Bongarts)

European champion Andrew Howe will be in the spotlight on what promises to be a great afternoon of IAAF Grand Prix athletics in the central Italian town which hosts the second Italian leg of the IAAF World Athletics Tour on Sunday (27).

Howe won Long Jump title at the European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden on 8 August in difficult weather conditions. The European title crowned a great season for the 21-year-old Los Angeles-born athlete who has lived in Rieti for many years before moving to Vigna di Valle on the Lake Bracciano, near Rome where he enrolled in the Italian military team ‘Aereonautica’.

In a packed Raul Guidobaldi stadium Howe should face 2002 European champion Olexsyi Lukasevich who was the bronze medallist in Gothenburg behind Howe, and Frenchman Salim Sdiri, fifth at the Helsinki World Championships.

Howe won the European Cup in Malaga with 8.29m before improving his PB to 8.41m, just 2 centimetres off 19-year-old Giovanni Evangelisti’s italian record. He showed his consistency when it mattered most at the European Championships in Gothenburg where he sealed victory leaping 8.20 in his second attempt.  He was in Zürich in his first ever IAAF Golden League meeting abroad, producing 8.19m twice.

“The European title has not changed my life and my goals. I know that I can jump further in the next meetings. Rieti is very special. It is the first time I compete in my home town in front of my friends as a senior athlete”, said Howe.

Ramzi, Bungei, Lagat, Songok…

There will certainly be a memorable middle-distance show on Sunday too. Last year the Rieti track produced the 2005 world seasonal bests in the men’s 800m, 1500m and the women’s 1500 metres races courtesy of Wilfried Bungei (1:43.70), Bernard Lagat (3:29.30) and Maryam Yussuf Jamal (3:56.79 in a race where six women dipped under 4 minutes).

This year’s 800 metres race features Bahrain’s World champion Rashid Ramzi, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi from South Africa, winner in Zürich (1:43.38, the second fastest time of the year) and Monaco, who will square off against Wilfried Bungei (SB 1:43.59), this year’s Rome Golden League winner Amine Laalou (PB 1:43.25), this year’s european champion Bram Som (national record holder in Zürich with 1:43.45), William Yiampoy (1:44.13), USA’s Khadevis Robinson (1:43.86), Youssef Saad Kamel (SB 1:43.75) and Alfred Kirwa Yego (1:43.91).

Bernard Lagat will contest the 1500 metres returning to the Rieti track where he improved the long standing US record previously held by Sidney Maree.

Isaac Songok, who notably beat Kenenisa Bekele in the 5000 metres in Oslo and dipped under 12:50 over this distance last week in Zürich for the first time in his career (12:48.66), will face strong opposition in the men’s 3000 metres from Kenenisa’s younger brother Tariku, who won the World Junior title in the 5000 metres in Beijing last week. Joseph Ebuya, world junior champion at 10,000m, third behind Bekele at the 5000m in Beijing and a 12:58.03 performer this year, and Morocco’s Hicham Bellani (12:55.52 in the 5000 metres) will also pursue a fast time on the track where Daniel Komen ran the World record in 1996 with 7:20.67.

Tomashova and Jepkosgei in women’s 1500 and 800

The women’s 800 metres race has assembled many of the best two-lap runners of this summer with world seasonal leader and Commonwealth champion Janet Jepkosgei from Kenya (1:56.66 in Lausanne) the outstanding favourite. European silver medallist Svetlana Klyuka and Svetlana Cherkasova, also from Russia, Ukraine’s Tatyana Petlyuk (fourth in Gothenburg), and 2006 World Indoor silver medallist Kenia Sinclair from Jamaica complete the high-class field. 

Double world and recently crowned European champion Tatyana Tomashova (PB 3:56.91 set in the Gothenburg final) and European silver medallist Yulyia Chizenko (winner in Paris this summer in 3:55.68) should make it a Russian affair in the women’s 1500m but Bahrain’s Maryam Jamal will also be in with a shout.

A very fast race is also expected in the women’s 3000 metres Steeplechase which features world seasonal leader and European bronze medallist Wioletta Janowska (9:17.15 in the Athens Super Grand Prix meeting) and European championships fourth placer Lyubov Ivanova.

Walker on the rise

A fine men’s Pole Vault gathering sees World Indoor champion and recent 6 metres-club vaulter Brad Walker from the USA (winner in Rieti with 5.96 last year and more recently first at last week’s Zürich with 5.85), up against two-time European champion Aleksandr Averbukh from Israel, Aussies Paul Burgess (5.85 in Zürich) and Steve Hooker (Commonwealth champion in Melbourne last March), German Tim Lobinger (European silver medallist in Gothenburg), and the entire 2004 Olympic podium - USA’s Tim Mack, and Toby Stevenson, and Italian Giuseppe Gibilisco, who nis nursing a hamstring injury. 

Bulgaria’s Venelina Veneva, silver medallist in Gothenburg in the women’s High Jump won the high-quality Zürich Golden League contest clearing 2.04m, is looking to continue her progress against Russian Anna Chicherova and World indoor finalist Antonietta Di Martino from Italy.

World Triple Jump champion Trecia Smith from Jamaica and European silver medallist Anna Pyathyk from Russia and Yamilé Aldama from Sudan will attempt to jump over 15 metres. Kaire Leibak from Estonia, the World junior champion in Beijing with 14.43m will also compete.
 
Bulgaria’s Vanya Stambolova, the European 400m champion in Gothenburg, will face reigning World and Olympic champion Tonique Williams Darling from the Bahamas and Jamaica’s Novlene Williams (49.65 in the Rome Golden Gala).

World seasonal leader Lashinda Demus (53.02 in Athens) in the women’s 400 metres hurdles will take on Tiffany Ross-Williams who ran the fastest time in her career (53.79) in the Monaco Herculis Super Grand Prix last Sunday. This competition promises to be an interesting battle between USA and Russia. There is also 2006 European champion Yevgenyia Isakova, and USA’s Sheena Johnson and Sandra Glover. 

Obikwelu on show at 200m

Francis Obikwelu from Portugal, European 100m/200m champion in Gothenburg, will face 200 metres European bronze medal Marlon Devonish from Great Britain in the half-lap sprint race on a track which is one of the fastest in Italy. Reigning African champion Gary Kikaya from Congo (44.53 seasonal best), double World indoor champion Alleyne Francique from Grenada, Michael Blackwood from Jamaica, and Darold Williamson from the USA are the most prominent names in the men’s 400 metres.

Sub-10 seconds sprinter Marcus Brunson starts out as the favourite in the 100 metres against World silver medallist Michael Frater from Jamaica.

Jamaicans Danny McFarlane (Olympic silver medallist) and Kemel Thompson are the best entries in the men’s 400 metres Hurdles which also features reigning Olympic champion Felix Sanchez. Gianni Carabelli, a European championship finalist in Gothenburg, adds Italian interest to the race.

The most prominent names in women’s Discus Throw are Germany's World champion Franka Dietzsch, Czech Republic’s Vera Pospisilova (World bronze medallist in 2005) and Romania’s Nicoleta Grasu (reigning European bronze medallist).

The women’s Shot Put is a rematch of the European Championships final in Gothenburg with gold medallist Natalya Khoronenko from Russia taking on silver medallist Nadezhda Ostapchuk from Belarus.
      
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

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