Perdita Felicien of Canada in the heats of the 100m Hurdles (© Getty Images)
Luzern, SwitzerlandThe women’s 100 metres Hurdles clash between Canada's Perdita Felicien and Brigitte Foster of Jamaica is the main attraction of the Spitzenleichtathletik EAA meeting in Luzern, tonight.
Felicien, the IAAF World Ranked second best sprint hurdler, who surprising took the 2003 World Championship title in Paris in the 100m Hurdles (12.53) but then re-confirmed that form with a World Indoor 60m Hurdles gold medal the following winter, is on her way back from a morale sapping fall in the Olympic final last summer.
The Canadian has begun the 2005 outdoor season with two wins over the Athens Olympic champion Johanna Hayes in Kingston (12.67) and in the Eugene (12.58), to show she has recovered from her Athens shock and is ready for the defence of her World title in Helsinki.
Tonight, Felicien will try to respond to the fast times of Michelle Perry and Johanna Hayes who ran respectively 12.45 and 12.47 in New York on Sunday. The scene is set for some great hurdling in the Luzern meet where Kazakistan's Olga Shishigina set the track record with 12.44 in 1995.
Felicien will clash against the Jamaican Brigitte Foster, currently IAAF World Ranked 14th, who was the World silver medallist in Paris and is CAC record holder with 12.45 (2003). The Jamaican, ran a seasonal best of 12.76 in Eugene behind Felicien and Hayes, and won last week in a wet Ostrava with 12.97.
Saladino is on the rise
Another highlight is the men’s Long Jump, which features the young sensation Irving Saladino from Panama who has come to the fore this year leaping to a wind-assisted 8.51m. More recently he took an impressive Grand Prix win in Seville with 8.29m (third in the world season’s list). Ignisious Gaisah from Ghana, winner at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco in 2004 with 8.32m, and the 2005 European silver medallist Bogdan Tarus will provide high-quality competition.
Ahmad Hassan Abdullah from Qatar, who won the long course World Cross Country bronze last March, starts as the favourite in a good 5000 metres field. Also running are Gert Jan Liefers from The Netherlands (7:37.48 in the 3000 metres set this year in Hengelo) and the Swiss hope Christian Belz (PB 13:12.16 set in 2003).
Bucher’s back
André Bucher, World champion in Edmonton 2001 in the 800 metres, carries the best Swiss hopes in Luzern after being plagued by recurrent injury problems during the last three seasons. Bucher will start his outdoor campaign after recovering from a bout of flu which delayed his debut. Bucher will face the 2004 World Indoor bronze medallist Osmar Dos Santos from Brazil, and the reigning World Junior champion Majeed Saeed Sultan from Qatar.
Italy's Fabrizio Mori, former World champion in the 400 metres Hurdles, skipped the Italian Club Championships in Cesenatico to focus on the Luzern race. Here he will battle against the 2002 European silver medallist Jiri Muzik from Czech Republic, and the US athlete Garrett La Bronze (PB 48.61).
Other important names are Anwar Moore from the USA in the 110m Hurdles (13.23 this year in Modesto)...
...in the High Jump, Poland's Gregorz Sposob (PB 2.34) and 2000 Olympic champion Sergey Klyugin from Russia...
... the young German Silke Spiegelburg and the Russian Yelena Belyakova should dominate the women’s Pole Vault.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
