Greene tops list of Olympic
champions due for Athens Grand Prix meet
Lou Economopoulos (AFP)
24 May 2001- Athens - American Maurice Greene, the world and Olympic 100 metre champion, will be among eight Olympic champions set to participate in the Tsiklitiria Grand Prix athletic meet on June 11 at the Athens Olympic Stadium, organisers told a press conference Wednesday.
Greene will be making his third straight appearance at the Tsiklitiria. Two years ago he set a new 100m world record at the Tsiklitiria, clocking 9.79 seconds.
He also won a gold medal in the World Athletic Championships held in the same Athens stadium in 1997.
Minos Kyriakou, president of the Panellinios Athletic Club that is sponsoring the Tsiklitiria for the fourth straight year, said that Ato Boldon of Trinidad would join Greene in next month’s race.
“In addition to the eight Olympic champions, we will have four world record holders, 20 athletes who won medals in the 2000 Olympics and 10 gold medal winners from the Lisbon indoor world championships,” Kyriakou said.
Greek fans will be given their first chance to see their Olympic 200-metres champion Costas Kenteris in action since he won the gold medal in Sydney last summer. Greene and Boldon are expected to provide tough competition in the race.
Other Sydney Olympic champions scheduled to participate include Kenyan middle distance runner Noah Ngeny, in the men’s 1500 metres.
Ngeny, who disposed of Morocco’s world record holder Hicham El-Gerrouj to win 1500m gold Down Under, will face Portuguese world champion Rui Silva and second-place finisher in Lisbon Reyes Estevez of Spain.
In the men’s 110m hurdles Anier Garcia of Cuba will be up against world record holder Colin Jackson of Britain.
Women’s world 400m record holder Kim Batten of the United States will face tough competition from second place finisher in Sydney Deon Hemmings of Jamaica.
Greek javelin champion Costas Gatsioudis, who has the best performance in the world so far this year with a throw of 88.50m, will be up against second place Sydney finisher Steve Backley of Britain.
Also hoping to bring delight to the home fans will be Katerina Thanou, second in the 100m sprint in Sydney, who will face French European champion in 1998, Christine Arron.
