News21 Sep 2005


Helsinki World champions Gatlin, Williams and Dibaba to take final season steps in Korea

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Gatlin steams to the 100m win in Yokohama (© Kazutaka Eguchi/Agence SHOT)

Three individual Helsinki World champions, two of them double winners, are among the principal names so far signed-up for the international meeting which takes place in Daegu, Korea on Friday 23 September. This meeting comes at the conclusion of the mini end of season Asian leg of what has been an exhilarating summer of athletics.

Justin Gatlin, 23, the World 100m and 200m champion in the Finnish capital, is marked down to compete against American compatriot Leonard Scott. The 25-year-old who finished second to Gatlin in Shanghai, China, on Saturday (17), 10.09 to the Olympic champion’s 10.01, has had a terrific season of his own, coming sixth in Helsinki, and prior to that running a 9.94 PB in London in July.

Since his Shanghai win, Gatlin, the IAAF World Ranked number one sprinter, has competed in Yokohama, Japan on Monday (19) taking a 10.04 win there, and is obviously still in good shape despite contesting 13 different meets over 100m this year. Scott, World Ranked 7th, has had 17th meets in 2005 at the dash, and equally has shown no signs of heavy legs either.

Tyson Gay, the 200m winner over Gatlin (4th) at the World Athletics Final in Monaco (9 Sept) in a time of 19.96, will once again race the longer sprint on Friday.

The other double Helsinki gold medallist announced by the meeting organisers is Tirunesh Dibaba, the 5000m and 10,000m World champion. This Ethiopian diatance running gem has had well publicised injury problems in the last few weeks and it will be interesting to see her condition if she does decide to toe the line on Friday. The 19-year-old hasn’t run since her second place over 5000m at the World Athletics Final on 9 September in Monaco. Joining her in the 5000m in Daegu will be sister Ejegayehu, the double bronze medallist at the same distances in Helsinki.

The third Helsinki winner so far announced is women’s 100m champion Lauryn Williams, 22, who will run her gold medal event on Friday. She finished second behind Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas in Shanghai on Saturday.

Former-four time World 110m Hurdles champion Allen Johnson takes on Arend Watkins, also of the USA, over the sprint barriers, while another good ‘head to head’ will be in the men’s 800m. African champion William Yiampoy faces Wilfred Bungei. The two Kenyans were third and fourth respectively in Helsinki - but in their last meeting in Shanghai, it was Bungei who took the win, with Yiampoy in third. Bungei also stands third in the World Rankings for the event, while Yiampoy is fourth.

On the infield programme, World silver medallist Brad Walker goes in the Pole Vault, while Brazil’s Jadel Gregorio is the featured name in the Triple Jump.

Chris Turner for the IAAF

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