Bershawn Jackson winning the men's 400m Hurdles in a time of 47.60 - OSAKA (© Getty Images)
The two current fastest men of the season at 400m Hurdles, USA’s World champion Bershawn Jackson and Greek record holder Periklis Iakovakis, are set for another showdown, this time on the Greek’s ‘home’ turf in the Super Grand Prix "Tsiklitiria", organised by Panellinios AC on 3 July in Athens Olympic Stadium.
Considering the home interest, the event will be one of the highlights of the meeting which is part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour. Jackson who was crowned World gold medallist in Helsinki last summer stormed to the 2006 world season’s lead of 47.60 seconds when winning in Osaka, Japan, on 6 May. He took the victory ahead of Iakovakis, whose second place was achieved in a national record of 47.82. The 27-year-old Greek was the World bronze medallist in 2003.
Also participating in the 400m Hurdles will be USA’s James Carter, the 2005 World Championship silver medallist, and France’s Naman Keita, who won the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympic Games.
Russia’s Olympic 800m champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy returns to the stadium in which he won those laurels, and over the two laps will take on the Kenyans Wilfred Bungei, the World Indoor champion, and Justus Koech, as well as 23-year-old Youssef Saad Kamel of Bahrain.
In the men’s Discus Throw, Lithuanian’s double World and Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna will take on Germany’s ‘Mr. Discus’ Lars Riedel, who was Olympic champion in 1996 and has his own collection of five World championship gold medals. Alekna is 34 and Riedel is 38 years of age (will turn 39 on 28 June) but both men still stand at the very top of their sport, and are currently the third and fourth longest throwers of the 2006 season respectively, with 67.73m and 69.38m bests.
Greece will field in opposition to these two throwing greats, Stefanos Konstas, who has this year a best of 60.70m, a performance achieved last weekend at the European Cup, 1st League in Thessaloníki.
Tsiklitiria media team
