America’s Tim Mack and Joanna Hayes in Berlin (© ISTAF)
Berlin, GermanyAmerica’s Tim Mack and Joanna Hayes triumphed in the Athens Olympics and on Sunday (12 September) will experience another Olympic cauldron, when they compete in the atmospheric 1936 Olympic stadium, the venue for ISTAF Berlin 2004, the final meeting of the TDK Golden League.
Sunday’s meeting will journey into Athletics’ past, present and future. The Olympic stadium, the 'home' of the legendary Olympic sprinting and long jumping feats of American Jesse Owens, reopened on 31 July 2004 after a substantial re-build and is now a state of the art sporting facility with an eye catching blue surfaced track.
On Wednesday (8 Sep), at another famous Berlin landmark the Brandenburg Gate, the organisers of Germany’s premier athletics meeting held a major promotion with the two Olympic champions as guests. On that occasion the city’s Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit was on hand to present Mack and Hayes with a sample of the blue material from which the new competition surface in the Olympiastadion Berlin is constructed.
In Athens, Mack won the Olympic Pole Vault title with a marvellous 5.95m third time clearance which established his lifetime best and an Olympic record. Among others, this feat was good enough to defeat his compatriot Toby Stevenson, the season’s only 6 metre performer, who competing in his trademark protective helmet had to settle for silver with a 5.90 best. Stevenson had a very good try at 5.95 and will be keen to make up for his defeat when the two Americans meet again on Sunday.
Also joining the vaulting party on the blue runway will be European champion Aleksandr Averbukh of Israel, and the cream of German vaulting talent, Danny Ecker, Lars Börgeling and Tim Lobinger.
Christening the new Berlin home straight in terms of sprint hurdling competition will be the women’s 100m Hurdles race. Olympic winner Johanna Hayes heads her fellow Athens medallists Olena Krasovska of Ukraine (silver) and Melissa Morrison of USA (bronze) in Sunday's starting line-up.
Hayes had the race of her life in Athens clocking a personal best and Olympic record of 12.37 in a final, which in an incident unconnected with the American, left two runners, World champion Perdita Felicien of Canada and Russia's Irina Shevchenko, tragically sprawling on the track.
Hayes, 27, had entered this year with a best of ‘just’ 12.65, and with a fastest of 54.57 over the 400m Hurdles was perhaps better recognised internationally at the longer discipline before this summer.
Her winning time in Athens was the sixth quickest all-time and the world’s fastest for four years.
Since Athens Hayes has run 12.78 (last weekend in Moscow) to win the USA versus Russia match, and she will be keen to show in Berlin that her Olympic triumph was no fluke.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
