News02 May 2006


Ramzi set for Eugene Return

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Rashid Ramzi celebrates winning gold in the 1500m (© Getty Images)

Rashid Ramzi will look to go one better than last year when he takes part in the Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix later this month.

Ramzi finished runner-up to Alex Kipchirchir in the Bowerman mile in the event last time out but the 25-year-old will be keen to clinch first place in this year's competition, which takes place on 28 May.

However, it will not be easy for the 25-year-old Moroccan-born star, who now represents Bahrain, as Kenyan ace Kipchirchir will also be there to defend his title.

The race has the hallmarks of being a thriller with Kipchirchir claiming the 800m gold medal at this year's Commonwealth Games while Ramzi recorded a remarkable 800 and 1500m double at last summer's World Championships. Such a feat at a global championship was last acheived by Peter Snell at the 1964 Olympic Games.

Two-time Olympic 1500m medallist Bernard Lagat and his American teammate Alan Webb, who last Sunday became the USA's quickest-ever 10,000m debutant, are also set to feature in the race.

All four athletes ran under three minutes 50 seconds for the distance last year.

Other fields are also taking shape. Walter Davis, the reigning Triple Jump world champion both indoors and out, is set to face Olympic champion Christian Olsson of Sweden. Olsson hasn't competed since the 2004 World Athletics Final, and has undergone four surgeries on his right foot since.

The women's Long Jump field includes a wide array of champions: Tianna Madison, the reigning World champion outdoors, Russian Tatyana Kotova, who leaped to the World indoor title in March, and Tatyana Lebedeva, the Olympic champion. Dwight Phillips, the World and Olympic champion, tops the men's Long Jump field.

Americans Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford, the Olympic champions at 100 and 200m, will also face off in the 100.

Press Association for the IAAF

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