News07 Sep 2008


Robles, Campbell-Brown, and Vlasic's homecoming in Zagreb - IAAF World Athletics Tour

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Veronica Campbell-Brown runs 21.74 to become the tenth fastest woman of all time (© Getty Images)

Zagreb, CroatiaZagreb, CroatiaSix recently-crowned Olympic champions will converge on Zagreb for Tuesday’s 58th edition of the Hanzekovic Memorial, the finest field assembled in recent memory for Croatia’s Grand Prix status meeting stop on the IAAF World Athletics Tour.

But the focus of the capacity crowd at the Croatian capital’s Sports Park Mladost will fall on one athlete who came up just a little short in Beijing: World high jump champion Blanka Vlasic.

Vlasic came of age at this meeting five years ago, clearing two metres for the first time well before she celebrated her 20th birthday. In the years since she’s become one of the sport’s biggest stars, but she won’t be bringing home the momentum she, and the anticipated sell-out crowd, was expecting. First came her shock defeat at the Olympic Games, and on Friday came another runner-up finish, this time in Brussels which cost her $500,000.

After the emotional letdown she’s experienced over the past two weeks, for Vlasic, there will be no place like home. On the field, she'll have Anna Chicherova, the Olympic bronze medallist, and American Chaunte Howard, sixth in Beijing, for company.

Campbell-Brown returns to action

Veronica Campbell-Brown made history in Beijing last month, becoming only the second woman to defend an Olympic 200m title, and the first in 28 years. Here she'll contest the 100m, an event where the Jamaican is hardly a slouch. She's the reigning World champion and has dashed 10.87 this season, just a few ticks shy of her 10.85 personal best. Still just 26, over the past five years Campbell-Brown has pieced together a career that all around places her firmly on a very short list of the finest sprinters of her generation.

Olympic finalist Torri Edwards is in the field as well, also one of the most solid performers of this century. And she’s hardly slowing down. This season the 31-year-old improved to 10.78 at the U.S. championships, but she faltered in the Olympic final where she finished eighth. Another American to watch is Carmelita Jeter, the bronze medallist at last year's World championships. She didn't make the US squad for Beijing, but did improve at the U.S. trials to 10.97, her first dip under 11 seconds. In Rieti yesterday, she was a close third in the 100 and an even closer second in the 200. Olympic finalist Jeanette Kwakye, sixth in Beijing and runner-up at the World indoors this year, and American Marshevet Hooker rounds out a solid field.

Robles; women’s Beijing podium top the sprint hurdles fields

Named to honour Croatian inter-war hurdler Boris Hanžekovic, the hurdles fields are usually among the key attractions at Croatia's premiere annual international competition, and this year's edition will be no different.

Olympic 110m Hurdles champion Dayron Robles will arrive in Zagreb on the heels of yet another scorcher, this time a 12.95 victory in Dubnica, Slovakia on Sunday, the 21-year-old Cuban’s sixth sub-13 clocking this summer. He'll be the class of the field, facing a pair of Beijing finalists, Jamaicans Maurice Wignall, who was sixth, and Richard Phillips, who was seventh.

Olympic women's 100m Hurdles champion Dawn Harper returns to action, on the heels of a 12.71 win in Dubnica, her first post-Beijing win. The line-up includes the silver and bronze medallists, Sally McLellan of Australia and Canada's Priscilla Lopes-Schliep. Deloreen Ennis-London, the recent winner in Lausanne and Brussels, and American Damu Cherry, this season's second fastest at 12.44, make this arguably the finest field of the evening.

In the 400m Hurdles, Natasha Danvers of Great Britain, the Olympic bronze medallist, leads the field. The British vet improved to 53.84 in Beijing, the season's fourth fastest performance. Here too several Beijing finalist will reunite: Russians Anastasiya Rabchenyuk (4th) and Yekaterina Bikert (6th) and American Tiffany Ross-Williams (8th) who this year improved to 53.28, the second fastest time in the world this season.

Beijing Hammer Throw champions Kozmus, Miankova on show

Another freshly-minted Olympic champion making an appearance will be Primoz Kozmus. For a change, the 28-year-old, who captured Slovenia’s first-ever Olympic gold, won't be travelling far - his hometown of Brezice is just a stone’s throw from the border with Croatia. Last year’s silver medallist at the World championships, Kozmus has lost only once in 11 starts this year.

Croatian hopes lie with Andras Haklits, the national record holder at 80.41, who was tenth in Beijing.

Aksana Miankova of Belarus took the Olympic title with a 76.34m toss, and is also the world leader at 77.32, leading the field in the women’s Hammer Throw, which will open the meet.

Yipsi Moreno is also in the field, bringing the momentum of two wins since her Beijing silver medal to Zagreb. Others in the field include Darya Pchelnik of Belarus and Frenchwoman Manuela Montebrun, fourth and fifth in Beijing. Croatian record holder Ivana Brkljacic had a disappointing Olympic trip, failing to advance to the final. But she has displayed solid form this year with a 74.89 effort, hovering close to her 75.08 national record.

Trafton tops field in the Discus

One of the biggest surprises in Beijing was produced by Stephanie Brown Trafton who collected the first U.S. victory with her gold in the Discus Throw. She’ll make her second outing since – she was third at the DecaNation match in Paris over the weekend – where she’ll face Olympic bronze medallist Olena Antonova, Czech Vera Cechlova-Pospisilova who was fifth in Beijing, and Nicolette Grasu of Romania. The latter faltered in Beijing where she finished 12th, but has reached 66.51, the second farthest throw this year.

Plenty of quality elsewhere

Youssef Saad Kamel has been on a roll since his fifth place finish in the Olympic 800m final. After back-to-back 1500m PBs in Zurich and Lausanne – the latter a victory in 3:32.83 – he beat a strong field in the Brussels 800m in 1:44.56. Here he’ll lead the 1500m field.

Jamaican Nesta Carter, a gold medallist on the gold medal winning 4x100 relay squad, and American Travis Padgett top the field in the men’s 100m, and Jamaican Christopher Williams and Brendan Christian of the Dutch Antilles lead the 200m field.

The women’s 1000m features a melange of Beijing 800 and 1500m Olympians, led by metric mile bronze medallist Natalya Tobias of Ukraine. Since finishing fourth in the Olympic 800m, Russian Svetlana Klyuka has been working on her speed, pacing for Pamela Jelimo's last two GL victories in Zurich and Brussels. That may work to her favour here. Italian Elisa Cusma-Piccione and Poland's Anna Rostkowska, a semi-finalist in the 800, could also be factors.

Two members of Russia's silver medal 4x400m quartet lead the field in the women's 400m. Tatyana Firova, who was sixth in the individual race, has improved to 50.11 this season. Her teammate, Tatyana Veshkurova, has sub-50 (49.99) credentials. Jamaican Rosemary Whyte was also a Beijing finalist, finishing seventh, and has improved to 50.05 this season.

Olympic finalist Yuliya Kapachinskaya leads the 200m field, which also features Jeter and Bulgarian Ivet Lalova, a double sprint finalist at the 2004 Games in Athens.

A slew of fast Kenyans make up much of the men's 3000m field, led by sub-7:40 men Boniface Songok and Mike Kigen.

Three Olympic finalists figure prominently in the men’s Shot Put field: Canadian Dylan Armstrong, who was fourth (SB/PB 21.04), Pavel Lyzhyn of Belarus, who was fifth; and Russian Pavel Sofin, who was eighth. Along with Armstrong, Jamaican Dorian Scott (21.45) and American Dan Taylor (21.59) are the field's 21m men.

A year ago rain washed out much of the proceedings, but not so this year. The forecast calls for sunny skies with the temperature hovering near 27 C.

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

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