Sureyya Ayhan (© Getty Images)
The 62nd ISTAF Berlin meeting, the fourth leg of the six edition IAAF Golden League 2003, takes place tomorrow (Sunday 10 August) in the east of the German capital in the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark stadium.
As well as the continuing campaign for the US$ 1 million Golden League Jackpot by the remaining two contenders, Maria Mutola (800m) and Chandra Sturrup (100m), a near capacity crowd of approximately 20,000 spectators will find many other delights in store for them.
Ayhan set to pep up the women's 1500m
While American Regina Jacobs stunned the world last winter with a 3:59.98 World Indoor record, no woman has so far run under four minutes for 1500 metres this summer. In fact the nearest has been Olga Yegorova with 4:01.00, when winning the distance at the last Golden League meeting in Rome (11 July).
However, with the reappearance of Turkey’s 24 year-old European champion and IAAF World Cup winner Süreyya Ayhan, the fortunes of this event might be about to dramatically change in Berlin this Sunday.
The enigmatic front running sensation of 2002 comes to Berlin having only raced once this summer. Ayhan took the European Cup (Division II) 1500m race on 22 June in Istanbul in the modest time of 4:06.63, and has been competitively silent ever since.
Ayhan has suffered a number of injuries over her career but it is more reasonably guessed that she has again timed her season for a major championships peak, just as she did as a relative unknown when winning the 2002 European title in Munich. In total between 9 August 2002 and 21 September 2002, Ayhan took a string of five (+ one heat in Munich 4:04.42) high profile 1500m wins – Munich (3:58.79), Brussels (3:57.75 Nat. rec.), Berlin (3:58.43) and Madrid World Cup (4:02.57).
With the 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Paris 2003 Saint-Denis 23 – 31 August) fast approaching a fit Ayhan would be a class above this season’s best runners including World Indoor champion Jacobs.
It is in this 'Paris' light that we need to view the Turks' performance in Berlin where she will be competing against 4:02 season performers – Judit Varga of Hungary, Morocco’s Hasna Benhassi, and Iryna Lishchynska of Ukraine, as well as Algeria’s reigning Olympic champion Nouria Merah-Benida.
Fenton - 49 seconds again?
Not quite as overlooked as Ayhan in the build up to Paris has been the Jamaican 400m runner Lorraine Fenton, the World and Olympic medallist. Unlike Ayhan, Fenton has run six times already this season, twice under the 50 seconds barrier, the latest on Friday night (8 Aug) in London where she won in 49.88 (season’s best 49.71, 1 July Lausanne).
In fact she has only been overlooked because of the stature of her opponent for World championships' glory, Mexico’s Ana Guevara (49.34, 2003), who took the World bronze in 2001 and who has been the fastest one lap runner for two years, and won the IAAF World Cup in 2002.
Guevara who won the Pan Am title on Friday (8 Aug) in Santo Domingo is not yet in Europe, and so it settles to reigning World champion Ami Mbacke Thiam (51.14) to offer the big name opposition to Fenton here in Berlin.
Pittman needs to play 'catch-up' with Pechonkina
In the women’s 400m Hurdles Australia's Jana Pittman will be aiming to close the competitive chasm which has opened up in that event since Russia‘s Yuliya Pechonkina set a new World record of 52.34 seconds in her nationals championships on Friday in Tula.
Pittman, the Commonwealth champion and previous fastest this season (53.62) will, along with the rest of the hurdling world elite be playing catch-up here in Berlin and in the rest of the fortnight before the World championships begin.
Cloete and Aldama on the top of their game
World Champion High Jumper Hestrie Cloete of South Africa, and world Triple Jump lead Yamile Aldama of Cuba are two more athletes who were on song on Friday, both winning in London at the IAAF Super Grand Prix with a 2.02m clearance and a 15.27m jump to their credit respectively.
Both women face high quality opposition in Berlin. In the Triple Jump, all three 15m performers from this summer are present, and in the High Jump, Cloete is one of a field of six 2.00m jumpers.
The men’s 100m so often the highlight of any meeting will most likely have to take a back seat here in Berlin. Despite the appearance of US Champion Bernard Williams and inform Nigerian Deji Aliu, the unofficial Paris 'dress rehearsal' took place in London last night, with both men convincingly beaten by Britain’s European champion Dwain Chambers.
Spectators in the Jahn-Park stadium tomorrow will most likely rise to applaud Germany’s two favourite sons, Ingo Schultz the European 400m champion in the one lap sprint, and from the older generation the 1992 Olympic champion Dieter Baumann in the 5000m.
The men’s 800m sees world season lead Wilfred Bungei (1:43.05) quickly back from a suspected bout of malaria at the recent Kenyan World Trials and he will face South Africa’s Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (1:43.25).
Johnson - supreme hurdler
Yet the highlight of the men’s track will be the appearance of the 32 year-old Allen Johnson the World champion High Hurdler, who exclusively has been inside 13 seconds for the 110m Hurdles this summer (12.97).
Local stars of the infield, Tim Lobinger (Pole Vault) and Boris Henry (Javelin) will also be present. The World indoor champion Lobinger (5.86m) will take on a fast improving World champion Dmitri Markov (5.85m) who seems to be rounding into perfect title defence form. In the spear, Henry steps quickly back into action after very significantly beating four-time European champion Steve Backley on the Briton’s home turf on Friday in London (85.77 to 82.48m).
IAAF
