A delighted Rens Blom - Pole Vault World champion (© Getty Images)
Hengelo, The NetherlandsPole Vault World Champion Rens Blom will make his first appearence on home soil after his historic win at last year's World Championships while Ethiopian star Meseret Defar headline the distances at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games - IAAF Grand Prix - in Hengelo on Sunday (28 May).
First home appearance for Blom since Helsinki triumph
Blom is the first-ever World champion in athletics for the Netherlands and became a national hero after his victory in Helsinki. But the 29-old pole vaulter didn’t compete in his own country afterwards. In August and September there were no big meetings in Holland. And Blom had to skip his indoor season because of a shoulder injury.
But after a long training-camp in Australia the world champion is physically fit again. However, he is not too optimistic about his performance on Sunday. “Technically it’s not going too well in training,” he told Dutch reporters last week. “It’s still difficult to handle my growing speed on the runway to the bar.” At his first appearence, on the first of May at a small meeting in the German village Rechberghausen, Blom had ended the competition with a no height.
In Hengelo he will see a first class field of pole vaulters, with three 6m performers competing - Australian Dmitri Markov and German Tim Lobinger - who both already jumped 5.70 in this early season – and U.S record holder Jeff Hartwig.
Smith eager for solid outing
Rutger Smith, the Dutch silver medallist in the Shot Put from Helsinki, will be eager to showcase his talents before his home crowd. The 24-year-old from Groningen had a good start of his season at a small meeting in Holland last weekend, where he had 20.13m effort in Shot Put and a 59.59 throw in the Discus. Smith has indicated that he wants to contest both disciplines at the European Championships in Gothenburg.
“In Hengelo I will meet a lot of shot putters that will be in the final in Gothenburg. I hope I can show them my intentions already,” Smith says. “Competing in Hengelo always gives me something extra.” On the participants list are Finn Ville Tilsanoja, Tomasz Majewski of Poland, and Italy’s Paolo Dal Soglio.
The FBK Games are well known because of the World Record achievements of the past by Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele. But after a major renovation the stadium at last did get a new and hard eight-lane track. At the FBK-Games in 2005 the results on the sprints were better than ever before. This year Ellen van Langen – the 1992 Olympic 800m champion who is responsible for the athletes field - invited seveal fast men and women for the 100m. Her task wasn’t simple, as the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene is on the same date and most of the Nike-sponsored athletes were obliged to compete there.
Collins v. Fasuba in men’s 100
Kim Collins from St. Kitts & Nevis will be the man to beat in the men’s race where Maurice Greene had to withdraw because of an injury. The World champion from Paris 2003, Collins followed up with a bronze medal in Helsinki. Though he never competed in the Netherlands before, he knows this country well, as he lives in Amsterdam during the summer season. “I really should like to be the first man who runs under 10 seconds in Holland,” he said, after arriving from his training spot in Jamaica. He might run fast, but he will also will have to face Nigeria’s Olusoji Fasuba, runner-up to Justin Gatlin in the world record-equalling race in Doha, wheh he ran an amazing 9.85 African Record.
The women’s field is headed by 2000 Olympic champion marion Jones, who clocked 11.06 two weeks ago in Mexico.
“Last year I wasn’t very successful here in Hengelo," said Jones, "so I want to give it a second try. I was very pleased with my time in Mexico, the start was the best in four years, but technically the race wasn’t too good. I have worked very hard in the last weeks and we will see how it will work out.”
Like Greene in the men’s race, Christine Arron of France had to withdraw because of an injury while Allyson Felix, the reigning 200m World Champion, is sidelined with a bout of strep throat. Angela Williams, a four-time NCAA champion in the event, looks to provide the stiffest challenge for Jones.
Defar headline distance fields
Bad luck for the organisers was the decission of Haile Gebrselassie, who will not try to break the World record in athe One hour race as earlier announced. The Ethiopean King of long distances pulled out, announcing that he is not fit enough after his marathon in London.
Defar of Ethiopia, the two-time World indoor 3000m champion, will be the star in the field of the women’s 5000m. The men’s 10,000m will have a solid field, with Kenyans Moses Mosop (bronze in Helsinki), Richard Limo and Ukraine’s Sergey Lebid. Sileshi Sihine, the Olympic silver medallist, was forced to withdraw with injury.
More World, Olympic champions on the infield
In the high jump, Swede Stefan Holm will try to overcome his disappointment from Helsinki, where the Olympic champion from Athens finished only seventh. It will be the first competition of the season for Holm. Among the other jumpers will be Jacques Freitag of South Africa, the World champion from Paris 2003, Andrey Sokolovski of Russian and American Jamie Nieto.
In the women’s Discus Throw will be another confrontation between Germany’s Franka Dietzsch, the 2005 World champion, and Olympic champion Natalia Sadova of Russia.
Cors van den Brink for the IAAF
