Blanka Vlasic (CRO) after her 2.00m performance in Stuttgart (© Getty Images)
As the barometer edges up towards, ‘torrid’ in the Gulf States, so the athletic performances prepare to go off the scale with Friday evening’s Qatar Super Grand Prix in Doha.
Track and field athletics (and marathons) have become a staple of efforts throughout the Gulf nations to make sport an integral part of their push to become vibrant and contributory members of the international community, and, of course ultimately to attract tourism as well as industry and commerce to their shores.
As far as stadium athletics goes, the star of the show in this respect has been the meeting in Doha. Since its creation nearly a decade ago, it has become the bell weather for superlative early season performances from athletes from across the world. This year promises more of the same, with a host of stars already making their way there, to begin their build up to Beijing and the Olympic Games in August.
Since the turn of the millennium, the pendulum has swung from super-fast sprints - an abundance of men’s sub-10s - to comparatively fast and equally blanket finishes in the men’s 3000 metres, with regular sub-7.30 clockings, including a World junior record.
International season debut for Vlasic and Felix
Last year, it was turn of two very elegant women to scale the performance heights, literally in the case of Croat Blanka Vlasic, who put on a high jump show that enthralled the crowd, and pointed the way directly towards her World title winning performance in Osaka three months later.
Allyson Felix of the USA won a tight 100 metres, but then laid down an impressive marker for what may ultimately prove to be her best distance, in winning the 400 metres too. Both women return Friday, hopefully, for more of the same.
Vlasic, now 24 won the ‘Athlete of the Meet’ award last year for her 2.04 metres, after what had looked initially as if it was going to be a tight contest - she had two early failures in the 1.90s.
But it was three valiant attempts at what would have been a World record of 2.10m that sealed her overall performance, as the vocal supporters behind the high jump fan were making the rest of the stadium aware all evening. Anna Chicherova of Russia, Canadian Nicole Forrester, and Ruth Beitia of Spain attempt to down the Croat this year.
In her IAAF blog this week, World 200 metres champion Felix looks forward to Friday’s attempt at a repeat of last year’s ‘double’.
“I’ve run three meets this season,” she writes, “but my season will officially begin in Doha. I was unsure if I would be able to run, because there might have been a conflict with my graduation at USC, (but) I found out that Doha and my graduation were on different days, which was great because I didn’t want to miss either. This is my fourth time competing at this meet and it’s become a bit of a tradition for me to open my season here”.
Indoor champ takes on outdoor champ in men’s 800
The highlight pendulum could well swing back towards the men if the 800 and 3000 metres fields live up to their billing.
The longer race is always a terrific curtain call, but an 800 metres featuring the World indoor champion, the exciting youngster, Abubaker Kaki Khamis of Sudan against Osaka World champ, Alfred Kirwa Yego of Kenya, and his colleague, perennial fast man, Wilfrid Bungei - who front ran here last year to a superb meet record of 1.44.14 - is alone worth the stroll to the stadium. Add Belal Mansour Ali of Bahrein, Dmitris Milkevics of Latvia and Abraham Chepkirwok of Uganda, and we have a field worthy to be the Olympic final in three months time.
No less the 3000m, with a Kenyan roll-call including twice winner, former World 5000 metres champion, Eliud Kipchoge, another former winner, Isaac Songok, Abraham Chebii - one of the few men to beat Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie (twice) in a last lap sprint, and Augustine Choge, who broke the World junior record here in 2005. World indoor champ at this distance Tariku Bekele tries to win for the first time; and Ricky Simms of PACE reckons that another Kenyan, Joseph Ebuya and Ugandan Moses Kipsiro are in great shape too. So expect the usual showdown. They don’t need fireworks to close the show in Doha, just another 3000 metres with a field like this.
Jepkosgei goes up the distance
The performance of the championships in Osaka for this writer was Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya in the 800 metres, not just the final, which she won in 1.56.04, but her superlative racing throughout. Her 1500 metres running thus far is not in the same league. For example, she finished over 50 metres behind the confident win (in 4.05.43) of young compatriot, Viola Kibiwot Jelagat in Doha last year.
But her best of 4.11.91 dates back to 2004, when she hadn’t broken two minutes for two laps. This year - against Kibiwot, Ethiopian Gelete Burka and multiple medallist and living legend, Maria Mutola of Mozambique, should prove whether Jepkosgei can hack it at the longer distance, and look to emulate the likes of Svetlana Masterlova, the Russian who won the middle distance double in Atlanta 1996.
Two Olympic champions, Sydney 2000 vintage in the case of hammer thrower Kamila Skolimowska of Poland, and reigning javelin champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway return seeking repeat victories. And for once, Virgilius Alekna is not here, giving one of his numerous (distant) rivals an opportunity to win.
Despite declaring his impending retirement here two years ago, Alekna turned up and won again last year. And no one will be surprised, least of all his rivals to see the two-time Olympic and world champion in the circle in Beijing. But, for the time being, Doha is very much the focus.
Pat Butcher for the IAAF
