Previews04 Aug 2011


With Daegu on the horizon, key final tests loom in London – PREVIEW – Samsung Diamond League

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Dayron Robles (r) and David Oliver (l) fight it out in Paris - Meeting Areva (© Errol Anderson)

The lure of London – and with it the last chance to compare notes in a Samsung Diamond League meeting before the impending IAAF World Championships ­- has attracted a field of more than 40 Olympic and World medallists to the Aviva London Grand Prix, which is split over Friday and Saturday (5-6).


The late addition to the meeting of 400m Hurdler Angelo Taylor increased the count of reigning Olympic champions competing in the capital this weekend to 13, with ten current World champions also taking part in what will be the 12th leg of the Samsung Diamond League tour.


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Key pre-Daegu tests for Powell, Rudisha and Pearson


Some of the stellar names assembled – Asafa Powell, David Rudisha, and Sally Pearson - will be taking part in events that are not applicable for this year’s overall Diamond Race standings. Powell, who heads this year’s world 100m list with 9.78sec, is due to face a field on Friday which includes fellow Jamaicans Nesta Carter and Yohan Blake, with respective 2011 bests of 9.90 and 9.95.


[Note: 12:30 CET, 5 August - Citing a tightness in his groin which has lingered since his race in Budapest last weekend, Powell has withdrawn from tonight's 100m race as a precaution. In a statement, his manager Paul Doyle said, "We’re making this decision to not race tonight as a precaution. Asafa has a tightness in his groin that has been getting better every day, but to run tonight would put him at risk for injury. If we had 2 or 3 more days I think he would be fine and able to race, but unfortunately that is not the case.”]


Meanwhile Kenya’s world 800m record holder Rudisha is preparing for his first race of the season Friday against his great rival from Sudan, Abubaker Kaki in a field which also includes Kenya’s Boaz Lalang, who has run 1:44.20 this year.


Saturday’s women’s 100m Hurdles features Australia’s Pearson, whose personal best of 12.48, set at last month’s Samsung Diamond League meeting in Birmingham, heads this year’s world lists. She will face Britain’s recently naturalised Tiffany Ofili Porter, who won the Aviva Trials last weekend.


Oliver v Robles as high hurdles diamond chase continues


David Oliver, the 2010 Diamond Race winner over 110m Hurdles, has been a dominant figure in his event over the last couple of years. But despite reducing his personal best last season to 12.89, just 0.02sec off the World record held by Cuba’s Olympic champion Dayron Robles, the genial American has lost against his two biggest rivals this season. He was narrowly beaten by Robles in Paris, after all but making up for a poor start, with both men recording 13.09, and suffered a heavier defeat to China’s former World and Olympic champion Liu Xiang at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Shanghai, where he also suffered a poor start.


One of those defeats was swiftly avenged. Oliver beat Liu at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Eugene in a time of 12.94, the fastest in the world this season.


So Oliver, an easy winner at Crystal Palace last year, will want to restore the competitive balance against Robles Friday night in an event that will feature two heats. Robles has yet to get under 13 seconds this season, and his best – 13.07 – came in his first race of the season, at Hengelo in May. But he has found a way to win every race so far this season, save for his most recent, in Barcelona, after he finished eighth and last in 14.98 after a freak collision with a hurdle.


Oliver, however, underperformed in his last Samsung Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, where he was beaten by fellow American Jason Richardson, finishing in 13.28.


“I always enjoy competing against Dayron, because he is the best,” Oliver said. “It will be a true test of where I’m at in my last competition before the Worlds.


“One year out from 2012 I want to get a good result in London. I want to leave the city in good form and with a great feeling for when I return next year.”


Should Oliver fail to hit his normal mark, his US colleague Aries Merritt, with a best this season of 13.12, and Jamaica’s Dwight Thomas, who has run a personal best of 13.15 this year, will be waiting to take full advantage. As will Richardson, who has also clocked 13.15 this season.


Britain’s European and Commonwealth champion Andy Turner, who made the most of Robles’s slip in Barcelona to win, will be looking to narrow the margin on Oliver, with whom he has trained.


Can Watt’s momentum continue?


The Diamond Race in the men’s Long Jump is very close, with Australia’s Mitchell Watt, who won the Stockholm Diamond League with a season’s best and world-leading leap of 8.54m, just two points clear of second-placed Godfrey Mokoena, South Africa’s Olympic silver medallist, and three clear of Britain’s Greg Rutherford and Panama’s Olympic champion Irving Saladino, all of whom will be taking part in Crystal Palace.


Chris Tomlinson, who regained his British record from Rutherford with an effort of 8.35m in the Paris Diamond League, and Dwight Phillips, the Olympic and three-times World champion from the United States, are also in tomorrow’s field. Quite a field.


Meadows targeting strong home field showing


Home runner Jenny Meadows may rise to the occasion to offer the Crystal Palace crowd a timely victory over 800m on Friday, where her principal rival is the Jamaican who is three points clear of her at the top of this year’s Diamond Race, Kenia Sinclair.


Although the two athletes between them in those standings – South Africa’s World champion Caster Semenya and Halima Hachlaf of Morocco are not in the field, Meadows still has the chance to make a strong psychological impact ahead of a World Championships where this event – given Semenya’s uneven form in what is her first full season since winning the title in Berlin – looks wide open.


Meadows’s season’s best of 1:59.27sec is only the fourth best in the field – Sinclair leads with 1:58.21, Molly Beckwith of the United States has run 1:59.12, and Russia’s Irina Maracheva has done 1:58.71.


Maracheva, however, is not among the four Russians who lead this year’s world lists, headed by their European champion Mariya Savinova, with 1:56.95. A Russian win in Daegu? Maybe.


In 400m the spotlight on Gonzales..


Jermaine Gonzales of Jamaica has a chance to consolidate his Diamond Race lead in the 400m in the absence of the man one point behind him, Jeremy Wariner. The former Olympic and world champion has withdrawn from this year’s World Championships with a foot injury.


But in what looks like a very even race, Gonzales will be pushed to hold off challengers such as the experienced Angelo Taylor, a 400m hurdler with a flat 400 best of 44.05, Britain’s Martyn Rooney, and Rondell Bartholomew of Grenada, whose personal best of 44.65 heads this year’s world lists.


Jeter vs Fraser-Pryce in 100m


Current world No.1 100m runner and Samsung Diamond League leader Carmelita Jeter returns to her favoured shorter distance after running the 200m at the Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix and in Monaco, and lines up against reigning Olympic champion and World champion Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce – assuming both emerge unscathed from Saturday’s heats.


The Jamaican, who has a best this year of 10.95, is only the second fastest runner in the first of two heats, as Trinidad’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste has run 10.91 this year. Jeanette Kwayke, who won last weekend’s Aviva Championships and Trials in a season’s best of 11.15, is also in the first race.


On the other side of the draw, Jeter – who has run 10.70 this season, just 0.06 off her personal best – faces Bulgaria’s Ivet Lalova, who has recovered a career which saw her reach the 2004 Olympic final before suffering a fractured thigh. Lalova has run 10.96 this year.


Again, Adams vs Ostapchuk


The monumental struggle in the women’s Shot Put between last year’s Diamond League winner Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus and the Olympic and World champion from New Zealand, Valerie Adams, continues on Saturday. Adams is two points clear at the top of this year’s Diamond Race, with a best this year of 20.78m, but Ostapchuk’s swift and fluent technique has earned her the world’s furthest effort this year, 20.94m. It is a measure of this pair’s dominance that they share the best 11 efforts this year before another competitor, national record holder Jillian Camarena-Williams of the United States, joins the reckoning with 20.18.


Spotakova and Obergfoll to clash in the Javelin


Another huge competition is in prospect Friday between Barbara Spotakova and the German thrower Christina Obergfoll, whose effort of 68.86m at the German championships held two days after she finished second in Monaco stands as the second furthest thrown this season.


Spotakova, the Olympic javelin champion from the Czech Republic, appears to be peaking in ideal fashion for the forthcoming World Championships. Spotakova , who won the Diamond Race last year, earned her first Diamond League win of the season in Monaco with a massive effort of 69.45m, which heads this year’s world lists.


Obergfoll, who took bronze behind Spotakova in Beijing, has been the most consistent women thrower this year and is currently eight points ahead of her Czech rival in the Diamond Race, having finished first in three Samsung Diamond League meetings and second in two others. She also won gold in the European Team Championships at Stockholm.


Britain’s Goldie Sayers, who finished fourth in Beijing with a British record of 65.75m, will be aiming for the podium in London having finished fourth in her last two Diamond League meetings and taken silver behind Obergfoll in Stockholm.


Jesse Williams, the Diamond Race leader in the men’s High Jump, will need to be at his best on Saturday to hold off the challenge of the Russian trio of Andrey Silnov and Ivan Ukhov, both of whom have cleared 2.34m this year, and Aleksandr Shustov, who has managed 2.36m. The American managed a personal best of 2.37m this season.


First sub-20 of the season for Dix?


Victory in the 200m on Saturday would bring Walter Dix level with the absent Usain Bolt in that event’s Diamond Race. The American is the fastest in the field by some distance in terms of this year’s performances, having run 20.02, with the next fastest 2011 time having been posted by Jamaica’s Marvin Anderson, who has run 20.27 this year. But expect the home crowd to operate with good effect upon the 32-year-old former World junior 100 and 200m champion Christian Malcolm, who signalled his return to the top flight with medals at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games last year.


The old and the new meet on Saturday as Diamond League points scoring occurs in the Emsley Carr Mile, where Bernard Lagat of the United States, with a personal best of 3:47.28, could face a strong challenge from fellow countryman Russell Brown, who has a time of 3:51.45 to his credit this year. Kenya’s Augustine Choge – who has run 3:53.81 this year – has been running consistently well this year. Britain’s Andrew Baddeley hasn’t – but his Oslo Golden Mile victory of 2008 in 3:49.38 continues to indicate his rich potential.


Spencer and Hejnova square off in 400m Hurdles


Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica has a four point lead in the 400m hurdles Diamond Race, but she will be under pressure tomorrow to hold off the challenge of the Czech Republic athlete who beat her in their last Diamond League meeting in Paris in a world-leading time of 53.29sec -  Zuzana Hejnova.


Hejnova, who took gold in this year’s European Team Championship, will also face strong opposition in the form of Spencer’s team mate Melaine Walker, the Olympic champion, who was third in the Eugene Diamond League in 53.56 and who finished second to Spencer in the most recent Diamond League in Stockholm.


Meanwhile Britain’s Perri Shakes-Drayton, who not only won the 400m Hurdles title at last weekend’s Aviva Championships and Trials but also won over 400m flat, defeating Olympic 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu in the process, will be seeking to make a further advance into world class territory in front of a big home crowd. She may be on for beating her PB of 54.18.


Murer and Spiegelburg take on rapidly-rising Strutz


Russia’s World and Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva produced a victory in her Diamond League debut in Stockholm on 29 July, having returned to outdoor action after a long lay-off. Isinbayeva is not competing in London however, which means that her rivals will be able to take advantage tomorrow to shore up their Diamond Race positions.


Brazil’s Diamond Race winner of last year, Fabiana Murer, who is second in this year’s standings, four points behind Germany’s Silke Spiegelburg, will be hoping to do better than she managed at the Stockholm event, where she was fifth. But her best this season of 4.70m has been matched by three others in the field – Russia’s former World champion Svetlana Feofanova, Nikolia Kiriakopoulou of Greece, and Britain’s 19-year-old Holly Bleasdale.


Spiegelburg has reached 4.75m this season, but that mark is bettered by one other in the field – her German colleague Martina Strutz, who cleared 4.78m in Karlsruhe last month.  


In the absence of Germany’s World Discus champion Robert Harting, the two men who stand a point above him at the head of the Diamond Race have the opportunity of gaining ground on Saturday – Gerd Kanter, Estonia’s Olympic champion, and Lithuania’s former World and Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna.


But the level of competition will be high, with Britain’s 19-year-old European under 23 champion Lawrence Okoye, who set a national record of 67.63m this season, Germany’s Martin Wierig, who has thrown a personal best of 67.21m this year, and Hungary’s Zoltan Kovago, who heads this year’s world lists with 69.50m, all looking capable of victory.


Rypakova vs Saladukha in Triple Jump


Kazakhstan’s IAAF World indoor Triple Jump champion Olga Rypakova appears to be coming into top form at the ideal time given her season’s best of 14.96m in a home tournament at Almaty on 27 July. But she will need to be at the top of her game Friday to overcome Ukraine’s European champion Olha Saladukha, whose personal best effort of 14.98m earned victory at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Eugene and stands as the second best effort posted in the world this year, a centimetre behind the effort with which Cuba’s World champion Yargelis Savigne – who is not due to compete in London - won the Samsung Diamond League in Paris last month. Saladukha, just two points behind Savigne in this year’s Diamond Race, will be hoping to take over at the top with a decent margin.


Milcah Chemos will be seeking to extend her Diamond Race lead in Saturday’s 3000m Steeplechase against a field where her strongest challengers look likely to be fellow Kenyans. Chemos has run 9:12.89sec this year, top of the 2011 times. Her colleagues Mercy Njoroge is third fastest this year with 9:16.94, and Lydia Rotich is the fourth fastest in 2011 with 9:19.20.


The women’s 5000m on Saturday looks like being an open race, although it never does to bet against Ethiopians in this event and Genet Yalew, with a 2011 best of 15:10.45, and Waganesh Mekasha, who has done 15:11.50 this year, are the two fastest according on the line this year. The U.S. pair of Amy Hastings and Jen Rhines, with 2011 bests of 15:14.31 and 15:14.88 respectively, look capable of a sustained challenge, and Britain’s European indoor 3000m champion Helen Clitheroe will seek to add further distinction to her career at the age of 37.


Elsewhere – home crowd feast with Farah, Idowu, Ohuruogu and Williams


Home spectators will be watching four other events which fall outside the Diamond Race framework with special attention.


Mo Farah, who heads this year’s world lists at both 5000 and 10,000m, will finish off the first day’s events over 3000m, and Phillips Idowu faces the U.S. champion Christian Taylor on Saturday in what will be his last competition before setting off to defend his World Triple Jump title.


Olympic 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, who is dependent on a discretionary selection if she is to contest this year’s World Championships, will have a chance to sharpen up tomorrow against a field which includes the U.S. World Champion Sanya Richards-Ross, who like Ohuruogu is still seeking top form this year, and a trio of swift Jamaicans headed by Novlene Williams-Mills, who has run 50.05 this season.


Meanwhile Britain’s 17-year-old  Jodie Williams, who last month added the European Under 20 100 and 200m titles to the World Junior 100m title she won in Moncton last year,  is hoping to build on her success as she takes part in what will be her Grand Prix debut over 200m tomorrow against fellow former age-group World champions, Bianca Knight and Shalonda Solomon.


Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF


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