Jeshua Anderson improves to 48.13 in Tucson (© Kirby Lee)
U.S. 400m Hurdles champion Jeshua Anderson will be among the athletes making their final tune-ups for the upcoming IAAF World Championships (Daegu, Korea 27 Aug - 4 Sep) at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China, this week.
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The Universiade is a biennial sports competition for students and, after the Olympic Games, is the second largest sport event in the world. This year, the 26th edition of these Games will be held in Shenzhen. Grown from a small fisher town in the late 1970s, Shenzen is now one of the most rapidly expanding cities in China. At present it has more that 14 million inhabitants and has now the fourth largest harbour in the world.
For the organization of the Universiade all sports facilities have been newly built and also all athletes and officials are housed in new built locations. In total more than 13,000 athletes will participate in 24 different sports. In total 306 arts of sports medals will be awarded, 50 of those in athletics. In total athletes from 170 countries are expected.
Athletics takes centre stage
As is the case in the Olympic Games, athletics is seen as the premiere sport at the Universiade as well, and it will therefore be held in the second half of the overall programme. Athletics competition begins on Tuesday (16) and will continue through Sunday (21).
More than 1600 athletes have confirmed their participation in track and field, including the Half Marathon and the 20Km Race Walk. In the men’s 100 and 200m more than 80 athletes are on the start list; 61 are entered in the men’s Long Jump.
With the start of the IAAF World Championships less than one week after the Universiade, many of the top athletes have decided to not include the Games in their planning. On the other hand many younger athletes have decided to go to Shenzhen to experience the atmosphere of such an event and to learn what they can expect next year in London, when many of them will make their debut in the Olympic Games. Only due to this it can be expected that the level of the competition will be high and that a number of younger athletes will show up on the international light.
Final pre-Daegu tests for Anderson
Among the standout names in Shenzhen is Joshua Anderson of the U.S., the season’s second fastest 400m Hurdler at 47.93 sec, who is the favourite. With Britons Jack Green and Nathan Woodward in the field this event has two more world class athletes on the start line.
Much will be expected in the jumping and throwing events. In the men’s High Jump three athletes have cleared 2.30m this season: Russian Sergey Mudrov, Ukraine’s Bogdan Bondarenko and Erik Kynard of the U.S.
The the men’s Pole Vault, Karsten Dilla of Germany and Pole Lokasz Michalski have topped 5.72, this season, while Russian Viktor Kozlitin is not far behind at 5.66m. In the men’s Long Jump much can be expected from local favourite and reigning Asian champion Su Xiongfeng of China.
In all the throwing events the current top-10 from the world lists will be represented. In the men’s Shot Put with Russian Alexandr Lobynya (21.00m), Discus Throw through Estonian Mart Israel (66.98m), the Hammer Throw with Poland’s Pawel Fajdek (78.54m), and the Javelin Throw with Avan Faith of Trkey and Roman Avramenko of Ukraine who have both thrown 84 metres this season.
The Decathlon features a rematch of last month’s European U23 Championships where the hampion Thomas Vanderplaetsen of Belgium and Eduard Mikhan of Belarus were separated by just five points.
In the women’s jumps expectations will be high in the Long Jump and High Jump, with four athletes who have bettered 6.80m and 1.94m, respectively, this year.
One athlete who will be defending her Universiade title is South African Sunette Viljoen in the Javelin Throw. In Belgrade she smashed the African record with a 65.43m, a distance she’s meanwhile improved to 66.38m. With countrywomen Justine Robbeson and Russian Marina Maksimova in the field, she’ll face a stiff challenge.
With so many young athletes on the starting lists many surprises can be expected.
Semenya out
South Africa’s reigning World 800m champion Caster Semenya, who took gold in Berlin two years ago in 1:55.45 was due to compete but is reported to have pulled out due to a back injury, as a precaution ahead of her World title defence in Daegu. Her main opponent was to have been Russian Elena Kofanova who has clocked 1:58.25 this season.
Hans van Kuijen for the IAAF
