| Watch over 50 IAAF Events Live and On-Demand at WCSN.com |
PARIS -- The chase for the $1 million ÅF Golden League Jackpot resumes at the Stade de France outside of Paris on Friday night, putting the primary focus of the Meeting Gaz de France Golden League fixture squarely on the shoulders of two women who have come to dominate their respective events.
Left in the hunt for a share the $1 million pie, the richest prize in the sport, are Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic and this year’s breakout phenom, Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo.
As the reigning world champion indoors and outdoors, Vlasic needs little introduction. A 32-meet win streak, the longest in the sport, speaks for itself. Twice over 2.06m this season, Vlasic hasn’t jumped less than two meters in competition for more than a year ago, and that instance had everything to do with the rains swirling around her.
Jelimo, just 18, has been no less dominant this spring and early summer, keeping busy rewriting the all-time 800m lists in this, just her first season of running the event. She’s run under 1:56 three times already, capped by her 1:54.99 run in Berlin to become the African record holder. Only five women have ever run faster.
The primary challenger for Vlasic will be steadily rising German Ariane Friedrich, who’s improved to 2.03m this season, and Spaniard Ruth Beitia, who has a 2.01m clearance to her credit this summer. For Jelimo, the nearest threat is compatriot and reigning world champion Janeth Jepkosgei, who will be trying valiantly to come within three seconds of the rising star; that’s been the average victory margin for Jelimo in her last six races. [For a brief summary of Vlasic and Jelimo’s 2008 seasons, see my story for the IAAF at http://www.iaaf.org/GLE08/news/newsid=46141.html ]
While the fields are uncharacteristically thin on many of the events --indeed, several fields were severely depleted over the course of the week-- the slate nonetheless includes several notable pre-Beijing tune-ups along with some scintillating head-to-head battles.
For fans of those grudge matches, nothing is bigger in the sport right now than Wariner v. Merritt in the 400m. Merritt has forcefully emerged as the biggest --and thus far only-- threat to the Olympic and two-time world champion, taking victories in two of their three meetings this season. Merritt struck first at the Golden League opener in Berlin, winning by a mere 0.04 seconds, 44.03 to 44.07. Their match at the U.S. trials wasn’t particularly close, with Merritt taking a decisive victory. Last Friday, Wariner struck back to win a virtual dead heat by 0.01 seconds in 44.36.
Neither likes to lose, and with each passing week, the pair particularly don’t like losing to the other.
A nascent rivalry over the same distance, albeit with hurdles, is building between the two most recent world championships, 2005 winner Bershawn Jackson and Kerron Clement, the winner last August in Osaka.
“I won’t single out a particular competitor,” Clement said. “Pretty much everybody is dangerous.”
At the moment, no one more so than Jackson, who won the U.S trials from Klement before the latter turned the tables last weekend in Rome, knocking Jackson out of the Jackpot chase. Beijing-bound Angelo Taylor and Greece's European champion Periklis Iakovakis of Greece are also in the field.
Dayron Robles, who lowered the world record to 12.87 in Ostrava a month ago, tops the field in the men’s 110m hurdles. He’s been dominant in virtually each of his outings since, but in Paris will meet his biggest challenge in recent weeks, facing Beijing-bound American Terrence Trammell. A two-time Olympic silver medallist, Trammell will be making his first start since the U.S. trials.
In the women’s event, the primary head-to-head will be between Jamaican Delloreen Ennis-London, second in Rome last weekend, and Spaniard Josephine Onyia, who won the first two GL fixtures while improving her PB to 12.50 this year.
With Asafa Powell sidelined with what his camp describes as a minor groin injury, the focus will be on a pair of Beijing-bound Americans, Wallace Spearmon and Shawn Crawford, who will be contesting the 200m in the Chinese capital next month. The pair have run 10.07 an 10.09 this season, respectively, although the favorite may well be Marc Burns of Trinidad, who has run 10.01 this season. The field's only sub-ten men in 2008 is American Mark Jelks.
The short dash offering on the women’s program is the 200m, and most eyes at the massive Stade de France will quite likely be focused on American Muna Lee, the only American woman whose Olympic double dash ambitions survived the U.S. Trials. [For more on Lee, see TPR # 787]. She’ll face U.S. 400m champion Sanya Richards, who’s in town for more speedwork. Local focus will be on Muriel Hurtis-Houairi.
The strongest field on the men’s side will be the 1500m, led by world leader Augustine Choge and Rome winner Asbel Kiprop, the pair who will lead the Kenyan charge in Beijing. Choge won the Berlin leg of the GL in 3:31.57, a personal best for the 21-year-old whil Kiprop, still a junior at 19, impressed many observers with his confident homestretch drive to handily win the Golden Gala in 3:31.64, also a PB.
Another Kenyan expected to contend is Shedrack Korir, the world championships bronze medallist, who has also dipped under 3:32 this summer.
Early start lists included American Alan Webb, the winner here last year, but according his manager Ray Flynn, Webb was never confirmed for the race and will not be in the Stade de France tonight.
The women’s metric mile field is a solid one as well, led by world champion Maryam Jamal. The 23-year-old Bahraini arrives on the heels of her debut over the distance in Athens last Sunday, where she clocked a solid 4:00.67.
Others looking to challenge include Ukrainian Iryna Lishchynska, the 2007 world bronze medallist who won in Madrid this year; Ethiopian Gelete Burka, the bronze medallist at the world indoors in March, who was apparently selected for Beijing; and Australian Sarah Jamieson, who's clocked 4:02.44 this season.
Of particular interest to Americans will be recently-minted national champion Shannon Rowbury's first outing over the distance since Eugene. The 23-year-old has already knocked nearly 12 seconds from her pre-2008 best, improving to 4:01.61.
The wide open men’s 3000m is almost exclusively an African affair. The standout name is Edwin Soi, the 3000/5000m winner at last year’s World Athletics Final and the 5000m winner at the Kenyan trials.
With Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi not racing, the spotlight will focus on Richard Matelong, world championships bronze medallist, in the steeplechase. The 24-year-old has chiseled together an impressive season, with victories in Doha, Hengelo and at the African Championships before finishing third at the Kenyan Trials. The European focus will be on continental champion Jukka Keskisalo of Finland and Swede Mustapha Mohamad, who was fourth at the world championships last year.
World champion and world leader Irving Saladino leads the long jump field which includes Olympic champion Dwight Phillips of the U.S. An abdomen injury in the lead-in to the U.S. trials kept him off the Beijing squad after finishing fourth in Eugene. Primary challengers include Italy’s Osaka silver medallist Andrew Howe is set to return after some nagging injuries and world indoor champion Godfrey Mokoena of South Africa.
Australian Steven Hooker joined the six-meter club this year, and heads the men’s pole vault field. US champion Derek Miles is also in the line-up along with another Australian six-meter man, Paul Burgess.
Minus the event's Big 2 --Finn Tero Pitkamaki and Norway's Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen-- Australian Jarrod Bannister, who increased the national record to an impressive 89.02m this year, will be the man to watch.
The women’s 5000m was hit particularly hard with cancellations, most notably by the Ethiopian federation’s decision to not send the Dibaba sisters --world record holder Tirunesh, Ejegayehu and junior Genzebe-- leaving a field of just five and a pacesetter.
The focus thus falls on Kenyna trials winner Priscah Cherono, third in Rome last weekend, and Lucy Wangui, the Kenyan trials 10,000m champion.
Know someone else who's interested in running and triathlon?
