BRUSSELS – The six meet ÅF Golden League series comes to an end at the Memorial Van Damme in the Belgian capital on Friday night, and it’s quite likely that at least one athlete will go the distance to claim a share of the $1 million Golden League Jackpot.
- D-Day for Jelimo, Vlasic
Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo, undeniably the premiere breakout performer of 2008, will look to cap her stellar season, one in which she took Olympic gold and soared to the No. 3 spot all-time in this her first season of 800m running, with a slice of the jackpot pie. With an average margin of victory hovering above three seconds --unparalleled at this level-- nothing short of major catastrophe will end the 18-year-old’s charge towards the pot of gold.
Her rival in the hunt, Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic, has produced a season similar to the Kenyan’s with her only lapse coming at the Olympic Games where she finished second behind Belgian Tia Hellebaut.
The Belgian, whose gold medal was a first for Belgian women in Olympic track history, ended Vlasic’s 34 meet win streak in Beijing, then the longest in the sport. She is in the field on Friday, but based upon her follow-up performance in Zurich last weekend, when she managed a leap of just 1.90m, she’ll need to yet again rise to the occasion to play spoiler for the second time this season. A bigger threat is Russian Anna Chicherova, the Olympic bronze medallist who has twice cleared 2.03m this season.
She’ll have a crowd of 47,000 behind her at Roi Baudouin stadium, the meeting’s 12th consecutive sell-out. If both Jelimo and Vlasic prevail, the pair will split the pot.
- Bolt, Powell in the 100m
Beyond the jackpot chase’s conclusion, the premiere draw of the meet’s 32nd edition was to be the 100m face-off between history’s three fastest men: Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt, his Jamaican compatriot and former world record holder Asafa Powell, and reigning world champion Tyson Gay.
But Gay’s late hour decision to pull out, confirmed at about 19:45 CET, leaves the focus firmly on the Jamaican pair. Citing a fear of injury, the U.S. champion decided to be an onlooker rather than risk ending his season hurt.
Bolt, who sprung to international stardom after his triple gold and world record performance in Beijing, arrives in Brussels after a 19.63 200m outing in Lausanne and a 9.87 victory in Zurich over the past week. Powell powered to a 9.72 win in Lausanne two nights ago, improving his personal best. Neither likes to lose. [For more, see TPR #824].
- Following tradition, solid middle & long distance program
Brussels has traditionally witnessed fast 800m races, and this year’s should be no different. Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei leads the field in his second outing since his Beijing triumph. A multiple winner here, the Kenyan is aiming for a season’s best to follow-up his sub-par outing in Lausanne on Tuesday where jet lag caught up with him. [For more with Bungei, see TPR #825]
He’ll face world champion and Beijing silver medallist Alfred Kirwa Yego and Youssef Saad Kamel, the former Gregory Konchellah who returns to the 800 after a pair of solid 1500m PBs in Zurich and Lausanne. A pair of pacesetters have been employed to bring the leaders through the half in 50.5 seconds.
In the 1500m, organizers are hoping for the season’s first sub-3:30 run. The field includes Olympic silver medallist Asbel Kiprop, who followed up a lackluster Zurich performance with a victory in the 800 in Lausanne, and Beijing bronze medallist Nick Willis of New Zealand. Zurich winner Haron Keitany is also in the line-up dominated by Kenyans.
With double world record holder and now double Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele already having concluded his European season, the focus in the 10,000m shifts to his Ethiopian compatriot, the perennial bridesmaid Sileshi Sihine. In each major championship in recent years, Sihine has finished second to Bekele in the longest track race, but here he won’t be sharing the spotlight and has indicated that he’s prepared to run very fast.
His career best of 26:39.69, set back in 2004, currently places him on the doorstep of the event’s all-time top-10.
According to meet director Wilfreid Meert, Kenyans Micah Kogo and Moses Masai also have ambitious plans. The pair finished third and fourth in Beijing behind Bekele and Sihine.
The three have asked for a 13:10 to 13:12 pace for the first 5000m, but as is often the case, pacesetters in that sort of shape in early September are extremely difficult to find. Complicating matters is that Kenyans won’t generally pace for Ethiopians, and vice versa.
Also in the deep field are Kenyan-born Qatari Abdullah Ahmad Hassan, who was eighth in the Olympics, and American record holder Meb Keflezighi.
After suffering a bitter disappointment in Beijing, Meseret Defar will be looking to end her season on a high note in the 5000m. The world champion has asked for a world record pace with the hopes of reclaiming the standard, particularly after her bid in Stockholm in late July, where she clocked 14:12.88, fell about a second-and-a-half short of the 14:11.15 record set by Tirunesh Dibaba in Oslo in June. Russian Olga Komyagina, the best pacer on the circuit, will assist for the first two kilometers, while Ayelew Wude, the winner in Monaco, will try to bring her compatriot through 3000m in 8:38.
Behind her the race promises to be competitive as well, with Kenyans Linet Masai and Lucy Kabuu and Russian Liliya Shobukhova in pursuit.
The men’s 5000m features Olympic silver medallist Eliud Kipchoge, whose primary goal, outside of crossing the line first, is Bekele’s week old world-leading 12:50.18. At that pace, only Moses Kipsiro of Uganda, fourth in Beijing, can be expected to keep pace with the Kenyan.
The goal in the steeplechase is the season’s first sub-8:00. The primary battle is expected between a pair of Kenyans: Olympic champion Brimin Kipruto and Paul Kipsiele Koech, who missed the Olympics after finishing fourth at the Kenyan trials. The latter has produced the year’s three fastest performances, topped by a 8:00.57. Frenchman Bob Tahri, fifth in Beijing, and Tareq Mubarak Taher, the season’s third fastest, may also be factors.
- Stewart, Simpson square off in 200 as Gevaert Bids Adieu
The high propane in the women’s sprints will come in the 200m where Olympic medalists Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart of Jamaica top the field. Stewart struck silver in 100 and bronze in the 200 in Beijing while Simpson took bronze in the 100 and finished six in the 200. 400m champion Christine Ohuruogo of Great Britain is also in the line-up.
The women’s 100m will likely be an emotional affair, as the sell-out crowd will bid adieu to the darling of Belgian athletics, Kim Gevaert. The two-time European 100 and 200m champion captured the first Olympic medal of her career as part of the silver medal winning Belgian 4x100m relay just a few weeks after announcing that she would be retiring from the sport. The 30-year-old will race for the final time on Friday night where she’ll contest the 100m.
Her chief challengers look to be Bahamian Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie and Americans Me’Lisa Barber and Carmelita Jeter.
The only other women’s field event on the program is the pole vault, where Yelena Isinbayeva returns to action. Even on her worst days, the two-time world and two-time Olympic champion is difficult to beat. After spending the week in relative seclusion after a busy post-Bejing schedule, she’s apparently again in near-top form.
Sally McLellan of Australia and Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, silver and bronze winners in Beijing, lead the field in the 100m hurdles, where they’ll take on world leader Lolo Jones and Lausanne winner Delloreen Ennis-London
The javelin rivalry between Norway’s two-time Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen and reigning world champion Tero Pitkamaki continues, with Thorkildsen bringing 90m momentum to the Belgian capital.
Elsewhere, Olympic silver medallists Jeremey Wariner and Kerron Clement are respectively the class of the 400m and 400m hurdles fields, while Hussein Taher Al-Sabee is the man to beat in the long jump
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