Liu Xiang on his way to 12.92 win in New York (© Victah Sailer)
It's not much of a stretch to call China’s Liu Xiang the best-known track athlete in the world. The reluctant but resigned athletics hero of the world's most populous nation as it prepares to host the world's most-watched athletics event, Liu holds all three major global titles in the sprint hurdles (the Olympic and World titles in the 110m Hurdles and the World Indoor Championship title in the 60m hurdles), as well as the World record in the 110m Hurdles. With all this behind him, almost everything Liu does can be considered a rehearsal of some aspect of the Beijing Olympic final, which may be the biggest race of Liu's life.
So much the better that Liu's next race will come in a city where his athletic fame is overshadowed by baseball players who are seldom called on to sprint more than 90 feet without turning left.
Saturday night (31st) in New York City, Liu will get in the blocks with the two men who took the lesser medals behind him in Osaka last summer, Terrence Trammell (silver) and David Payne (bronze).
In the 2007 edition of the Reebok Grand Prix, which like this year’s meeting is a Grand Prix status meeting as part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour, Liu set the event record (and American all-comers record) of 12.92, with Trammell close behind.
For this year's event, being held for the fourth time in Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island in New York's East River, Liu has arrived in the USA earlier than last year, hoping to reduce the effects of the twelve-hour time change which bothered him then. He might get advice on that topic from Payne, who shrugged off all such concerns following his last-minute arrival in Osaka last summer. Hurdlers will be called in New York around the time Liu's hometown of Shanghai is waking up for Sunday morning.
Speed Merchants
The men's 100m is loaded with plenty of men capable of running down not just a Manhattan cabbie, but some subway trains. Reigning World champion Tyson Gay, who ran a wind-aided 9.76 here last year, will face Jamaican star Usain Bolt, who matched that time without the wind earlier this month, the second-fastest legal time ever. Bolt may be called the crowd favourite even in Gay's home country, as Jamaican expatriates make up a large and enthusiastic fraction of the audience here as they do at the Penn Relays in April.
It's rare that a sprint race is a true duel, and Gay and Bolt will be joined by 2004 Olympic 200m champion Shawn Crawford and former NCAA champion Xavier Carter, both capable of winning a race of this calibre should either Gay or Bolt falter. With Bolt and Gay, respectively silver and gold medallists in the 200m in Osaka last summer, facing off at 100m, the 200m is wide open for that event's bronze medallist, Wallace Spearmon Jr.
It's not just the men's 100m which is loaded, as in the 110m Hurdles, all three Osaka medallists will contest the women's 100m, with Veronica Campbell-Brown, Lauryn Williams, and Carmelita Jeter all on the start lists for that race.
Of the three, Campbell-Brown has had the best start in 2008, but the best female sprinter of the young 2008 season is also running in New York, and she's not one of these three. Allyson Felix, whose 10.93 from Doha leads the world this year, will have the best chance of besting Campbell-Brown at 100m; Williams and Jeter will double back in the event where Felix is the World Champion, the 200m, later in the evening.
Another mark for Stuczynski?
Jennifer Stuczynski dominates the 2008 women's Pole Vault list with the top three marks, including a 4.90m PB two weeks ago in California; only World record holder Yelena Isinbayeva has vaulted higher. New York was Stuczynski's season's best in 2007, at 4.88m, and the young American still has several centimetres to climb to match Isinbayeva.
Look for the bar to go higher than 4.90m - if not higher than 5.00m - if conditions allow.
Throwing weight around
The men's field events will be anchored by the men's Shot Put as the two best putters of the indoor season - Adam Nelson and Christian Cantwell - will be joined by defending World champion Reese Hoffa. This trio, any one of whom is capable of taking gold in Beijing, are likely to rewrite the year's list with the metal ball, if not in New York, then within the month. John Godina, who would once have hurled the shot himself, will contest the discus along with Ian Waltz and Jarred Rome, currently 3rd and 6th, respectively, on the year's list. Rome threw a PB here last year which was briefly a world leader, and has bettered his PB already in 2008.
Richards, Clement in one-lap races
Sanya Richards hopes to take her place atop the world list in the women's 400m, her specialty; her best mark so far this year leaves her fifth on the year's list. If competition brings out the best in athletes, Richards will have it in New York, as the two women immediately ahead of her on the seasonal list, Mary Wineberg (4th) and Novlene Williams (3rd, also the place she finished in Osaka), are also competing in New York.
Osaka World Champion Kerron Clement will be racing the men's 400m Hurdles, and so far his match has not been seen this year. Clement leads the season's list by nearly a full second.
Middle distances looking for magic
Conditions in New York in late May can be variable, with relatively cool conditions in 2006 producing mediocre sprinting but an unexpected 5000m World record for Meseret Defar, and a warmer day in 2007 allowing for Gay's blazing 100m but suffocating attempts to duplicate Defar's distance magic. The best middle-distance and distance runners competing in the USA this spring appear to be waiting for the Prefontaine Classic, historically more distance-friendly, next weekend, but Bahrain's World 1500m champion Maryam Yusuf Jamal will be in the 800m in New York, facing a collection of America's best 800m and 1500m women.
Carmen Douma-Hussar and Sarah Jamieson highlight the women's 1500m, while Kevin Sullivan and Boaz Cheboiywo lead the men's event. New Zealand's Commonwealth Games 1500m champion, Nick Willis, will toe the line for the 800m.
Alistair Cragg (IRL) and Kim Smith (NZL) lead entries for the men's and women's 5000m races, respectively.
Parker Morse for the IAAF
