Pérec, Fredericks, Herbert, Edwards & Parviainen to
star in Lahti
Chris Turner
28 July 1999 - Three times Olympic champion, Marie-José Pérec of France will make her comeback tonight in Lahti, Finland, at one of the Finnish Federation's Elite Games series.
Pérec, who won her first Olympic title at 200 metres in 1992, will be lining up at the same distance in Lahti, and so makes her first competitive appearance since recovering from the viral illness which made her miss the entire 1998 season.
The athletics world will be interested to see how the 31 year old Pérec, who also won the 200/400 metres double in Atlanta in 1996 will react to competition in even the relatively quiet surroundings of Lahti.
Lahti's stadium which hosted the Europa Cup A Final in June, is better known as the home of Nordic sports in Finland and has hosted the World Nordic Championships on a number of occasions. However, on Wednesday night as well as Pérec, it will play host to a number of other international stars of track & field.
Namibia's magnificent Frankie Fredericks will contest the 100 metres with 1992 Olympic 200 metres champion Mike Marsh (USA) and Leonard Myles-Mills of Ghana.
South Africa's Llewellyn Herbert who set a world indoor best for the 300m hurdles when he was in Finland at the Tampere indoor meeting in February, will this time tackle the more usual 400 metres hurdles distance.
The triple jump will also be keenly contested with world record holder Jonathan Edwards (GBR) taking on three 17 metre plus jumpers, Ndabazinhle Mdhlongwa (ZIM), Andrew Owusu (GHA) and Australian Andrew Murphy.
In the javelin, world leader Aki Parvainen will be up against Britain's European silver medallist Mick Hill and 1991 World Champion Kimmo Kinnunen.
After Marie-Jose Pérec's 200 metres, the other highlight of the women's programme would seem to be the pole vault where the world record must surely be under threat when Ukrianian Anzhela Balahonova faces Tajana Grigorjeva, now of Australia. The result of this contest should be a good pointer as to how the medals will be awarded in Sevilla this August with both women in superb form at present.
