Previews10 May 2012


A very high quality field in Doha – PREVIEW – Samsung Diamond League

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Meserat Defar, Allyson Felix, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Vivian Cheruyiot in Doha (© Jiro Mochizuki)

Organisers of the opening Samsung Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha on Friday 11 May received special praise from Lamine Diack, President of the International Association of Athletics Associations, for their efforts in producing a "very high quality" field. Even so early in the Olympic season, the Qatar Sports Club, and the wider world, will witness a series of world class rivalries in action.

Expected highlights

Reigning World and double Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown will come up against the American who has three World 200m titles to her name, Allyson Felix, in a 100 metres which includes the Jamaica’s Olympic gold and silver medallists in Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce and joint runners-up Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart.

In the women’s 3000m, Kenya’s World 5000 and 10,000m champion Vivian Cheruyiot will take on her Ethiopian rival Meseret Defar, the former Olympic and World 5000m champion, while another Olympic champion, Barbora Spotakova, meets the Russian who so dramatically deprived her of the World Javelin title in Daegu last year, Maria Abakumova.

Meanwhile the men’s competition will see the first big test for Jamaica’s former World 100m record holder Asafa Powell, whose fellow countrymen Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake have already registered opening times of 9.82 and 9.84sec in what promises to be an electric season of sprinting competition. Powell will test himself against a field which includes the 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin of the United States, while in the 200 metres, another American Walter Dix, silver medallist at 100 and 200m in Daegu, is intent on sending out his own early warning to the Jamaicans who have just managed to edge ahead of him on every important moment in the last few years.

The US-Jamaica rivalry in the sprints is mirrored in the middle distance events by that between Ethiopia and Kenya, and the meeting of Defar and Cheruyiot will be matched on the night by the men’s 3000m. This race which is not one of the 16 Diamond Race scoring events in Doha will bring together Ethiopia’s double Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele, eager to test his London 2012 ambitions after finishing last year with the fastest 10,000m time of the season, and a group of hugely talented Kenyan rivals including Augustine Choge, the World Indoor 3000m silver medallist, and Eliud Kipchoge, former world 5000m champion.

Felix defending a 100% record in Doha

Felix may be outnumbered in terms of nationality when she toes the line in the Qatar Sports Club tomorrow night, but she can draw comfort from her 100 per cent record in Doha.

"I’m very excited to be here," she told the pre-event press conference. "It’s my eighth time coming to this meeting. Obviously I like it – Doha has been good to me. This will be over 100m, so it will be very tough. But I really enjoy competing against Veronica – I think it’s a very healthy rivalry – and although this race doesn’t say too much about the 200m in London for me it’s an important early step and an opportunity to work on some technical things."

Campbell-Brown commented: "Competing against Allyson always brings the best out of me, and I will also be looking to see how my technique is going."

Stewart’s technique is obviously coming along pretty well on the evidence of last weekend’s race at the Jamaica Invitational meeting in Kingston, where she finished third in 10.98sec, the third fastest time of the early season, behind Trinidad and Tobago's Kelly-Ann Baptiste and world champion Carmelita Jeter of the United States, who won in 10.81.

Powell - Precautionary pull-out only in Kingston

Powell explained that he had pulled out of his planned 200m in Kingston as a precaution ahead of tomorrow night’s race, which is not part of the Diamond Race programme, saying he had been "concerned" not to aggravate the groin problem which undermined his progress last season by running the bend. "Running the curve would have been a problem for me," he said. "I think it was the right decision for me so that I could compete here."

"I’m feeling good. We have to be prepared for the Olympics this year, and this race will be the first where I am preparing myself for the bigger one to come. The last time I was here I ran very well so I hope I can go out and do something similar tomorrow."

Running here in the first ever Diamond League meeting in 2010, Powell recorded a windy 9.75sec before winning the final in the relatively conservative time of 9.81. A bit more of the same would allow him to share some of the early bragging rights already being claimed by the likes of Bolt and Blake.

Gatlin, who regained the World Indoor 60m title in March, has run 20.11sec for 200m this season, and this race will be his first 100m outing of the year. Powell is joined by three fellow Jamaicans – Lerone Clarke, who clocked 10.03 in Kingston last weekend, Nesta Carter, world silver medallist behind Gatlin in Istanbul, and Jaques Harvey, the 2011 World University Games champion.

Dix is intent on restoring US predominance in the 200m

"Jamaica has got some great athletes, but I think the United States is not as far behind as people would think," Dix told the press conference. "I think this year is going to be a breakout year for USA sprinters."

Dix, who clocked 20.06 to equal Ramon Clay’s meeting record last year, will take on a 200m field which includes Arab Games champion Aziz Ouhadi, Norwegian record holder Jaysuma Saidy Ndure and Churandy Martina of the Netherlands, fourth in the 2008 Olympic 100m final.

At the double in London?

Defar, who first raced in Doha in 2001 as a 17-year-old, will be looking to tomorrow night’s race to gauge her chances of collecting further gold in London. "This is my first outdoor competition of the season and I want to see how my Olympic preparations are going," she said. "This race is for my speed."

The Ethiopian is seeking to return to top form after dropping out of the World Championship 10,000m final in Daegu and finishing third in the 5000m. She said she will wait until Rome to decide if she will double in London. Meanwhile the woman who won both races, Cheruyiot, says she is definitely planning to double up again in London.

Others in a strong field include Ethiopia’s Gelete Burka, who won the World Indoor title in Doha two years ago, and Wude Ayalew, a world 10,000m medallist in 2009, while Cheruyiot’s compatriots include Sylvia Kibet, twice a world silver medallist over 5000m.

Close contest expected in the Javelin

Abakumova’s Javelin victory in Daegu after a competition where the lead switched between herself and Spotakova, with both women bettering 70 metres, was memorable. It took an effort of 71.99m by Abakumova, the second best ever, to wrest the title from the Czech athlete, who holds the World record of 72.28.

Others lurking in the field include the German pair of Linda Stahl, the 2010 European champion, and double World silver medallist Christina Obergfoll.

Test time for Bekele

Bekele reflected today upon the final flourish he produced at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Brussels last season, when he recorded the fastest 10,000m time of the year, 26:43.16, less than three weeks after dropping out while defending his World 10,000m title in Daegu.

"That was a very important race for me in terms of building up my confidence and mental strength," he said, before looking ahead to his first big outdoor test of the new season. "This race will be very important for all of us – it will mean we can check our own form and check on each other. I hope it will be a fast race. I want to test myself because it is going to be a long season."

Bekele showed something of his form in April when he won the Great Ireland Run 10km road race in a personal best of 27:49. His last 3000m was in 2009, when he ran 7:28.64, while his PB came two years earlier – 7:25.79. Bekele’s young fellow countryman Yenew Alamirew smashed the course record here last year as he won in 7:27.26 ahead of three Kenyans who have returned this year – Edwin Soi, Eliud Kipchoge and Augustine Choge.

One lap meet record to go?

The men’s 400m brings together two of the United States’ strongest performers over the single lap in Olympic champion and World silver medallist LaShawn Merritt and Angelo Taylor, twice Olympic champion in the 400m Hurdles.

The meeting record of 44.79sec looks under threat in a race which also includes Britain’s Martyn Rooney, who dipped under 45sec in Walnut last month to record 44.92 – the second fastest time of the year behind the 44.73 run by Merritt.

Olympic champion Brimin Kipruto will start as favourite in a 3000m Steeplechase field dominated by Kenyans. Kipruto was beaten to the world title last year by fellow Kenyan Ezekiel Kemboi and will seek a winning start to his year. Kemboi is not in the line-up, by Kipruto will have his rival’s track record of 7:58.85 in his sights.

The women’s 100m Hurdles brings together Jamaica’s 37-year-old Brigitte Foster-Hylton, second in this year’s world lists after her 12.51sec in Kingston last weekend, and a trio of US hurdlers headed by Kellie Wells, who has run 12.55 this season. Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep and Perdita Felicien will also expect to be in the mix, with Lopes-Schliep having run 12.64 to finish second to Foster-Hylton, just seven months after giving birth to a daughter.

Maintaining a Kenyan tradition at 1500m

Kenya has dominated the men’s 1500m event in Doha, with 11 wins in the last 12 years. Their World and Olympic champion, Asbel Kiprop, and their World silver medallist Silas Kiplagat will be hoping to maintain that tradition, as will Nixon Chepseba, who beat Kiplagat in a scorching race here last year.

But the Kenyans will have a serious challenge on their hands in the form of Abubaker Kaki of Sudan, the World Indoor 800m champion of 2008 and 2010, who is seeking to widen his sphere of competitive possibility in Olympic year after recording 3:31.76 at last year’s Monaco Diamond League meeting, a national record. Kaki will be after a flying start to his year after missing the indoor season.

Hamza Driouch, a 17-year-old who has been setting world age bests in the last year, will be representing the host nation. Driouch is a huge prospect, having set a World Youth best of 2:17.44 for 1000m at the World Youth Games.

Another home favourite, Mutaz Barshim, thrilled the crowd last season when, at 19, he pushed Jesse Williams of the United States and Kyriakos Ioannou of Cyprus all the way before finishing third in the High Jump. Barshim, as Aspire Academy student in Doha, finished the season with a national record of 2.35 and golds at the Arab Championships and Arab Games. Sadly he won’t be competing here, but his younger brother, Muamer, will, along with another Qatari hope, 23-year-old Rashid Ahmed Al-Mannai, who won the 2010 Continental Cup in Split with 2.28. Williams is in the field, as is the Greek World Indoor champion Dimitris Chondrokoukis and Russia’s Aleksey Dmitrik.

Rudisha set to cement season lead

One of the main reasons for Kaki’s lateral thinking this year will be present in the men’s 800m race – World champion and World record holder David Rudisha. The elegant Kenyan was unbeaten in all but one race last year and leads this year’s lists with his 1:44.33 clocking in Melbourne in early March.

His main opposition is expected to come from fellow countryman Alfred Kirwa Yego, the 2007 World champion, while two other Kenyans, Richard Kiplagat and David Mutua, could also figure. Britons Andrew Osagie and Michael Rimmer will hope to be inspired to swift times in a race that falls outside the Diamond Race framework on the night.

Mbango seeking third Olympic title

Francoise Mbango Etone, double Olympic Triple Jump champion for Cameroon, is now in French colours. But the Olympics remain her target and she is seeking an encouraging start to a campaign that will see her seek to become the first woman to win three consecutive titles.

Victory will be far from easy, however, given the presence of Russia’s former World champion Tatyana Lebedeva, whom she beat to the Olympic title in Beijing. The 35-year-old Russian will be making her first appearance in a triple jump for three years when she competes in Doha. World silver medallist Olga Rypakova, second in the World Indoor Championships this year, could beat both women to the victory.

Another of the 2008 Olympic champions, 800m runner Pamela Jelimo, will be coming up against the opponent she beat to gold. Jelimo is in the 800m field against fellow Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei, the former World champion, who has won the last six of their meetings.

Fantu Magiso, the 19-year-old Ethiopian record holder who missed a World Indoor medal by one place in March will also be hoping to prove a major player in the race.

Britain’s Greg Rutherford will be hoping to build on his impressive early-season form in the Long Jump having equalled the British record of 8.35m in California last week. He will be up against Olympic silver medallist Godfrey Mokoena of South Africa and the man with whom he now shares the national mark, Chris Tomlinson.

Gerd Kanter of Estonia beat his perennial Lithuanian rival Virgilijus Alekna in Doha last year with a throw of 67.49 and it presaged a World silver medal at Daegu later in the summer behind Germany’s Robert Harting. While the world champion isn’t in Doha, Alekna – now 40 – is. A familiar battle looks set to commence.

Vanessa Boslak, who set a French record of 4.70m in winning Pole Vault silver at this year’s World Indoors, has a special reason to favour Doha, as it was here, a year and a half ago, that she underwent a fourth and successful operation on her left knee which has revived her career.

Boslak will be up against Germany’s Silke Spiegelburg, who set the meeting record of 4.70 in 2010, and Poland’s double world silver medallist Monika Pyrek. There will also be a Russian challenge through Yuliya Golubchikova, the 2009 European Indoor champion.

Olympic 400m Hurdles champion Melaine Walker leads three Jamaicans as they face the challenge of the US athlete who succeeded Walker as World champion last year, Lashinda Demus. Walker indicated she is in potent form by clocking 55.28sec in Kingston last weekend, while Kaliese Spencer, who ran the 400m flat in Kingston, will also be in the frame along with compatriot Stephanie McPherson and Britain’s European bronze medallist Perri Shakes-Drayton.

Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF

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