David Rudisha at pre-meeting press conference in Lausanne (© Giancarlo Colombo)
- World 800 metres record holder David Rudisha after injury forced him out of earlier meetings in Doha and Rome will hit the Samsung Diamond League trail for the first time this summer in Lausanne on Thursday (30 June).
Rudisha has arrived for the seventh leg of the Samsung Diamond League aiming to chase a second successive victory at the Athletissima meeting which boasts an entry list including five Olympic gold medallists, 13 champions from the IAAF 2009 World Championships in Berlin and 12 winners from last summer's European Championships.
"I was happy with my race but not so surprised" with comeback
The 22-year-old Kenyan admits he is itching to get back to racing at this top level and is welcoming in particular rubbing shoulders again with World champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa, while Poland's European title winner Marcin Lewandowski from Poland will be eager to test both of them.
Rudisha started 2011 by setting an impressive and an early season world lead of 1:43.66 seconds in Melbourne on 3 March but a few weeks later on home soil he started having ankle problems which restricted his training schedule.
"I think it was 23 April I was first troubled with my (left) ankle," he said. "I was just working on my preparations for Doha but I was not comfortable with the pain in the ankle."
Rudisha whose European base is in Tübingen, Germany, the home of his manager James Templeton, added: "I wasn’t able to do much training but by the time I arrived in Germany on 21 May I had been running in training shoes for ten days or so.”
"It was another two weeks before I was able to do any work in spikes - however I was training nicely in the forest in Tübingen. I missed something like five weeks of not being able to run in spikes.”
"However I managed I think four or five quite good track sessions before running in Nancy," a venue which last Friday saw him make not only a magnificent return but replace arch rival Abubaker Kaki of the Sudan at the top of the world list with a time of 1:43.46.
"I was happy with my race but not so surprised," said Rudisha. "My training has been good this last month and I was confident I could run something like 1:43.”
"The night before I was talking with some French journalists - the weather was not so good then but I told them if the weather was ok the following day, I thought I could run the world leading time.”
"The race tells me my shape is pretty good but I still have some work to do before I’m back at my best."
Rudisha his eyes firmly fixed on winning the IAAF World Championships gold medal in Daegu (27 August-4 September) knows after being knocked out in his semi-final two years when getting boxed in knows that in Korea he cannot take anything for granted.
"There are some good athletes who you cannot overlook," said the former World Junior champion. "Of course there is Kaki who I have had many good races with. But there are others who have won medals.
"Mulaudzi is the defending champion, Alfred Kirwa has won medals at the last three championships and then there is Lewandowski who is the European champion.”
"But there are other very strong runners. I don’t like to focus too much on individuals, I prefer to focus on the race. I just want to prepare myself to be ready for the championship."
Thorkildsen returning after groin injury
World and double Olympic Javelin Throw gold medallist Andreas Thorkildsen will be another reigning Diamond Race champion returning to the series after a groin injury halted his season after placing second at the second Samsung Diamond League meeting in Shanghai on 15 May.
The Norwegian after his five weeks absence proved his fitness when throwing 84.33 metres in Kuortane, Finland, last Saturday (25) and will now be keen to re-establish himself in the chase for another World title and Diamond Race Trophy.
He will have a testing encounter in the Stade Olympique with five throwers ahead of him in the world lists headed by season leader Vadims Vasilevskis of Latvia (88.22m) who with fourth placed Finnish arch rival Tero Pitkämäki, head a robust line up.
Chemos could almost guarantee another Diamond Race Trophy if she wins again
Milcah Chemos with three wins out of three in Doha, Rome and by just a whisker New York, could make herself virtually unchallengeable for a repeat overall Diamond Race title if triumphing again in the 3000m Steeplechase.
The Kenyan will again face Sofia Assefa and the Ethiopian must score a victory with Chemos finishing outside the top three if she is to slow down her rivals surge towards another Diamond Race Trophy from her fellow African.
Vlasic, Lavillenie and Reese look to return to winning ways in the series
Three other overall Diamond Race winners in 2010, Blanka Vlasic, Renaud Lavillenie and Brittney Reese, after the wet and cold weather contributed to their defeats in New York on 11 June, will look to return to winning Samsung Diamond League form in Lausanne.
Double World outdoor High Jump champion Vlasic fell to the sword of Sweden's Emma Green Tregaro on a slippery surface on New York’s Randall's Island but believes she has put that hiccup behind her.
"I'm a professional, it was my mistake I couldn't handle the situation," said the Croatian. "The pits were wet and after taking my first warm-up jump I couldn't do anymore. There's no excuse - I hope next time I'll be able to do a better job."
The 27-year-old Croatian last Friday (24) in her home city of Split partially erased the disappointment of that loss when sailing to the first two metres clearance of the 2011 outdoor season.
"I'm glad that my performance in New York had nothing to do with reality," she added and the Split victory will set up last summer's European champion up for what will be a 100th milestone 2m High Jump of her career.
"We'll see what happens and if it happens it will be great - but it's not a big deal," said last year's World Athlete of the Year.
Malte Mohr, the current Diamond Race leader in the men’s Pole Vault, and Lavillenie who is lying second, also had disaster days in New York with neither the German or Frenchman managing to clear their opening heights.
The event became a guessing game with the contestants waiting anxiously before vaulting within their time allowance for a swirling cross wind to abate, which in their cases never happened.
Lavillenie, the world season leader, said: "The conditions were horrible, I under-performed but it has no reflection on my current form and no impact on my confidence."
Now he intends justifying that decision where a victory would move him closer to Mohr in the individual standings and to make-up for his defeat to his fellow countryman Romain Mesnil, the New York winner.
In the women’s Long Jump, Reese, who placed third in wet New York, recharged her batteries with a world leading mark and personal best of 7.19m at last weekend's USA Championships in Eugene and will be equally determined to catch-up on fellow American Funmi Jimoh who, with successes in Doha and New York, enjoys a five point lead in the Diamond Race.
Idowu and Tamgho head high quality field
World outdoor and indoor champions Phillips Idowu and Teddy Tamgho despite having a good relationship off the runway and away from the jumping pit, renew their fierce competition rivalry in Lausanne.
Idowu goes into their latest clash with Samsung Diamond League victories in Rome and New York under his belt, whilst Tamgho won at the opening meet in Doha but failed to qualify for the final cut in New York.
Now the Englishman and Frenchman are both convinced that 18 metre clearances will be within their reach very shortly.
The pair will be targeting the Athletissima record of 17.81m set six years ago by Marian Oprea Romania's Olympic silver medallist who is also in the line-up along with Cuban stars Alexis Copello and David Girat, plus Sweden's 2004 Olympic champion Christian Olsson who is bouncing back to the form which has seen him win every major title available.
Lemaitre cautious about 100 against Powell
Christophe Lemaitre who lowered his French 100 record to 9.95 at the European Team Championships in Stockholm two weekends ago, although knowing he is gradually catching up on the big names from Jamaica and the USA, admitted he is probably not ready to become the first European to win over the distance in the Samsung Diamond League.
The European 100m and 200m gold medallist lines-up against a field which includes Jamaica's Asafa Powell, the holder of the meet record with a mark of 9.72 set three years ago.
Powell acknowledging Lemaitre's improvement said: "There's Usain (Bolt), Tyson (Gay) and myself and other athletes coming up running fast times, but we are more accomplished than them."
Jackson in sub 48sec form could attack world lead
2005 World champion Bershawn Jackson, the current Olympic and World 400m Hurdles bronze medallist and the winner in Lausanne last year in 47.62, is now getting into the fast lane, having gone under 48sec for the first time this summer when runner-up at the US Championships last weekend.
That kind of form in defence of his 2010 Diamond Race title, suggests he could challenge the 47.66 world season lead of South Africa's absent L.J. van Zyl, although fellow American Kerron Clement, the reigning double World champion, and European gold medallist David Greene of Great Britain will prove tough opposition.
Close encounters everywhere
Dylan Armstrong who improved his world season lead in the Shot and raised his Canadian record to 22.21m four days ago in Calgary, will as he did in Doha and Rome, have to fend off the US powerhouses of Christian Cantwell, Adam Nelson and Reese Hoffa plus Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski from Poland. The target for all will be the meeting mark of 21.73m Switzerland's Werner Gunthor set in 1988.
The women's Discus Throw offers Cuba's World and Olympic silver medallist Yarelis Barrios the chance to make up ground after her second place in Rome and start the chase to retaining her overall Diamond Race title. Stephanie Brown-Trafton the USA's Olympic gold medallist, will be aiming to repeat her New York success.
In the 400m, Sanya Richards-Ross still determined to defend her World title in Daegu on her return from injury hasn't ruled out having to run under or close to 50sec if she is to beat Botswana’s continental champion Amantle Montsho, who will be confident to add to her victory in Oslo three weeks ago.
The 200m is a very wide open race with only two Diamond Race points scorers Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie and LaShauntee Moore competing, which offers France's European champion Myriam Soumare the chance to snatch some welcome points, even a maximum four.
Kellie Wells after her world leading 100m Hurdles success at the US Nationals should add more points to her overall lead although fellow American's Danielle Carruthers and Lolo Jones - who failed to make Team USA for Daegu - are capable of fetching her down to size.
Jamal after fourth Lausanne victory; stacked men's 5000
Double World champion Maryam Jamal of Bahrain chasing a fourth - but not successive - 1500m victory at Lausanne’s la Pontaise stadium may find Ibtissam Lakhouad who set a Moroccan record of 3:59.35 when narrowly beaten last year by Gelete Burka (not present on this occasion), as her major rival.
Over two-laps the USA's Morgan Uceny who just missed out on winning in New York could be a handful in a race featuring World 800m gold medallist Caster Semenya of South Africa.
A stacked men’s 5000m will bring down the curtain of this year's meeting where Ethiopia's Rome and New York winners Imane Merga and Dejen Gebremeskel will face another eight opponents who have each run under 13min for the distance. The 11-year-old meet record of 13:01.93 belonging to Sammy Kipketer will almost certainly be on the line.
The non-Diamond Race events sparkle too
The additional events being staged in Lausanne would by themselves be headline attractions in virtually any other meeting on the circuit. In particular the 110m Hurdles features World record holder Dayron Robles against Great Britain's European champion Andy Turner, while a men’s 400m brings together Kevin Borlee of Belgium, USA Virgin Islands' Tabarie Henry with the Bahamas’ Demetrius Pinder.
Dave Martin for the Samsung Diamond League
