Crystal Palace Assembles StarStudded Field
With 14 world champions and 10 world record holders on display the CGU British Grand Prix at the venerable Crystal Palace stadium tomorrow promises to be the greatest invitation meeting ever held in Britain.
Hicham El Guerrouj will attempt to break his world mile record, while Maurice Greene and Marion Jones will aim to maintain their domination over 100m.
Haile Gebrselassie, who has broken 15 world records, will attempt to regain the 2-mile mark he lost to his great rival, Kenya's Daniel Komen. Morocco's Zahra Ouaziz will attack the women's 5000m world record, with the help of Britain’s Paula Radcliffe, the fastest in the world so far this season.
Maurice Greene, on a track which is not ideal for record-breaking sprints, is unlikely to get anywhere near the 9.79 he ran in Athens two months ago but he faces a tough challenge from British aces Jason Gardener, Dwain Chambers and Darren Campbell while Olympic champion Donovan Bailey, continues his comeback.
Jones, the only woman other than the late Florence Griffith-Joyner to run inside 10.70, is building up for her bid to win four titles in Seville in three weeks time. She faces opposition in London from Ukraine's world champion Zhanna Pintusevich.
El Guerrouj, who trimmed 1.26 seconds off the world mile mark in Rome last month to lower the record to 3:43.13, said on Friday he hoped to get inside 3:43 at Crystal Palace, depending on the conditions.
``This race has been planned for a long time and my goal is to improve the world record to 3:42,'' said the Moroccan. ``I hope that the conditions will be right. With the training I am doing, I can get it down to at least 3:40 someday.''
El Guerrouj has been recovering from a hemorrhoids condition and said that the late King Hassan, a big sports fan who followed his career closely up until his death two weeks ago, arranged for a specialist to treat the runner.
``I will undergo an operation in October but in the meantime I am confident it will be OK,'' said the Moroccan star, who also holds the world 1500m mark.
Gebrselassie is expected to have about 1,500 of his Ethiopian fans in the crowd when he goes after the 2-mile mark of 7:58.61.
Despite his world records, the Ethiopian, who won the Olympic 10,000m gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, says he hopes to be remembered more for his titles.
``I could break many more records,'' he said. ``But they could all be taken away. But you can never forget titles and that's why I would like to be the world 10,000m champion for the fourth time in a row.''