Ivan Tsikhan of Belarus in action in the Hammer Throw Final (© Getty Images)
Five World champions from Osaka and five Olympic champions from Athens will gather at the 5th Athletics Bridge - European Athletics Premium Meeting - in Dubnica, Slovakia on Sunday (16).
Additionally, another 20 Osaka finalists will compete as well, promising the highest quality one-day meet in recent years in Slovakia. remembering the old good days of Bratislava Meeting in the nineties.
Sizzling Hammer Throw battle
The men’s Hammer Throw as usual will be of highest quality with all Osaka medallists competing, headed by world champion Ivan Tikhon (BLR), Slovenian record holder Primoz Kozmus and home hero and bronze winner Libor Charfreitag. The field will also include Olympic champion Koji Murofushi (JPN) who has had solid training sessions in Slovakia since Monday after the Rieti meeting. He stayed in Trnava, Charfreitag’s home town, currently the most popular athlete in the country. Six from the Osaka top-ten will compete, and all this six have bests over 80 metres.
First outing since Osaka for Hoffa
US Shot Put World champion Reese Hoffa will have his first appearance after his Osaka win as he continues afterwards to Warsaw’s Pedro´s Cup and the World Athletics final in Stuttgart. Organisers are hoping that he can attack the 21.61 meeting record set by Christian Cantwell (USA) last year.
Cuba’s World champion Yargelis Savigne is the star of Triple Jump. There has never been a 15 metres jump in Slovakia - the all-comers record is held by Russian Inna Lasovskaya since 1994 at 14.94 – and she may be shooting for that target. Also in the field is the Osaka fourth placer Anna Pyatykh of Russia along with Slovakian record holder and finalist in Japan Dana Veldakova.
World Decathlon champion Roman Sebrle will compete in special triathlon (110mH, Shot Put, Long Jump) and Heptathlon gold medallist Carolina Kluft of Sweden will be the main name of Long Jump where she wants to confirm her still excellent shape after a Triple Jump personal best from last weekend. Russian Natalya Lebusova (best of 6.93m), American Rose Richmond, Czech European indoor bronze medallist Denisa Scerbova and Slovakian Osaka finalist Jana Veldakova complete the high quality field.
Holm heads High Jump field
Another speciality should be the men’s High Jump with Olympic champion Stefan Holm (SWE). He will face World indoor medallist Andrey Tereshin (RUS), fourth from Athens Jamie Nieto of USA, the top Slovak Peter Horak (2.30 indoors this year) and Ukrainian revelation Dmytro Demyanyuk (this year improved to 2.32m).In all, six jumpers have personal bests of 2.30 or more. Rieti winner Dennis Yurchenko of Ukraine (5.72m last weekend) is the star of the nPole Vault.
In sprint action, the men’s 100m will feature Matic Osovnikar of Slovenia trying to break the stadium record (10.32). His main opponent should be Osaka semifinalist Brendan Christian (Antigua) and talented British sprinter Tyrone Edgar. Something rare is the appearance of the Kenyan 100m record holder Tom Musinde (10.26 this year) who will compete for first time in Europe.
US sub-49 seconds runner Rickey Harris is the main name at 400m Hurdles. In the women’s 100m Bulgarian Ivet Lalova (good shape proved on Thursday with win in Huelva, Spain) with European Cup winner Yevgeniya Polyakova (Russia) and top British sprinter Laura Turner along with African champion Vida Anim of Ghana are the top names. Also here the stadium record could be broken (11.57). Very popular here after some consecutive appearances is ever young Merlene Ottey of Slovenia. In the 100m Hurdles Russians sub-13 runners Tatyana Pavliy and Aleksandra Antonova will have to clash with American Dawn Harper who improved this year to 12.67.
Robles leads strong hurdles contest
But the biggest attraction in sprints will be the 110m Hurdles race. Four US Hurdlers, headed by stadium record holder David Oliver (13.20 last year) and including Ron Bramlett, Dexter Faulk and Robbie Hughes, top the field. Also British Osaka semifinalist Andy Turner (improved to 13.27) will be there. But the biggest name is Cuban Zurich and Linz winner Dayron Robles. The hurdles race was last year the highlight with 13.20 clocking as the last event and the same could happen also this year.
Three distance races are also anticipated with some hopes. Home star Lucia Klocova (two bests in Osaka) will fight against a very solid 800m field of another five runners with sub-two-minute bests. Universiade winner Yulia Krevsun of Ukraine who was also the world leader before the World Championships, while Britain will be represented by Marilyn Okoro and late addition Rebecca Lyne (bronze last year at the European Championships). The men’s 800 will see three Kenyans: Edwin Letting (personal best in Huelva 1:45.54), John Litei and Richard Kiplagat. Together with European U23 Champion Marcin Lewandowski (Poland) and former European indoor champion Dmitriy Bogdanov (Russia) the field should be good enough to push local athlete Jozef Repcik to try to break for the first time 1:46. The men’s Steeplechase will see also five Kenyans headed by Olympic champion and Osaka silver medalist Ezekiel Kemboi.
In recent editions the Athletics Bridge was composed of two meetings, Banska Bystrica and Dubnica, but due to financial difficulties on the side of Banska Bystrica organisers it remains as a one-side event this year in Dubnica, a city of 25,000. For this city the meet is one of the biggest event of the year, not only in regard to sports.
For start lists and live results please click here: www.atletikadubnica.sk
IAAF correspondent for the IAAF
