Liu Xiang en route to his 12.93 victory in Stuttgart (© Getty Images)
The sprint hurdling duels in the latter half of this season between reigning Olympic champion and World record holder Liu Xiang and former four-time World champion Allen Johnson, have fast - in every sense of the word - become one of the highlights of the entire 2006 outdoor season. Tomorrow they meet again, in the Colorful 2006 Daegu Athletics Meeting, in Daegu, Korea.
China’s number one sport’s star Liu Xiang at 23 years of age represents the young generation of the event, while Johnson, at 35, is the veteran campaigner. Yet the American's 12.96 defeat of& the World record holder at the World Cup in Athens, Greece (17 Sep), has shown age is no barrier - pun intended - to world class times in the men’s 110m Hurdles.
Liu Xiang’s 12.93 enthused the crowd in Stuttgart on 9 September, beating Allen Johnson (13.01, 3rd) to the World Athletics Final title but his defeat in Athens (12.96 to 13.03) to the 1996 Olympic champion, must have come as a great shock.
With a slow get away on Saturday (23) in his home town Shanghai, Liu Xiang momentarily still seemed to be stunned. However, the World record holder (12.88) was not to be denied for a second time by Johnson, and with a tremendous fight back caught him by the last set of barriers and was comfortably first to the line, 13.07 to 13.09, his margin over Johnson.
Round four beckons tomorrow and on neutral territory who would be confident enough to predict the result?
World ambitions
Daegu has proposed itself as one of the nine candidate cities for the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, and in a confidence born out of such ambition the organisers have assembled a weighty start list of talent tomorrow which goes much deeper than one head to head confrontation.
Scott and Spearmon
In the men’s 100m, Nigeria’s African record holder Olu Fasuba (9.85) takes on USA’s Leonard Scott, the World Indoor 60m champion, who powered to a 9.91 PB for second place behind Asafa Powell at the World Athletics Final, while the standout of the 200m is Wallace Spearmon who won at the World Cup in a 19.87 PB.
The two-lap race should be tight. World Indoor 800m champion Wilfred Bungei is up against former African champion William Yiampoy, who finished third and fourth respectively in the World Athletics Final.
Of note in the men’s infield programme, Sweden’s Olympic champion Stefan Holm (2.40m indoors / 2.36m) jumps against Russia’s Ivan Ukhov (2.37m indoors / 2.33m). Their personal bests (in brackets) speak for themselves.
In the Triple Jump, Arik Wilson, who set a lifetime best of 17.32m earlier this summer is the top draw, while Erik Rags (Latvia), Aleksandr Ivanov (RUS) and Peter Esenwein (GER), all 86m+ performers on their day, are the best of the spearmen.
Isinbayeva – top of the bill
The main name on the women’s programme is 2004 / 2005 World Athlete of the Year, Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia who despite being below-par in terms of her usual form this summer is still far ahead of the rest of the pole vaulting world. The World Athletics Final and World Cup winner has a season’s best of 4.91m and leapt 4.72m to win in Yokohama last Sunday.
Edwards vs Williams
In the women’s 100m, the 2003 and 2005 World champions will meet. Torri Edwards with a similar PB to Lauryn Williams (10.93 to 10.91 respectively) has shown good form of late, coming second in the World Athletics Final and World Cup. While blown away by Sherone Simpson of Jamaica on both occasions, the 2003 World gold medallist should have the edge over Williams who took the World Championship crown last summer but has struggled to find form after illness earlier this year.
In the 800m, Russians Svetlana Cherkasova and Yelena Soboleva, both with PBs of sub 1:57, are the notables, with Jenny Adams of the USA (100m Hurdles), Australia’s Bronwyn Thompson (LJ) and Poland’s Barbara Madejczyk (JT), other top names on tomorrow’s meeting card.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
