Osleidys Menendez wins the Javelin Throw at the World Athletics Final (© Getty Images)
Almost ten months after her Javelin Throw win in the Olympic Games of Athens, Cuba’s Osleidys Menendez returns to the Olympic stadium of Athens in order to participate in Athens Super Grand Prix "Tsiklitiria OPAP" 2005, which will take place on Tuesday 14 June, and is organised by Panellinios A.C.
Olympic final line-ups
The Cuban seems at home in Greece. In 2001, in Rethymno, she broke down the World record in her event with 71.54m. Three years later in the Olympic Games of Athens, Menendez won the gold medal with 71.53m, just one centimetre less than her own World record.
The women's Javelin throw in the Super Grand Prix "Tsiklitiria" will closely resemble the final of the Olympic Games of Athens. Apart from Menendez, the silver medallist Steffi Nerius of Germany also returns, as do two more Cubans, Sonia Bisset and Noraida Bisset, who respectively took 5th and 7th places in last summer’s Olympic final.
The women’s Discus Throw in Super Grand Prix "Tsiklitiria" can also count on an Olympic champion. Russian Natalia Sadova, 33, who won the gold medal in the Olympic Games of Athens will contend with reigning World champion Irina Yatchenko of Belarus, who won the Olympic bronze medal behind the Russian.
Vera Pospisilova-Cechlova of the Czech Republic, who was 4th in the Olympics, Romanian Nicoleta Grasu who took 6th place last August, Ellina Zvereva of Belarus, the 2000 Olympic and 1995 World Championships winner, and Frank Dietsch of Germany, who was the 1999 World gold medallist, are also included in the line-up.
Both Menendez and Sadova are the IAAF World Ranked number one for their events.
NOTE. A full meeting preview will follow on Monday 13 June
