Liu Xiang of China wins the 110m Hurdles at the Prefontaine GP (© Kirby Lee)
MonteCarloArguably the 110m Hurdles is the hottest men’s track discipline of the current summer, and which ever way we assess the strength of the line-up nearly everyone who should be there - the top six fastest athletes of the year and seven of the current IAAF World Ranked top-10 - will line-up in the Stade de France this Friday (1 July).
In our final assessment of who might be in contention for the $1 million Jackpot across the 12 TDK Golden League disciplines that will be contested at the six TDK Golden League meetings this summer, we now examine the last two events, the men’s 110m Hurdles and the 100m, using the provisional start list of the Meeting Gaz de France, Paris St Denis on 1 July, as our guide.
Four-time World champion Allen Johnson, 34, who literally crashed out of the Athens Olympics in the quarter-final heats last year, has with his 12.99 win at the USATF Championships last weekend sent a very firm message to the younger generation that the king is very much still in power. Ready to usurp the American’s throne this World Championship summer are two youngsters, China’s Liu Xiang, 21, the Olympic champion and joint holder of the World record holder, and France’s European Indoor 60m Hurdles winner Ladji Doucouré, 22.
Also in contention in Paris will be World and Olympic silver medallist Terrence Trammell, 26, and three other slick hurdling Americans, Dominque Arnold, 31, Ron Bramlett, 25, and Arend Watkins, 26. Also, do not overlook the chances of Latvia’s Stanislav Olijars, 26, or Canada’s Charles Allen, 28.
In the flat 100m, the hopes of 70,000 spectators in the Stade de France will be with local boy Ronald Pognon (10.09) but the Frenchman will have his work cut out with four of the world’s top-10 fastest of the summer opposing him, though he is currently IAAF World Ranked ninth for the dash.
The fastest runner of 2005 who lines up is Ghana’s Aziz Zakari, who joined the exclusive sub-10 club with a 9.99 clocking on the heels of Asafa Powell’s World record in Athens (14 June). Other top names include Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu (POR), USATF bronze medallist Leonard Scott, Jamaican nationals runner-up Michael Frater - who in the process of that race ran Powell so close last weekend, reigning World 200m champion John Capel (USA), and Jamaica’s Dwight Thomas, who was third behind Powell and Frater in their nationals.
TDK Golden League 2005
2005 Dates
Paris- Friday, 1 July
Rome- Friday, 8 July
Oslo- Friday, 29 July
Zurich- Friday, 19 August
Brussels- Friday, 26 August
Berlin- Sunday, 4 September
2005 Events
There will be seven events for men and five for women:
Men - 100m, 800m, 1500m or Mile, 3000m or 5000m, 110m Hurdles, High Jump, Javelin Throw.
Women - 100m, 800m, 3000m or 5000m, 400m Hurdles, Triple Jump.
IAAF
