World leaders Lysenko, Vlasic set for Zagreb - IAAF World Athletics Tour

Tatyana Lysenko, the World record holder in Hammer Throw, and Croatia’s biggest star, high jumper Blanka Vlasic, are just a few of the stars to be confirmed for the Hanzekovic Memorial, a Grand Prix status meeting as part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2007, which takes place on 4 July in the Croatian capital.

Lysenko, just 23, has already produced a notable season, throwing beyond 77 metres in three of her last four competitions. One of those, in Sochi on 26 May, was a massive 78.61* mark which extended her own World record in the event.

The field also includes Croatian star Ivana Brkljacic, the two-time World junior champion who has taken her game to a new level thus far in 2007. The 24-year-old opened her season with a bang by extending her own national record to 72.15 with her win at Osaka's Grand Prix, then improved again with a 74.62 throw in Doha, and yet again last weekend in Warsaw with a 75.08 heave. In each of her five appearances this year, she has thrown farther than her career best at the start of the season.

As has been the case over the past several seasons, it will be Vlasic who’ll take centre stage in her country’s biggest annual athletics event. Already the world leader after a 2.04 clearance in Doha –along with a close call at a would-be World record of 2.10 – the 23-year-old, a two-time World Indoor Championships medallist, followed up with two more two-metre competitions before finishing second in Oslo last weekend to Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko. At the moment, the field includes Asian champion Maria Aitova and Ukraine’s Vita Palamar.

X-Man to test his speed

Xavier “X-Man” Carter will lead the field in the 100m, presumably to test his speed before returning to Lausanne the following week to defend the 200 title that last year put him on the world’s sporting stage. The women’s 100 field includes Oslo Golden League winner Stephanie Durst of the U.S.

Samitova in the flat 3000

Also announced was 3000m Steeplechase World record holder Gulnara Samitova in the women’s 3000, the 28-year-old Russian who recently displayed a solid return to form with her 9:14.37 performance in the water and barrier event at the Znamenskiy Memorial. No one else has ever run faster. In Zagreb she’ll face compatriot Olga Komyagina who last weekend helped pace Meseret Defar to the World record * in the 5000m in Oslo.

Elsewhere, Irving Saladino, last year the winner at five Golden League competitions who is already illustrating 8.50+ form, leads the field in the men’s Long Jump. U.S. hurdler David Oliver has signed on for the meeting’s memorial event, the men’s 110m Hurdles.