Dayron Robles wins the 110m Hurdles in 13.17 in the 2009 Rome Golden League meeting (© Getty Images)
MonteCarlo, MonacoThe ‘Herculis 2009’ meeting in Monaco’s Stade Louis II on Tuesday 28 July has amassed an impressive line-up of 15 athletes who, at individual event disciplines, hold a total of 17 current global outdoor titles – 8 from Beijing’08 and 9 from Osaka’07.
The Herculis Monaco 2009 is a Super Grand Prix status meeting as part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2009.
Since the original line-up was announced on 20 July – see ‘Related Content’ under the photo to the right of this text for previous story - World and Olympic champion Irving Saladino has had to withdraw from the Long Jump following an injury sustained in training which also ruled him out of London last weekend, while World 400m Hurdles champion Jana Rawlinson of Australia after running only twice this season has again succumbed to injury this time to her back.
Going someway to redress the balance in champion numbers in Monaco, organisers have since been delighted to attract two-time Jamaica’s Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown who will run in the 100m, the event at which she is the reigning World champion.
Lavillenie,Tahri and Baala
This tiny Mediterranean principality which sits on a rocky strip of coast on the French Riviera is very much politically separate from France but with a population of just over 30,000 and a physical border which means the simple action of crossing the road to buy a newspaper can result in an unbeknown crossing of an international border, it is not surprising that local sporting affiliations are very much French.
Renaud Lavillenie, who established the new French record in the men’s Pole Vault last month (6.01m, 23 June), and took another confident boosting victory in poor weather conditions at France’s premier meeting, the Paris AF Golden League on 17 July, will be the focus of the crowd’s attention in Monaco’s Super Grand Prix perhaps more than any of World or Olympic winners on show.
Lavillenie will face among others the reigning World gold and silver medallists Brad Walker of USA and fellow Frenchman Romain Mesnil. Monaco will hope for another 6m leap from the 22-year-old European Indoor champion, on the runway which last year saw a World record in the women’s event from Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva.
Another ‘local’ star who was in great shape in the rain of Paris was Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, the Olympic silver medallist in the 3000m Steeplechase, who at the Golden League race beat Kenya’s 2004 Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi and Finland’s European title holder Jukka Keskisalo.
Mekhissi was originally slated to run in Monaco but at the French championships in Angers last weekend he sustained a groin strain after running only 250m of the flat 1500m race, and has since pulled out of his rematch with the Finn. In Monaco, Keskisalo following his national record over 2000m flat on Saturday (5:00.32) will be aiming at the ancient national record for the Steeplechase (8:12.60) which has stood to 1972 Olympic bronze medallist Tapio Kantanen since his fourth place in the Montreal Olympics!
The favourite on Tuesday though will not be Keskisalo but Bahrain’s 8:06.13 Tareq Mubarak Taher who is the fifth fastest in the world this year with 8:06.13.
French 3000m Steeplechase record holder Bob Tahri who sped to his 8:02.19 personal best on 3 July, will run the 3000m flat race in Monaco where he’ll face Uganda’s World 5000m bronze medallist Moses Kipsiro and a posse of more than half a dozen Kenyans.
Tahri had also run the 1500m at the French champs, the race which Mekhissi abandoned, coming second behind double European champion Mehdi Baala - 3:45.92 to 3:46.56 – and it is the return of Baala, whose run was his first of his season, also puts the 30-year-old who was World bronze medallist in 2003 into the public’s gaze on Tuesday.
Baala’s 1500m opponents will include Ethiopia’s World Indoor champion and Oslo Dream Mile winner, Deresse Mekonnen, Spain’s Juan Carlos Higuero and Morocco’s Abdalaati Iguider, respectively the Olympic 5th and 6th placers, as well as Portuguese veteran Rui Silva, a multiple global medallist. Baala who was fourth in Beijing has set himself the target of 3:36 saying he will not go to Berlin unless he is at least that fast in Monaco.
Olympic champion Robles and Harper top hurdling fields
Moving away from local national considerations, ‘top of the bill’ in Monaco is occupied by Cuba’s Dayron Robles in the men’s 110m Hurdles. The Olympic champion and World record holder faces David Oliver the Beijing bronze medallist who beat him last year in Berlin and Lausanne.
Coming off the back of a recent bout of flu Robles showed in London on Friday (24) he is vulnerable, being pushed all the way to the line by Barbados’ Ryan Brathwaite; not running on Tuesday. But the Cuban remains the fastest in the world this year (13.04), and Oliver’s season’s best is 13.09 and that was from way back in May.
The women’s sprint hurdles is bulging with talent. USA’s Dawn Harper, the Olympic champion, and Michelle Perry, the double World champion, hold the silverware but the confident 12.65sec win by Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Sally McLellan in London on Saturday promises a close contest for these champions.
Demus, and a men’s one lap battle over the barriers to savour
Another dominant performance in the British capital came from USA’s Lashinda Demus whose world season lead (53.65sec) knocked the stuffing out of a classy field which included last year’s pre-eminent one-lap hurdler, Olympic champion Melaine Walker of Jamaica. These two race again.
The outcome of the men’s 400m Hurdles in Monaco is anyone’s guess, another tight battle is the only certainty. Reigning World champion Kerron Clement with a 48.85sec run in London on Sunday headed US compatriot Bershawn Jackson (48.99), the 2005 World champion, and they will be joined in Monaco by twice Olympic champion Angelo Taylor who was racing on the flat at Crystal Palace.
Also in the mix in Monaco will be Jamaica’s much improved Isa Phillips who stands second on this season’s world list with 48.05. The Jamaican’s 2009 best currently splits Jackson whose 2009 best is 48.03, and Clement who with 48.09sec is so far the third quickest in the world this year.
Merritt, the flat out favourite
Not so hard to call is the men’s flat 400, with USA’s Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt the standout. Compatriot and Olympic bronze medallist David Neville and fellow Olympic finalists who include France’s Leslie Djhone and Britain’s Martyn Rooney, who won here in Monaco twelve months ago, are his toughest opponents on paper.
Without Saladino the men’s Long Jump might see a French victor in the shape of national record holder Salim Sdiri who, prior to injury in the cold and wet of Lausanne on 7 July, was in fine form with a national record of 8.42m on the 12 June. South Africa’s Olympic silver medallist Godfrey Khotso Mokoena continues to fly far, third best this summer with 8.50m, and look out too for the Australians Mitchell Watt (8.43) and Fabrice Lapierre (8.35). Even without Saladino or world season leader Dwight Phillips this could be a high level competition. Of note, Italy’s World silver medallist Andrew Howe will make his comeback after a long period of injury, a last ditch chance to make it for Berlin.
Vlasic vs Friedrich
Talking of the World championships the women’s High Jump pitches Germany’s best gold medal hope Ariane Friedrich with reigning World champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia. The two haven’t met since their Golden League encounter on 14 June in Berlin when the German jumped a national record of 2.06m to Vlasic’s 2.03m, on the high jump fan which will be the scene of their world title challenge next month at 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany (15 – 23 August).
Perhaps significantly, Friedrich has had the better of Vlasic on their last three outings including the European Indoor final in Turin last winter. The psychological significance of this competition coming less than three weeks before the World title meet cannot be underestimated.
But before we get two preoccupied with just two athletes let’s not forget that Russia’s World silver medallist Anna Chicherova is rounding into form with a 2m clearance at last weekend’s national championships which she won.
There are two other eye catching events infield...
In the women’s Triple Jump, Cuba’s World champion Yargelis Savigne, one of only two athletes over 15m this season, takes on reigning World Long Jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia, the multiple former global winner at the Triple.
Czech World and Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova tackles Germany’s European champion Steffi Nerius in the Javelin Throw.
Fraser, Campbell-Brown, Jeter at a dash
The two dashes are clash acts, with the women’s more of a glitter with Jamaica’s Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser taking on USA’s champion Carmelita Jeter who ran a brilliant race in London on Sunday, her 10.92 sec win is only bettered so far this year by Fraser’s 10.88 which took her to the Jamaican title at the end of June, and by world season leader Kerron Stewart, who ran 10.75 in Rome on 10 July.
Throw into the Jeter vs Fraser head to head, Jamaica’s World champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, the Bahamas’ Chandra Sturrup and her resurgent compatriot Debbie-Ferguson-McKenzie, the world leader over 200m (22.32) in 2009, and it is certain that sub-11sec times will surely result. Campbell-Brown who had been kept out of the Athens GP earlier this month because of a minor injury bounced back to fitness with a 22.37sec run over 200m in Barcelona on Saturday (25).
The men’s 100m is missing the three big names of Bolt, Powell and Gay but can still call on four Beijing Olympic finalists to keep us interested – Churandy Martina Netherlands Antilles (4th), Jamaican Michael Frater (6th) who is the World silver medallist, Trinidad’s Mark Burns (7th), and USA’s Darvis Patton (8th). Martina is the quickest of the entrants this year with 9.97sec.
Jamal seeks redress for Lausanne loss
The women’s 800m remains wide open this season despite the news from the Kenyan Trials last weekend that both the World and Olympic champions Janeth Jepkosgei and Pamela Jelimo were under two minutes when qualifying for Berlin. In the Kenyans’ absence the win looks likely to go to Russia with Mariya Savinova, the European Indoor champion, currently the second fastest in the world this year (1:57.90) the standout name.
The 1500m which is also on the women's card brings together Bahrain's World Champion Maryam Jamal for another encounter with the athlete who's fast becoming her arch rival Gelete Burka of Ethiopia. In their last battle in the wet in Lausanne (7 Jul) Burka beat Jamal - 4:00.67 to 4:01.99 - but the career totals remain 7 to 4 in favour Jamal.
The men’s 800m includes World silver medallist Gary Reed of Canada, the winner in London on Saturday, Russia’s 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy, and Sudan’s World Junior record holder Abubaker Kaki, this season’s fastest runner, and European champion Bram Som (NED) who is returning well this season after injury.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
NOTE - Preview is based upon entry lists as of 26 July
