Ana Guevara of Mexico in action in the 400m heats (© Getty Images)
Gateshead, UKEight World champions from last year’s celebrations in Paris will be on show in the north east of England this Sunday for the Norwich Union British Grand Prix at Gateshead International Stadium, 27 June.
Guevara looking for Olympic reassurance
The third IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting of the summer will be honoured by the first ever competitive outing in the UK of Mexico’s women’s World 400m champion Ana Guevara, whose Olympic preparations have been hampered by injury. The Gateshead meeting will therefore also be the 27 year-old Area record holders (48.89 seconds) first competition of 2004.
Guevara now has a win streak at 400m of 23 races (finals only), and the fifth placer at the 2000 Olympics will be eager to satisfy herself, let alone potential Athens opponents, that her dominance is set to continue.
A definitive competitive statement by the Mexican is particularly required as just two months before the Olympic Games in Greece two women have already recorded sub-50 second times - Tonique Williams of the Bahamas (49.78) and Russia’s Olga Kotlyarova (49.94).
On Sunday, Guevara will face neither athlete but offering a severe comeback test to Guevara will be Williams’ compatriot, Christine Amertil, Russia’s Natalya Antyukh and Britain’s Donna Fraser, the fourth place finisher in Sydney 2000, who has been battling against years of persistent injury.
Bekele dominant but Shaheen is the question
The featured race of the men’s programme has got to be the 3000m as it contains the latest Ethiopian running marvel Kenenisa Bekele who has set new World records for 5000 and 10,000m this summer.
Unless Bekele’s running programme has suddenly fallen off the rails since he set the 10,000m mark in Ostrava on 8 June, then Brendan Foster’s 30 year-old stadium record of 7:35.10 will be obliterated on Sunday.
Foster, the 1974 European 5000m champion and 1976 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist, was called the “pied piper of Gateshead” in his heyday, and there is little doubt that the rhythm Bekele will conduct on Sunday will be unsustainable for even the likes of his talented compatriots Sileshi Sihine, Markos Geneti and Abiyote Abate, or Australia’s excellent Craig Mottram.
The one question mark to the World 10,000m champion’s superiority, given that Bekele is running at 3000m, is the participation of Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the World 3000m Steeplechase champion who is also a potent force on the flat up to and including 5000m.
Radcliffe heads for Olympic time
If the men’s long distance running scene has past into African hands, the same cannot be said of the women’s track at 10,000m. Britain’s Paula Radcliffe who as World Marathon record holder has set the world's roads alight in the last few seasons, makes her first 10,000m outing since she powered her way to the 2002 European title in the second fastest run of all-time (30:01.09 – European record).
The aim for the 30 year-old is a qualification time for Athens, and even the most pessimistic would say the “A” standard of 31:45.00 will present very little problem for Radcliffe who won the European Cup 5000m last weekend in 14:29.11, the third-fastest performance of all-time and a Commonwealth record.
However in racing terms we should not over look the challenge of the 1996 Olympic champion and 2000 bronze medallist Fernanda Ribeiro of Portugal.
Makarov versus Backley
Returning to the theme of Paris World champions, Russia’s Sergey Makarov, 31, last year’s men's Javelin winner will offer four-time European champion Steve Backley, 35, the stiffest of tests as the Briton looks towards his final Olympic campaign. Backley already has two Olympic silvers and one bronze to his credit. However, both men could be upstaged by the youthful world leader Aleksandr Ivanov of Russia, who is 22 years-old.
Olsson tackles world season leader
Christian Olsson, the Swede who now holds both the World and European titles, indoors and out, and Brazilian Jadel Gregorio, this summer's world leader and the World Indoor silver medallist, are set to delight the crowd in the men’s Triple Jump.
Russian Pole Vault duel
Russia’s World outdoor champion Svetlana Feofanova goes in the women's Pole Vault, and will face Yelena Isinbayeva who at this meeting last year soared to a World record of 4.82. The World Indoor champion has since improved the World mark and now holds the World record at 4.86, the height with which she won the World Indoor crown in Budapest this winter.
Collins to cut a dash?
Back on the track World 100m champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis heads the 100m field in Gateshead, which also includes Japan’s World 200m bronze medallist Shingo Suetsugu. Britain's leading four this year all go: World bronze medallist Darren Campbell, World Indoor 60m champion Jason Gardener, former World Junior champion Mark Lewis-Francis, and the ever-improving Scot Nick Smith.
Lebedeva up against Sydney medallists
The eighth 2003 Paris World champion on show will be Tatyana Lebedeva, the women’s double World Triple Jump champion, who goes in the Long Jump. No doubting the Russians talent in this jumpr either, as in Budapest this winter not only did she win the World Indoor Triple Jump title – setting three World Indoor records in the process – she also won the Long Jump gold too.
Lined up against the Russian will be her compatriot, the European champion Tatyana Kotova and all three medallists from the last Olympics, Heike Drechsler (GER), Fiona May (ITA) and Marion Jones (USA). Britain's European silver medallist Jade Johnson faces a domestic challnege in the shape of our two leading heptathletes Denise Lewis, the Olympic champion, and Kelly Sotherton.
Elsewhere in a packed early evening programme on Sunday is the women's 800m in which European champion Jolanda Ceplak is the favourite, and the women's 1500m where Britain’s Kelly Holmes the World 800m silver medallist faces Ireland’s Sonia O'Sullivan. Olympic silver medalloist Glory Alozie is on the women's 100m Hurdles start list, while Chris Rawlinson will attempt to secure a ho0me win in the men's 400m Hurdles.
IAAF
