Yelena Isinbayeva celebrates setting a new World Indoor record in Birmingham (© Getty Images)
Liévin, FranceThe “Gaz de France du PasdeCalais” meeting on Saturday (26 Feb) is one of the last major opportunities for European athletes to prepare for their continental indoor championships which take place next week in Madrid, Spain (4 - 6 March).
Liévin and its renowned track will also offer an opportunity for the rest of the international elite to end their indoor seasons on a high, as tomorrow's event in the last IAAF indoor permit meeting of the current season.
World Record attempt by Isinbayeva
Yelena Isinbayeva has announced her aim to establish Liévin’s eighth World record, and for that matter her career twelfth on Saturday! During Liévin’s history Merlene Ottey, Bruno Marie-Rose, Linford Christie and Frank Fredericks (200m), Inna Lasovskaya (Triple Jump), and Sergey Bubka and Svetlana Feofanova (Pole Vault) have all set World marks in the stadium.
The run-up for Pole Vault has been re-built with a softer synthetic since those feats, but Isinbayeva has shown such a steadiness in her performances since 2003, that the Russian may establish in Liévin her third World Indoor record in three competitions this season (after vaulting 4.87 and 4.88). Monika Pyrek (POL) and Caroline Hingst (GER), who have jumped several times 4.70 and 4.60 respectively can logically hope only to play secondary roles.
Other jumps…
Curiously, this winter, female High Jump hasn’t reached the same heights as in past seasons. However, experienced Viktoriya Styopina (UKR), Victoriya Seryogina (Russia) and Monica Iagar (ROM) will use this last competition to fix marks before their trip in Spain.
The men’s Long Jump has also been quite unpredictable too this season. Savante Stringfellow, Yann Domenech, Kafetien Gomis, Bogdan Tarus, Danut Simion all have jumped around 8m during the past weeks, but at this stage of the year, marks still haven’t sharpened up yet, so we could see some surprising results.
The fastest men line-up in Liévin
The most anticipated race of the meeting is undoubtedly the men’s 60 metres, where most of the best sprinters will line-up. Recent European Record breaker and current World leader with 6.45, Ronald Pognon considers this race as the most important of his indoor season. The new French sensation will have to fully recover from flu to challenge Dwight Phillips, Long Jump Olympic Champion who can now be seen as a true sprint specialist after his 6.47 of Madrid on Tuesday. Leonard Scott, winner in Birmingham in 6.49, and World record holder (6.39) Maurice Greene will also be trying to add their names to the winner’s list. Many challengers will chase them, including Olusoji Fasuba, winner in the Athens meeting, Freddy Mayola and Morne Nagel whose awesome start can always trouble the field.
Djhone injured
The 300m has been originally set up for Leslie Djhone who wanted to test himself in an intermediate event. Unfortunately, the Olympic 400m finalist injured himself last weekend and won’t be able to chase the World indoor best of 32.19 (Robson da Silva in 1989). Canadian Tyler Christopher and Jamaican Davian Clarke have already tried this event indoors in their careers (32.95 and 32.97), and will compete again at this rarely run distance.
The more traditional 2-laps 400m race has been added to the programme in order to allow Marc Raquil to test his shape before the European Indoor Championships, reassured about his comeback from injury by a 21.65 time for 200m few days ago.
Two solid 1000m races
An other difficult return to competition is experienced by Mehdi Baala, who got injured few days before the Olympics last year. In three races this season, the World Silver 1500m medallist in 2003 has alternated with the best and the worse performances - an average 1:48.86 at 800m, a French Record at 1000m (2:17.01), and a painful 1500m (3:38.71). Baala will run his traditional 1000m in Liévin with the sole ambition to run faster, as he announced weeks ago that he won’t travel to Madrid. The field will included strong opponents such as Andrea Longo, Mouhssin Chebihi and Nicolas Aïssat.
The women’s 1000m will also see an attempt by Lydia Chojecka and Hind Dehiba against the 2005 World leading mark (2:35.34). Chojecka, in great shape, is currently the World leader at 1500m and set the Polish record Liévin two years ago with 2:36.97. Dehiba won the French title last weekend in a solo run and will find in Chojecka a rival of the highest quality.
Freeman vies with Felicien
A very open race has been set up in the women’s 60m Hurdles. Jamaican Michelle Freeman, with 7.94 this winter, has managed a great comeback after a shin fracture, a tragic car accident and the birth of her daughter, all this during the last four seasons. Perdita Félicien, the 2003 World Champion at 100m hurdles who crashed-out in the Olympic final has opened this year with 8.06 and 8.01 but is ready to run much faster to defend her 2004 victory in Liévin.
This race will also see the return fight of the recent French Championships between Reina-Flor Okori and Nicole Ramalalanirina, where photofinish was needed to place the first two finishers. Linda Khodadin, who ran 60m flat at Nationals, will aim to justify her leadership gained with two European Indoor titles. On the other hand Glory Alozie holds the best 2005 mark of the field with 7.92 set on Tuesday, showing late but great form. Vonette Dixon (7.98), Nichole Denby (8.06), and 1995 World Indoor Champion Aliuska Lopez also have strong arguments for the win.
Johnson versus Doucouré
In the men’s Hurdles race, Allen Johnson and Ladji Doucouré will meet each other for the third time of the season. Johnson won on both occasions by a close margin, so Liévin’s photo-finish may play a role in deciding the outcome just as much as other hurdlers like Charles Allen, Ron Bramlett, Dudley Dorival and Arend Watkins who all have run 7.61 or 7.62 in 2005. A time under 7.50 is required to beat the current World leading mark, and for Doucouré to at last break at last the national record.
Arron getting quicker
Christine Arron, will take on a 60m and 200m double in one night. Unbeaten in 4 60m races (9 races including heats) this season, Arron has gradually lowered her times at each competition, 7.19, 7.18, 7.14 and 7.13 last Sunday. Jamaican Tayna Lawrence and Russian Olga Fyodorova, winners respectively in Birmingham (7.13) and Athens (7.23) last week, may push Arron close to her national record of 7.08. The idea of also running a season’s debut 200m came about 2 weeks ago and a national race was built for her: “I haven’t done any specific work for 200m so far this winter, so in any case, it will be a good training cession” concluded Arron.
Pierre-Jean Vazel for the IAAF
