SPRINTS PREVIEW

  The sixth edition of the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final takes place in Stuttgart, Germany, on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 September. We conclude our event category previews with the SPRINTS.

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The entry list of the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final (WAF) is decided according to the IAAF World Athletics Tour (WAT) Standings.

After the conclusion of the last qualifying meeting before the World Athletics Final, the 7 Athletes having the highest number of points with their best 5 results (4 for throws) will qualify for each event of the World Athletics Final. For the races of 1500m and over, 11 athletes will be qualified. The Athletes for the 8th and 12th (1500m and over) position will be invited at the discretion of the IAAF.

It is a condition that athletes have scored points in at least 3 meetings, and in the case of a tie for the qualification for the World Athletics Final, the Athlete with the best seasonal performance will be qualified. The IAAF will extend invitations, at its discretion, upon receipt of refusals or cancellations.

All qualified athletes are contacted to ascertain that they are fit and willing to compete. Not until those answers are received, wild card entries are decided, and the usual technical meeting is held on the day before the World Athletics Final, can the final start list be made available. Consequently, our previews are as accurate as possible before that time.

Click here for the IAAF World Athletics Tour Standings

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MEN

100m

With double Olympic sprint champion and World record holder Usain Bolt taking a well-deserved break, the focus this weekend will fall on Asafa Powell, the man who he succeeded as World record holder and whose recent performances have made it abundantly clear that he is certainly not yet ready to step aside.

Only seven men have ever dashed 9.85 or faster, yet Powell has made such excursions commonplace. This season alone he’s gone faster in five races, and four of those performances have come in the past 9 days. Until 31 May he was the World record holder at 9.74, and he has since improved that mark with a sterling 9.72 in Lausanne to underscore his No. 2 spot all-time. Clearly in solid form, Powell is expected to sizzle again this weekend.

The Olympic final had a strong Caribbean flare last month, and a similar line-up is expected in Stuttgart on Saturday. Trinidad’s Richard Thompson rose through the NCAA ranks this year all the way to Olympic silver medallist, clocking a career best 9.89. Churandy Martina of the Netherlands’ Antilles also rose to the occasion in Beijing, finishing a close fourth with a national record 9.93. Jamaican Michael Frater, also improved running to 9.97 in the Olympic final. Seventh in Beijing, Marc Burns of Trinidad will also bring sub-10 credentials to Stuttgart, as will Bahamian Derrick Atkins, the surprise silver medallist at the World championships last year.

200m

With Bolt away, the role of favourite could fall on American Wallace Spearmon, who’ll be looking to wash away memories of his disqualification in Beijing.

The World Athletics Final runner-up in the past two years, the 23-year-old has a penchant for performing well late in the season. In 2006 he took the World Cup title in Athens and a few weeks later lowered his PB to 19.65 in Daegu, a mark which still makes him the fifth fastest man ever over the distance. This season he’s clocked 19.90.

Brian Dzingai of Zimbabwe, fourth in the Olympic final, has produced a solid season to arrive here as a solid contender. The 27-year-old collected five international wins, most recently in Rieti last Sunday (7).

American Rodney Martin (19.99) is another sub-20 man in the field, and has proven in the past to be a threat. Like Spearmon, Churandy Martina (20.11 PB in Olympic semis) was disqualified in Beijing soon after he began his medal-winning celebration. He bounced back with a runner-up finish behind Bolt in Lausanne.

400m

Perhaps the most eagerly-awaited duel of the weekend will come in the men’s 400m, pitting Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt against the man he succeeded, Jeremy Wariner.

The final in Beijing was no contest as Merritt powered off the final turn and through the homestretch, reaching the line with a world-leading 43.75 performance, the fastest ever for the 22-year-old. Well back in his wake was Wariner, the two-time World champion, nearly a full second behind in 44.74.

Prior to Beijing, the pair split their four meetings, with Merritt winning in Berlin and at the U.S. Trials before Wariner struck back in both the Rome and Paris legs of the ÅF Golden League. In their only post-Olympic face-off, it was all Wariner with a season’s best 43.82 in Zurich. Since then, Merritt dipped under 44 again in Lausanne – minus Wariner – with a 43.98 performance while Wariner followed up with a 44.44 victory in Brussels sans Merritt. Depending on the conditions, this race could produce the year’s fastest performance.

Behind them the season’s third and fourth fastest men, Bahamian Chris Brown (44.40) and Briton Martyn Rooney (44.60), will also have a point to prove. Brown was fourth in Beijing while Rooney, who began the year with just a 45.47 personal best, was sixth. Also in the podium hunt is Congolese Gary Kikaya (44.89 this season) who set the African record of 44.10 on this track two years ago.

WOMEN

100m

Shelly-Ann Fraser capped a sensational break-out season when she led a Jamaican sweep in Beijing in 10.78, equalling the season’s fastest performance. Displaying her promise with a 10.85 runner-up finish at the Jamaican Championships behind Kerron Stewart, Fraser followed up with another sub-11 in London before her Beijing fireworks. Post-Beijing she was second in the rain in Gateshead, before claiming back-to-back victories in Lausanne and Rieti.

Stewart, who finished in a tie for second in Beijing, looks to again be Fraser’s primary threat. Her 10.80 at the Jamaican trials was her season’s best, and post-Beijing finished second to Fraser in both Lausanne and Rieti.

The American charge will be lead by Beijing finalists Lauryn Williams and Torri Edwards, who were fourth and eighth respectively. Williams will be looking for her late Spring and early summer sub-11 form as will Edwards, who was struggling in her most recent outings.

200m

With Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown deciding against the trip to Stuttgart and silver medallist Allyson Felix having ended her season, the focus falls on Beijing bronze medallist Kerron Stewart, the only woman to take two individual sprint medals in the Chinese capital.

Stewart, 24, joined the sub-22 club with her 21.99 runner-up finish at the Jamaican trials where she finished behind Campbell-Brown, was nearly as fast in the Beijing final, where she clocked 22.00. In her only post-Olympic appearance over the half-lap, she was second in Brussels.

The Brussels winner was Marshevett Hooker, who capped her campaign with a 22.34 PB in the Olympic final to finish fifth. Third at the U.S. trials, Hooker also joined the sub-11 club in the 100 earlier in the season with a 10.93 for fourth at the U.S. trials.

Bahamian Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (seventh in the Olympic 100 and 200) remains one of the more consistent sprinters on the World Athletics Tour and will be a factor here as well.

400m

Like the men’s race, the women’s full lap features another of the weekend’s more prominent duels, between Briton Christine Ohuruogu and American Sanya Richards.

For the second consecutive year, Ohuruogu captured the season’s biggest prize, but unlike her victory at the World championships last year, her win in Beijing came with the favoured Richards in the race. Richards was no match for Ohuruogu’s homestretch strength in Beijing, with the Briton taking the gold in 49.62 to Richards’ 49.93 for third.

While Ohuruogu built gradually towards her Beijing triumph, Richards began on the same type of roll that propelled her to the event’s elite over the past five seasons. In nine races this season, Richards’ only loss came in Beijing. In Stuttgart, she’ll be aiming for her fourth straight World Athletics Final title, but she won’t be arriving as the season’s fastest.

That honour goes to Ohuruogu, whose Olympic performance leads the world. Third in Stuttgart last year, she’ll be eager to put an end to Richards’ streak.

The Stuttgart field will likely include several Beijing finalists, including Jamaican Shericka Williams who ran down Richards in the waning stages to take silver with a career best 49.69. Russian Tatyana Firova, sixth in Beijing, African champion Amantla Montsho of Botswana, who was eighth, are also expected.

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF