TDK Golden League 2005 – Meeting Gaz de France, Paris Saint-Denis – PREVIEW

Paris, FranceA World record attempt at 5000m, World and Olympic champions aplenty, a World Championship medal ceremony, and the first stage of a six meet long TDK Golden League Jackpot trail are the expected highlights in the Meeting Gaz de France, Paris Saint-Denis, the opening fixture of the TDK Golden League 2005 which takes place in the Stade de France, tomorrow Friday 1 July.

This annual TDK Golden League series which comprises the world’s premier one day meetings - Paris, Rome, Oslo, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin - offers at least a share of a $1 million Jackpot for any athlete who wins his or her event in each of the six venues, and then goes on to compete at the World Athletics Final in Monaco, 9 - 10 September.

There are 12 TDK Golden League events via which the Jackpot can be won and in the last week we have previewed each discipline, and detailed analysis can be found by clicking on the links displayed (blue headings) on this page.

DISTANCE EVENTS - Men & Women

In summary, Athlete of the Year and IAAF World Ranked number one for 5000m/10,000m, Kenenisa Bekele (ETH), will make his first start of the summer at 5000m. After making a good attempt at his own World 10,000m record in Hengelo a month ago, we may presume a bid to break his 5000m mark at this distance has also been designed. In the women’s 3000m Olympic silver and World bronze 5000m medallists respectively Isabella Ochichi (KEN) and Edith Masai (KEN) are two of the major protagonists.

MIDDLE DISTANCE EVENTS - Men & Women

Mozambique’s ‘Million Dollar Mutola’, the outright Jackpot winner of 2003, stars once more in the women’s 800m, the distance at which she is World indoor and outdoor champion, and the IAAF World Ranked number one. The men’s two laps is a very tight affair containing among others, the last two World champions, the Olympic silver medallist, and the African champion.

At 1500m, the IAAF World ranked number one, US citizen Bernard Lagat will take on local hero Mehdi Baala in the stadium in which the Frenchman won his World silver medal in 2003.

FIELD EVENTS - Men & Women

Across the three TDK Golden League field events – men’s High Jump, Javelin Throw and women’s Triple Jump – Paris has attracted four Olympic champions to compete in the Stade de France, Sweden’s Stefan Holm (HJ), Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway (JT), Cameroon’s Francoise Mbango (TJ), and Russian Tatyana Lebedeva (LJ). The Men’s High Jump is particularly strong with the entire top-10 of the current IAAF World Ranking set to compete.

110m HURDLES & 100m – Men

400m HURDLES & 100m – Women

Finally, of the 12 TDK Golden League disciplines we have the two 100m dashes and the men’s 110m Hurdles and women’s 400m Hurdles. The 100s will have the firm attention of the stadium’s expected World record attendance of 70,000 spectators, as France’s best are on show in the form of Christine Arron and Ronald Pognon.

There will also be keen support for the host’s European Indoor 60m Hurdles champion Ladji Doucouré in the men’s High Hurdles (110m) but here the Frenchman is part of a triumvirate of stars upon which the result should pivot. Four-time World champion Allen Johnson (USA) and Olympic gold medallist and joint holder of the World record Liu Xiang of China, are the other two principals but don’t be surprised if any of the talented nine man (nine lanes) line-up pulls-off a surprise.

World champion Jana Pittman of Australia has a similarly difficult task ahead of her in the women’s 400m Hurdles, with the Olympic silver and bronze medallists Ionela Tirlea-Manolache (ROM) and Tatyana Tereshchuk (UKR), among her main challengers.

Williams-Darling versus Guevara

The TDK Golden League stands for the ‘best of the best’ in one day athletics, and with the 12 ‘Jackpot’ events being supported by so much other world class competition, the programme in Paris promises to strain the pulse and the senses of even the most alert and avid track and field fan.

In the women’s 400m, Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling, who took a half share of the TDK Golden League Jackpot last summer and pulverized the Olympic ambitions of World champion Ana Guevara (MEX), will again meet her chief adversary. It would be a surprise if the IAAF World Ranked number one and the second fastest athlete of the summer (49.85), the outstanding talent from Bahamas, didn’t again have the measure of the Mexican, the World Ranked number 2, who she soundly beat in Monterrey, Mexico, on the 11 June. In a field of outstanding quality, 2001 World champion Amy Mbacke Thiam of Senegal is the other gold medal standout.

Olympic laurels contend with World gold

The women’s sprint Hurdles, matches the flat 400m start-list for quality, as again we have the Olympic champion, this time in the guise of Joanna Hayes (USA) up against Canada’s World championship winner, Perdita Felicien. The latter’s dramatic fall in the Olympic final is now part of Games’ lore, and if Felicien still needs a confidence boost after such a morale sapping experience, a return to her 2003 gold medal winning track should provide a fillip.

Watch out for Sweden’s Kallur twins, especially Susanna the European Indoor champion. World Long Jump champion and current world leader in the Heptathlon Eunice Barber, along with Linda Ferga-Khodadin will give the home crowd two favourites to cheer.

In the women’s 1500m, the former 5000m World champion Olga Yegorova (RUS) is the second fastest in the world this summer (3:59.47), and heads the cast in what is otherwise a wide open race.

2003 Gold Medals to be presented

Whatever the result of the men’s 400m, France’s Marc Raquil will deservedly step onto the top rung of the podium in the Stade de France tomorrow night. The Paris meeting will crack off with an emotional presentation of the gold medals in the 4x400m from the World Championships 2003, to Raquil and his French team members, Stéphane Diagana, Naman Keita, and Leslie Djhone. Second, behind the United States on the day of the race, the French relay team will finally pick up their gold medals, the American foursome's win later being disallowed following a positive drugs test from one of the athletes. Nearly two years on, the four new World champions will take to the top step of the podium, on the same ground as the original event.

Bronze edge to one lap proceedings

Raquil’s main 400m opponent in the race itself will be Olympic bronze medallist Derrick Brew, but over the 400m Hurdles it will be France who will be represented by its Olympic third placer Naman Keita. His chief opponents will be the Greek Periklis Iakovakis, the 2003 World bronze medallist, and US nationals third placer James Carter, and two South Africans led by Llewellyn Herbert who was Olympic, yes you’ve guessed it, bronze medallist in 2000.

Kemboi focuses in on Helsinki

Surprisingly only one member of the 16 man field in the 3000m Steeplechase has broken 8:10 so far this summer, and that is former World champion and World record holder Wilson Boit Kipketer (8:09.32). However, there is no need to search long for the highest quality, which is forcefully represented by Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi (8:02.98 – PB). The 23-year-old lost a lot of training time last autumn and in a slow comeback from injury has only one goal for the season, winning the World title in August. Paris will be an important staging post on that road following on from his win at the Kenyan Trials meet last week.

Last farewell to the Stade

Finally, there will be some poignancy involved with the men’s Pole Vault, as this will be the last outing in the national stadium for France’s 1996 Olympic champion Jean Galfione, who retires this summer. Among those who have come to compete and pay him due honour are Olympic silver medallist Toby Stevenson, European champion Aleksandr Averbukh, and 2001 World gold medallist Dmitri Markov.

Chris Turner
IAAF Editorial Manager