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Liu, Isinbayeva lead Shanghai show
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-19 08:24 SHANGHAI: Led by local superstar Liu Xiang and Russia pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva, a number of star athletes are ready to put on a season-ending show at the 5th Shanghai Golden Grand Prix on Sunday night. Liu, China's star hurdler, is undoubtedly the biggest name in Shanghai as he makes his long-awaited comeback before a hometown crowd in Shanghai Stadium. Racing for the first time since he limped out of the Bird's Nest last August in the men's 110m hurdles during the Beijing Olympic Games, the former Olympic and world champion will face off against his archrivals, four-time world champion Allen Johnson from the US and his compatriot and current world No 2 Terrence Trammell. "It will be my first competition after a long rehabilitation and also it's in my hometown, so I want to regain that feel for a competition," said the 26-year-old Liu. "Once an athlete stands on the track, there will be some kind of risk. But I think I'm able to compete right now.
"No matter when I'm on the track, I will do my best. I recovered well from my injury and if I hadn't, I wouldn't have come here to run." At a test-run at his training base last Thursday, Liu ran 13.70 seconds against the wind - well outside 12.88sec, his mark at his world-record setting race in 2006. But he admitted that the result matters little. "Training is different from competitions and the training results should improve in the race," Liu said. "Injuries are normal for athletes. I'm very glad that I could stand on the track again." Isinbayeva, the current world record holder in the pole vault for women, is another superstar at the Shanghai meet. Although losing the title at the World Championships in Berlin last month, Isinbayeva regained her form at the Weltklasse Zurich Golden League meeting with a new world record of 5.06m. The battle between two athletic powerhouses - the US and Jamaica - will be on display in Shanghai as well. The clash of men's 100m sprinters Tyson Gay from the US and Asafa Powell from Jamaica will be one of the biggest highlights. The silver and bronze medalists, respectively, at the Athletics World Championships in Berlin last month will compete for the title without reigning world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt. The Jamaican superstar recently announced that he will not participate in Shanghai due to fatigue. Gay and Powell first dueled in their now famous rivalry at the Athletic World Championships in Osaka in 2007. Powell, the world record holder at the time, was beaten by Gay and came in third. Their last competition was at the Athletic World Championships in Berlin last month, in which Gay set his personal best of 9.71, and placed second after Bolt. Powell claimed the bronze. In the women's 100m race, Veronika Campbell of Jamaica, the defending champion of the Shanghai meet, will take on Carmelita Jeter of the US, bronze medalist in Berlin. The Beijing Olympic women's 100m hurdles champion Dawn Harper of the US will face reigning world champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton of Jamaica in Shanghai. "I have confidence that I will beat my adversaries," said Harper, defending champion of the Shanghai meeting. The men's 400m and 800m races will feature races between reigning world and Olympic champions. World champion Jeremy Wariner of the US will strive for the gold against his Olympic gold medalist compatriot Lashawn Merritt in the men's 400m, while world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi from South Africa will take on Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei from Kenya in the men's 800m. (China Daily 09/19/2009 page12) |
