2008 Grand Prix Review – Part ONE

Monte-Carlo – The 2008 IAAF World Athletics Tour – ÅF Golden League, Super Grand Prix and Grand Prix – offered an entertaining season which climaxed at the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, Stuttgart, Germany (13 – 14 Sep).
 
The 2008 World Athletics Tour which took us through seventeen countries and five continents was highlighted by four World records set by Usain Bolt in New York, Dayron Robles and Dire Tune in Ostrava and Yelena Isinbayeva in Monaco.

David Powell reminds us of some of the highlights of the Super Grand Prix and Grand Prix meetings which took place September 2007 to June 2008…

28 September 2007
Shanghai, China

No sooner had the 2007 World Athletics Tour ended with the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart than the 2008 one began five days later with the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix. The third edition of the meeting was designated as the start of the 2008 IAAF World Athletics Tour and it was marked by the defeat of new World champions Tyson Gay and home pin-up Liu Xiang.

Liu, the World champion in the 110m Hurdles, was beaten into third place by Cuba’s Dayron Robles, fresh from his victory in 12.92 at the WAF, and by Anwar Moore, of the United States. On this occasion Robles clocked 13.01. Gay, of the US, the 100/200m World champion, had to settle for second place in the 100m, in 10.02, behind compatriot Wallace Spearmon’s 9.96.

21 February 2008
Melbourne, Australia

An Australian record of 21.27m in the Shot Put by Scott Martin, and a 5000m victory by Craig Mottram, ensured that domestic athletes made their mark in the Telstra Melbourne Track Classic while Asafa Powell provided the international highlight. The very fact that Powell raced was in itself a treat for spectators as the World record holder (9.74) had arrived in Australia with four stitches in a knee after a fall at his home and, having had them removed, he confirmed that he would start only after his warm-up.

Powell, in his first race of the year, won in 10.04. Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner opened his one-lap season with a victory in 44.82. Martin improved from a previous best of 20.63 to pass Justin Anlezark’s five-year-old national record of 20.96. Mottram’s 13:11.99 was his second fastest clocking in Australia, inferior only to his 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medal run (12:58.19)

9 May
Doha, Qatar

Allyson Felix, a triple gold medallist at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka – in the 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m – seemed to indicate that she was shaping up for another impressive season as she recorded a stunning 100m/400m double in the Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix. Felix, from the United States, had recorded the same double at the corresponding 2007 meeting but now she was quicker.

In 2007 Felix had run 11.27/50.40 but, returning 12 months later, she clocked 10.93/49.83. The other star of the show was US 110m hurdler David Oliver who became the eighth fastest of all-time with 12.95. Jaysuma Saidy Ndure defeated World Indoor 60m champion of two months, Nigeria’s Olusoji Fasuba, in setting a Norwegian 100m record of 10.01.

10 May
Osaka, Japan

The opposition may not have offered much to Liu Xiang by way of resistance at the Osaka Grand Prix but the weather did. China’s Liu was just three months away from his Olympic 110m Hurdles title defence in his home country and he won by 0.44 from compatriot Shi Dongpeng. But, in steady rain and into a headwind, he clocked only 13.19.

It was a seventh victory for Liu in seven appearances in Osaka. As the weather wiped out any chance of quality performances, the other main feature was China’s domination of the women’s throwing events. Zhang Wenxiu threw the Hammer 73.52m, a meeting record,  Li Meiju recorded 18.46m to win the Shot, and Song Aimin took the Discus with 60.38m.

17 May
Dakar, Senegal

Africa’s only fixture on the World Athletics Tour proved a memorable one for Jamaican shot putter Dorian Scott as he defeated Olympic champion Yuriy Bilonog, from Ukraine. It is normally the sprinters who make the headlines for Jamaica but Scott had the stage all to himself for one day in the Meeting Grand Prix IAAF de Dakar.

The Shot Put was staged on Goree Island the day before the rest of the meeting in Dakar. Scott, making his first visit to Africa, prevailed with a distance of 20.52m while Bilonog had to settle for second place (20.24m). Grenada’s triple jumper Randy Lewis produced a wind-assisted winning leap of 17.30m to spoil the homecoming party for Senegal’s recently crowned Africa champion Ndiss Kaba Badji, who was second with 17.00m.

24 May
Hengelo, Netherlands

A meeting normally associated with outstanding feats of distance running found a new identity on this occasion. As the World Athletics Tour arrived in Europe, the FBK-Games Grand Prix provided the stage for stunning performances from long jumper Irving Saladino and 800m runner Pamela Jelimo.

Saladino, the World champion from Panama, jumped 8.73m, the farthest leap in 14 years and one which promoted him to No.7 all-time. The first-round effort also gave Saladino his 21st consecutive victory and an Area record. The foresight of the organisers played a part as they moved the take-off board back two metres in anticipation of Saladino’s participation.

The 18-year-old Jelimo was taking her first steps in Europe and, although she had caught the eye in Africa over the preceding five weeks, nobody expected the astonishing time that she ran here. She was, after all, unknown outside her continent and, prior to this season, her greatest claim to fame was in winning the 2007 African junior 400m title.

Jelimo had run 2:01.02 to win the Kenyan trial for the African Championships and, on 4 May, she had taken the continental gold medal in Addis Ababa with 1:58.70. But now, three weeks later, she shook the rest of the world into paying attention with victory in a World Junior record 1:55.76. It smashed the 1:57.18 set by China’s Yuan Wang in Beijing in 1993.

Haile Gebrselassie ensured that the distance events received a share of the spotlight when he lined up in the 10,000m. Fourteen years earlier he had set his first World record in Hengelo and, four months on from the 2008 meeting, he would show that he wasn’t done yet by running the first sub 2:04 marathon. But here his goal was an Olympic 25-lap qualifying performance and he staked his claim by finishing second in 26:51.20 behind fellow Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine (26:50.53)

25 May
Belem, Brazil

A crowd of more than 30,000 and hot conditions – 34º C at the end of the meeting, humidity around 45% – greeted the Grande Premio Brasil Caixa de Atletismo (Grand Prix). Kenya’s Gilbert Kipchoge provided the highlight with a personal best and meeting record 1:44.52 in the 800m.
Brazil’s own Maurren Maggi, whose season would climax with victory at the Beijing Olympics, won the women’s Long Jump with 6.83m two months after her silver medal at the World Indoor Championships, in Valencia. Three days after setting a national record 17.49m in Sao Paulo, Grenada’s Randy Lewis scored a narrow Triple Jump victory (17.15m) over Bahamian Leevan Sands (17.12m).

31 May
New York City, United States

What began as a headline duel between Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay ended in a World record celebration for the Jamaican who, three months later, would achieve legendary status at the Beijing Olympics. In the Reebok Grand Prix, at Icahn Stadium on Randall's Island, Bolt recorded 9.72 to sever two-hundredths of a second off the mark set by Asafa Powell in Rieti eight months earlier.

Bolt had run 9.76 in Kingston earlier in the month and here, assisted by a 1.7mps tailwind, the 21-year-old 6ft 5in sprinter became the youngest and tallest 100m World record holder in the modern era. Bolt’s race was the final event in a meeting delayed by more than an hour by storms. Gay the 100 and 200m World champion, from the US, finished second in 9.85 saying: "We were on the same rhythm but his stride was covering more ground.”

The women’s 100m also went to a Jamaican passing through on the way to Olympic glory. Veronica Campbell-Brown clocked a World leading 10.91 in a close finish with Americans Marshavet Hooker (10.94) and Muna Lee (10.97). In Beijing, Campbell-Brown, although she failed to earn selection at 100m, would retain her Olympic 200m title.

Kenya’s Paul Koech ran the fastest 3000m Steeplechase seen outside Europe (8:01.85) in his first ‘chase of the year. In a drama that would be repeated at the Olympics, but a thousand times more tragic in Beijing, 110m Hurdles World record holder Liu Xiang ended up apologising to the crowd over a premature end to his participation. Liu warmed up but pulled out due a tight hamstring. In his absence victory went to American Terrence Trammell in 13.11.

8 June
Eugene, United States

The unlikely connection between an American male pole vaulter and an African woman 800m runner was made at the Prefontaine Classic Grand Prix at the University of Oregon’s newly renovated Hayward Field. Brad Walker was awarded the inaugural Maria Mutola Outstanding Athlete of the Meet Award after setting an American record 6.04m, the World’s highest clearance since 2001.

It must have been tempting, though, for those who decide the recipient of the award, to have given it to Mutola. The Mozambican, in her retirement season, won the 800m for her 16th consecutive win at the meeting, recording 1:59.24. The 35-year-old Mutola’s sequence, begun in 1992 and continuous except for her absence in 2002, embraces 12 wins at 800m, three at 1000m and one at 1500m.

Walker’s clearance surpassed Sergey Bubka’s meeting record of 5.95m and Jeff Hartwig's American record of 6.03m set in 2000. The World champion achieved 6.04m on his first attempt despite brushing the bar. In the fastest 10,000m seen in the US, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele clocked 26:25.97. In an attempt by Bekele to break his own World record, he passed halfway in 13:10 but he fell short of the 26:17.53 mark he had set in 2005.

12 June
Ostrava, Czech Republic

In a performance to unnerve even the most confident Liu Xiang fan, Cuba’s Dayron Robles eclipsed the Chinese athlete’s 110m Hurdles World record only two months before the Beijing Olympics. With a 12.87 run, the 21-year-old Robles lit up the Zlata Tetra – Golden Spike Grand Prix meeting, shaving 0.01sec off Liu’s mark.

While Liu would be forced to withdraw from his Olympic heat with an Achilles injury, Robles would take the gold medal. Meanwhile, another 21-year-old, Usain Bolt continued his journey towards Olympic stardom by taking the 200m here in 19.83 in his first outing of the season over the distance. It came just 12 days after his 100m World record of 9.72 in New York.

In the rarely run one-hour event, which enjoys official World record status, Ethiopia’s Dire Tune supplanted the mark of 18,340m set by Kenya’s Tegla Loroupe in 1998. The 23-year-old Tune, winner at this year’s Boston Marathon, covered 18,517m, adding 177m. Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic won the High Jump with a first attempt clearance at 2.05m for her 27th consecutive win.

Part TWO – Super Grand Prix and Grand Prix (July to September) will be published tomorrow, 31 December 2008

A 2008 ÅF Golden League Review will be published on 2 January 2009.

IAAF