Sports / Other Sports
Powell set to return at Golden League in Rome
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-07-12 10:13
ROME - World 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell is due to return from
injury at the third Golden League meeting of the season in Rome on Friday.
The 24-year-old has not run an individual race since picking up a groin
strain winning the 100 at the Jamaican national championships on June 23.
Asafa Powell of Jamaica reacts after winning the 100 metres event at the
IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart on September 9, 2006. [Reuters]
But having anchored the Jamaican sprint relay team to victory in Lausanne
on Tuesday, Powell was given the all-clear to resume his preparations for
the world championships, which start in Osaka, Japan on August 25.
Powell, who was unbeaten over 100 last season, is third quickest in the
world this year, thanks to his 9.94 seconds win at the first Golden
League meeting in Oslo in June.
His main challenger in the Italian capital promises to be his second
cousin Derrick Atkins, who won at the second Golden League meeting in
Paris last week and earlier this month set a personal best of 9.95
seconds in Athens.
The 400 hurdles should also produce a fast time. The field boasts five of
the fastest six runners over the distance this year, including world
leader James Carter.
Only one male athlete -- javelin thrower Tero Pitkamaki -- is still in
the hunt for the million dollar jackpot for anyone who wins his or her
event at all six Golden League meetings.
In Rome, the Finn will face tough competition from Olympic and European
champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway and Breaux Greer, who became the
only man to break the 90m barrier this season when he threw 91.29 at the
U.S. Championships in June.
VAULT HIGHLIGHT
Among the women, 400 runner Sanya Richards and sprint hurdler Michelle
Perry are also vying for the jackpot with pole vault world record holder
Yelena Isinbayeva, whose duel with American Jennifer Stuczynski should be
a highlight of the meet.
Until she cleared 4.91m in Paris last Friday, Russian Isinbayeva found
herself in the unfamiliar position of being only second in the season's
standings.
Stuczynski, who finished last season with a personal best of 4.68m, has
made a huge improvement this year, culminating in a clearance of 4.88m in
New York last month.
That leap forced Isinbayeva to settle for second in the season's world
rankings until last Friday, when her vault won the French Golden League
meeting.
The last time they met at the Millrose Games in February, the Russian won
easily with a leap of 4.82 to Stuczynski's 4.53. This time it should be
much closer.
"It's good that Jen jumped 4.88 because that motivated me, that got me
angry. It has given me a challenge," Isinbayeva was quoted as saying on
the IAAF's website (www.iaaf.org).
"I love to win, of course, but when you win every time you lose your
appetite. I now have got that hunger again."
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