100m WR #3 for Athens?

ATHENS, July 1, 2006 - American Justin Gatlin will attempt to become the third man to set a 100 metres record at the Athens Super Grand Prix here on Monday.
Athens has twice been the home of world record times over that distance and joint 100 metres world record holder Gatlin has a chance to make it number three.
Gatlin will headline a number of top athletes who will participate in the Athens meet to be held at the stadium which hosted the Olympics two years ago.
The 24-year-old sprinter will be out to better his 9.77 seconds performance he achieved earlier this year in Doha, Qatar which equaled the world mark set last year in the Athens meet by Jamaican Asafa Powell.
In 1999 in the same Athens meeting, American Maurice Greene broke the world record in the event with a 9.79 seconds clocking.
Gatlin will be returning to the same track where he won the Olympic gold metal. He has run six times this year under 10 seconds.
Apart from Gatlin, also participating in the race here Monday will be 22-year-old Nigerian Olusoji Fasuba who has closed 9.85 seconds this year and former Nigerian and recently Portuguese Francis Obikwelu, who is the European champion of the event and has a personal best of 9.86 seconds.
In the women’s 100 metres sprint, American Lauryn Williams, who has a personal record of 10.88 seconds, will be in Athens with tough competition coming from Zhanna Block of Ukraine, who was world champion of the event in 2001 in Edmonton, Canada.
Other top athletes scheduled to perform here Monday are Olympic, world champion and world record holder of the women’s javelin throw (71,70 m. last year) Osleidys Menendez of Cuba, Olympic.
World champion in the men’s discus Virgilius Alekna of Lithuania, Olympic and world champion in the men’s long jump American Dwight Phillips and world champion and world record holder (7:53.63) in the men’s 3000 meters steeplechase Saef Saheen from Qatar.

The program (GMT):

15:45 Women’s javelin throw
16:00 Opening ceremony
16:05 Women’s triple jump
16:10 Women’s 100 m. hurdles
16:15 Women’s high jump
16:20 Men’s pole vault
16:25 Men’s 100 m. (1st semi-final)
16:35 Men’s 100 m. (2nd semi-final)
16:50 Women’s 400 m. hurdles
17:05 Men’s 400 m. hurdles
17:15 Women’s 800 m.
17:20 Men’s discus throw
17:25 Women’s 100 m.
17:30 Men’s long jump
17:35 Men’s 100 m. final
17:45 Men’s 800 m.
17:55 Women’s 1500 m.
18:05 Men’s 1500 m.
18:15 Women’s 3000 m. steeplechase
18:30 Men’s 3000 m. steeplechase

I doubt it will happen but man I’d love it if Olu won :stuck_out_tongue: I saw PJ post that he set a new PB over 120m so here’s hoping.

well it was 40C in central Athens today - so that might help, although is that getting a bit too warm?

I doubt it will happen but man I’d love it if Olu won I saw PJ post that he set a new PB over 120m so here’s hoping.

dude, i met them both where they trained here in athens. They are the best dudeZ, i shit you not im going with a huge “Fasuba for tEh first place” sign:P

That will be easier when Gatlin withdraws from the race in Athens :wink:

Guess Gatlin really withdrew


‘Mild’ leg injury sees Gatlin miss Athens
Sunday 2 July 2006
World and Olympic 100m metres champion Justin Gatlin of USA has pulled out of Monday’s (3 July 2006) Athens Super Grand Prix ‘Tsiklitiria - OPAP’ 2006, because of a leg injury.

George Gakis, the press director of the meeting confirmed by telephone this afternoon that the organisers had been contacted late last night by the management of Justin Gatlin to inform them that the joint World record holder for the 100m had suffered a “mild (leg) strain”, and so could no longer compete at the meeting.

Asafa Powell, who set the original 9.77 second World record mark in Athens on 14 June 2005, and is currently training in Italy, had been approached by the organisers to replace Gatlin but had turned down the offer because of a hamstring strain.

? Both Gat and Asafa have hamstring strains at the same time? That sucks. I was looking foreward to seeing them meet up again this year, but it seems sas if new things keep getting thrown into the equation.

yeah, they both have “strains” my ass…

why in gods name they dont want to run i have no idea, well too bad, im going either way, and may Olu win, it will be good for him.

do you think its the weather or simply money/fame issues?

i dunno, could simply be a strain, but they are both rapidly becoming divas and i dont really like it

I don’t see why it wouldn’t be a strain. If one of them gets hurt they’ll lose a lot of money and credibility to the other so they just dont want to risk injury.

Lol, the divas of track… I like it!

Im not sure what the issue is, although, it’s probably not any one issue. They have the right to race when they want. I think psychogically, if one feels they aren’t 100% in that situation (being the fastest) they wouldn’t want to risk a loss and say, “Well it’s because of blah blah” after the fact.

40degree C is better than 55degree F or whatever wheather they ran in the prefontaine classic. i guess the money isn’t right, they shouldn’t get shorted but they shouldn’t short the fans either, its a balance.

OLN is carrying some of the golden league meets:
SUNDAY
7/9/2006
3:00PM - 4:00PM IAAF GOLDEN LEAGUE (TV-NR)
IAAF Golden League- Paris
Highlights from the Paris event.

SUNDAY
7/16/2006
5:00PM - 6:00PM IAAF GOLDEN LEAGUE (TV-NR)
IAAF Golden League - Rome
Highlights from the Rome event.

MONDAY
7/17/2006
7:00PM - 8:00PM IAAF GOLDEN LEAGUE (TV-NR)
IAAF Golden League - Paris
Highlights from the Paris event.

OLN being outdoor life network on american cable.

Simply not true, says Francis:
(I guess it just wouldn’t fit in his training schedule and he does not want to risk injury again.)

Powell’s camp refutes injury report

KAYON RAYNOR Observer staff reporter
Monday, July 03, 2006

CONTRARY to a report coming out of Europe, Jamaica’s joint 100 metres world-record holder Asafa Powell is not injured. Yesterday, reports surfaced on the IAAF web-site that Powell, the Commonwealth champion, turned down an invitation to replace the injured American Justin Gatlin at today’s Athens Grand Prix because of a hamstring strain.

POWELL… is currently training in Italy
According to the IAAF, George Gakis, the press director of the meeting, confirmed by telephone this afternoon (Sunday) that the organisers had been contacted late last night (Saturday) by the management of Justin Gatlin to inform them that the joint world-record holder for the 100-metre had suffered a “mild (leg) strain”, and so could no longer compete at the meeting.

Powell, who set the original 9.77-second world-record mark in Athens on 14 June 2005, and is currently training in Italy, had been approached by the organisers to replace Gatlin, but had turned down the offer because of a hamstring strain.
However, when the Observer contacted the MVP camp in Italy yesterday, assistant coach Paul Francis denied the report. “Asafa is fine. He’s not injured as the world will see when he runs in Paris (Stade de France) on Saturday.”

Francis added: “Asafa is replacement for no one.”
President of the MVP track club Bruce James also confirmed that the fastest Jamaican ever is injury-free and healthy. “Based on reports I’ve gotten from the camp (in Italy) directly, Asafa is not injured and the races that he’s going to be running in are pre-determined and we have actually put the list of races that he’ll be running in on the MVP website, which is www.mvptrackclub.com, and everyone can see the track meets that he’s scheduled to compete in.”

He added: “Athens was never a part of the plan.”
Powell, who ran a world-leading 19.90 seconds at the JAAA Supreme Ventures National Championships on June 25, headlines a star-studded 100-metre line-up at the Stade de France meet on Saturday.

Powell, the first man to run the 100-metre world-record twice under 9.8 seconds, will face fellow Jamaicans Michael Frater and Dwight Thomas, 2003 world champion Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis, America’s Shawn Crawford, joint European 60-metre record-holder French sprinter Ronald Pognon and Ghana’s Aziz Zakari.

The MVP Track & Field Club Competition Schedule for
July 2006 is as follows:

1 Gaz de France (Golden League) - Paris, France - Saturday, July 8, 2006
2 Athletissima (Super Grand Prix) - Lausanne, Switzerland - Tuesday, July 11, 2006
3 Golden Gala (Golden League) - Rome, Italy - Saturday, July 14, 2006
4 25 Meeting de Atletismo (IAAF Grand Prix) - Madrid, Monday, July 17, 2006
5 DN Galan (Super Grand Prix) - Stockholm, Sweden - Tuesday, July 25, 2006
6 GE Money (IAAF Grand Prix) - Helsinki, Finland - Wednesday, July 26, 2006
7 Norwhich Union British (Super Grand Prix) - London, Great Britain - Friday, July 28, 2006

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sports/html/20060702T230000-0500_108290_OBS_POWELL_S_CAMP_REFUTES_INJURY_REPORT_.asp

I guarantee it had to be a simple mistake. Some meet promoter must have told someone, “the world’s fastest man is injured”. Not knowing who the hell the worlds fastest man is…they assumed it was Asafa instead of Gat…blah blah blah…

Official Result
Men - 100 Metres - Final
Wind: -0.4 m/s
Pos Athlete Nat Mark
1 Obikwelu Francis POR 10.03
2 Burns Marc TRI 10.13
3 Smoots Jason USA 10.13
4 Fasuba Olusoji A. NGR 10.19
5 Aliu Deji NGR 10.20
6 Devonish Marlon GBR 10.21
7 Thomas Dwight JAM 10.22
8 Osovnikar Matic SLO 10.36
9 Kuc Dariusz POL 10.39

Good showing by Francis…

yeah hes laid kinda low since the olympics it seems. ive been expecting more.

Thats a lot of racing in July for him - unexpected. Especially 25, 26 and 28 - in 3 different countries… will be interesting to see how he backs up from sweden to finland over 2 days… I suppose there is the bigger picture from his coach - ie gold in world champs/olympics and he needs the racing - simulate round etc.

Full Results now posted in “Race Reports” section…

Some pts of interest: Hell of a men’s 800 - a guy runs 1:44.3 and finishes 8th!!

Germany at long last finds a very good female 100m hurdler.

Daniel Komen 3:30 at 1500 looks like he’s building into a serious contender to Ramzi for honours at next year’s world titles.

Panama’s Irving Saladino is the real deal, hoists the spinnaker to long jump 8.65w to beat Dwight by 30cm

Lashinda Demus goes into serious territory with 53.02 to flog Olympic champ Fani Halkia in the 400H.

Asafa won’t be running all of those races, thats just his track club’s (MVP) schedule, he will only compete in the Golden leauge races.