US sprint star Justin Gatlin might be used to hogging the limelight, but there is a strong chance he will be overshadowed at today’s Diamond League meet in Rome by one of the strongest-ever Kenyan steeplechase lineups.
With no less than 50 Olympic, world or European medalists or Diamond League winners at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea — the fifth leg of this year’s IAAF Diamond League at the Stadio Olimpico — will be another stage for fine-tuning ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.
Gatlin has form in the Italian capital, last year tying Maurice Greene’s record of four wins at the Golden Gala and breaking Usain Bolt’s meeting record with 9.75 seconds over 100m.
Photo: EPA
Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion who was banned for doping between 2006 and 2010, clocked a wind-assisted 9.88 seconds in Eugene, Oregon, last week.
The world No. 1 took the tape ahead of Jamaican Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay and will doubtless seek to extend that form heading into the Rio Games.
The 100m lineup also features Asian record holder Femi Ogunode, European record holder Jimmy Vicaut and South African record holder Akani Simbine.
However, the blue riband event could well be eclipsed by the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, which promises to be an electric race.
All three podium finishers from last year’s Beijing Worlds are to start: four-time world champion and reigning Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi, Brimin Kipruto and Conseslus Kipruto.
To that trio are added two more Kenyans in the shape of Golden Gala record holder Paul Kipsiele Koech and Jairus Birech, winner of the past two editions of the Diamond Race who has announced he would this season target the world record set by Kenyan-born Qatari Saif Saeed Shaheen of 7 minutes, 53.63 seconds in 2004.
Other stand-out events include the men’s high jump in which Italian all-comers record-holder Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar (2.41m) faces home hero and World Indoor champion Gianmarco Tamberi.
Also in the field are Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko, world champion in Moscow 2013 and European champion in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2014, and world silver medalists Zhang Guowei and Robbie Grabarz, who won at the Olympic Stadium in London in 2012.
South African sprinter Wayde van Niekerk has risen to fame as the only male athlete to have run the 100m in under 10 second, the 200m in under 20 seconds and the 400m in under 44 seconds.
The world 400m champion faces Qatar’s world indoor silver medalist Abdelalelah Haroun, Botswana’s Isaac Makwala and Grenada’s Bralon Taplin over one lap.
The men’s 200m features US hopeful Trayvon Bromell, world indoor champion in the 60m and world bronze in the 100m, out to break the 20-second barrier.
In-form South African Caster Semenya is to race the women’s 800m, having dominated her rivals in the Diamond League meets in Doha and Rabat.
In Rome she is to race against the Beijing Worlds’ podium in Marina Arzamasova, Melissa Bishop and Eunice Sum, the top two of the World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, Francine Nyonsaba and Ajee Wilson, and European champions Linsey Sharp and Selina Buchel.
Ethiopia’s world 5,000m champion Almaz Ayana will try to better the Rome record of 14 minutes, 23.46 seconds set by compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba.
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