Usain Bolt returns to China for the first time since his triple-gold Olympic feat to launch his 200m season tomorrow, while hurdler Liu Xiang looks for redemption in his hometown.
Bolt comes to the Shanghai IAAF Diamond League meet after running 9.86 seconds — the fastest time of the year so far — to win his season-opening 100m at South Korea’s Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting on Wednesday. The 100m and 200m world record holder is being pursued by American Tyson Gay and fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell, who have both made it clear they aim to beat him this year — and Bolt himself has said it could be the season to do it.
However, with Gay and Powell staying away from Shanghai, Bolt is expected to dominate tomorrow’s race despite calling this an “off season” when he intends to get as much rest as possible ahead of next year’s world championships.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Bolt’s 200m race here will help set the stage for three upcoming Diamond League showdowns with Gay, who fired a new warning in Bolt’s direction by shattering the 44-year-old straight line 200m world record on Monday.
Shanghai’s fiercest race is expected to be the men’s 110m hurdles as Chinese star Liu seeks to regain world-class form after finishing seventh in his international return at the World Indoor Championships in March.
Barbados’ Ryan Braithwaite, the 110m hurdles world champion, and American David Oliver, who won bronze at the indoor championships, will challenge Liu on his home turf.
However, Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba has decided to skip the meet, preventing a showdown with Liu.
Liu, who became the first Chinese man ever to win Olympics track and field gold at the 2004 Athens Games, is striving for his one-time record-breaking form after an Achilles heel injury forced him out of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
US sprinter Carmelita Jeter also returns to Shanghai where she ran the best women’s 100m time of last year at 10.64 seconds. She competes against world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica for another victory in Shanghai.
Jeter comes to China after winning the women’s 100m in Daegu on Wednesday.
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