Shot puts Stockholm spinning in anticipation of DN Galan - PREVIEW - IAAF World Athletics Tour

Shot puts Stockholm spinning in anticipation of DN Galan - PREVIEW - IAAF World Athletics Tour

Usain Bolt (left) cruises across the finish line to win the men's 100m dash at Saturday's Jamaica's Olympic Trials. Asafa Powell (second right) was second ahead of Michael Frater (Sporting Eagle)

Usain Bolt (left) cruises across the finish line to win the men's 100m dash at Saturday's Jamaica's Olympic Trials. Asafa Powell (second right) was second ahead of Michael Frater (Sporting Eagle)
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* Yelena Isinbayeva sails over 5.03m in Rome
* Jenn Stuczynski celebrates her Area Record at the US Olympic Trials
* Abubaker Kaki of Sudan wins gold in the Men's 800m from Geoffrey Kibet of Kenya
* Jeremy Wariner runs a world-leading 43.86 in the 400m in Paris
* Allyson Felix runs away with 200m title - US Olympic Trials
* Sanya Richards steps down to the 200m and takes a narrow victory over her US rivals
* Dayron Robles becomes the first man to record two sub-12.90 clockings in the 110m hurdles
* David Oliver brings home sprint hurdles win at US Olympic Trials
* Another week, another two-metre-plus high jump victory for Blanka Vlasic
* Meseret Defar takes the women's 5000m in Eugene

Stockholm, Sweden - The DN Galan, a Super Grand Prix status meeting within the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2008 takes place on two days this year. A city centre Shot Put competition is held tomorrow (21) on the eve of the main programme in the 1912 Olympic stadium on Tuesday (22).

The DN Galan organisers have set up a Shot Put circle, and a stand for 500 spectators in Kungsträdgården which is in the very centre of Stockholm, and the competition will be broadcast by Swedish television. It has attracted the cream of American, which presently also means world shot putting in the men’s event – Adam Nelson, Reese Hoffa and Christian Cantwell – while former World champion and this season’s world list leader Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus heads an impressive women’s line-up.

Bolt vs Powell

The Jamaican two thirds of the triumvirate - Usian Bolt and Asafa Powell; Tyson Gay of the USA is the other element - who currently compose the premier league of men’s sprinting will race the 100m in Stockholm. Bolt and Powell last met at their national championships on 28 June, with the new World record holder* getting the better of the former – 9.85 to 9.97sec.

Injury permitting - Powell suffered a cramp in his groin when running his heat in Rome on 11 July - the clash between the two men will be the highlight of the track programme.

Much of the rest of the world of the men’s dash, including Osaka 2007 silver medallist Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas, also line-up to compete in what will represent a high level salvo of sprint sections, the lesser quality races being run out early in the evening. The ‘A’ final containing the main protagonists takes place at 20.45hrs local time (GMT + 2hrs).

The American squad who will race the women’s 100m in Beijing, Muna Lee, Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams, are the standouts in that final which will be run-off 30 minutes earlier.

“It made me so angry” - Isinbayeva

If we expect drama from a Jamaican sprint duo on the track, it is a much awaited ‘east meets west’ encounter on the Pole Vault runway which sparkles brightest on the in field, as dazzling as the 1-carat diamonds which the DN Galan organisers dispense whenever a stadium record is achieved. Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva and USA’s Jennifer Stuczynski will meet in competition for the first time in 2008.

This engagement presents the multiple World record holder and breaker, who set her 22nd World record when easily clearing a 5.03m bar in Rome (11), with the challenge of the American who won the USA Olympic trials improving her Area record from 4.90 to 4.92m.

Isinbayeva summed up her feelings after her record leap in Rome – “When Stuczynski jumped 4.90 then 4.92 it made me so angry because everyone started to say ‘Isinbayeva is finished, we have a new star’. It made me angry and I am happy for that feeling because I didn’t feel it enough since my last World record.”

It is clear then that this competition will be of the highest order, as Stuczynski attempts to reassert her worth just prior to Beijing.

Isinbayeva holds the stadium record at 4.79m. One can be pretty confident that a US$10,000 value rock will be ending up on the finger of one of these two women come Tuesday night.

Kaki takes on Olympic champion and a possible record mission

19-year-old Abubaker Kaki of Sudan has been swiftly notching-up career superlatives this year. The World Indoor 800m champion is now also the World Junior champion but the performance which drew the greatest admiration was his 1:42.69 Area and World Junior record in Oslo on 6 June.

In the 1000m here Kaki will take on Olympic 800m champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy who is sure to make a race of it, though by the time the Russian makes his trade mark dash from the back of the field he could find Kaki about to cross the finish such is the prodigious talent of his opponent. Can Noah Ngeny’s World record figures of 2:11.96 set back in 1999 be surpassed? Kaki will most certainly give this time a close call at the very least.

Robles vs Oliver

There is another mouth watering encounter in the men’s 110m Hurdles. While the world is speaking about Dayron Robles and Liu Xiang in Beijing, US champion David Oliver is quietly going about his preparations. The 26-year-old has a 12.95sec PB to his name this year and two windy sub-13s at the Trials. While much of the world will not have considered him in their medal equation, the Cuban and the Chinese will certainly have. Robles who charged to 12.88 in Paris on Friday will be keen to race Oliver again, as in their last meeting on 1 June in Berlin he was beaten by Oliver, 13.19 to 13.20.

USA the focus in the 400 metres races

There isn’t another Wariner – Merritt encounter in Stockholm but the Olympic and World champion for 400m after his 43.86 victory in Paris on Friday still faces a classy field. David Neville who was third in the US Trials and so makes the trip to Beijing will compete against Jeremy Wariner in the absence of LaShawn Merritt. Also in the line-up is Canada’s World Indoor champion Tyler Christopher, and USA's World 400m Hurdles champion Kerron Clement.

The women’s one lap has Allyson Felix racing Sanya Richards, which has the prospect to be as frantic an encounter as any of the great men’s 400m races which we have seen this season. It’s likely to push both women to season bests, which stand respectively 49.83 and 49.86 in Felix’s favour.

Richards has a spot in Beijing in the individual race while Felix, the World 200m champion, is aiming to impress the coaches to give her a relay place in the 4x400m to go with her individual race over 200m in Beijing.

However, Amantle Montsho of Botswana, the African champion, is one who has the ability to spoil this American head to head.

Swedish Olympic medal prospects

This being Sweden, the pride of the nation will be on show. All the athletes with hopes of medals at the Olympics will be competing – Olsson, Holm, Klüft and Kallur.

The biggest interest is in the fitness and form of reigning Olympic Triple Jump champion Christian Olsson, who will make his many times postponed season opener. If he competes at all it will be a plus but if he can demonstrate a quick return to condition as he did after a similarly long injury layoff ahead of the 2006 season, then Sweden will rejoice in hope. That previous return season ended in a European title for the Swede. US champion Aarik Wilson and Brazil’s Jadel Gregorio are two of the top challengers.

Stefan Holm is the best prospect for a gold medal in Beijing. Like Olsson he is the reigning Olympic champion but there the difference ends because Holm’s form in the High Jump shows every sign of potting him a repeat gold in China next month. His 2.37m win in Athens on 13 July leads the world season list currently. USA’s Dusty Jonas, who had held that distinction until that point (2.36m, 18 May) and World champion Donald Thomas of the Bahamas are also in the line-up.

Carolina Klüft (6.87m season’s best) who does not defend her Heptathlon title this summer in favour instead of competing in the individual Long Jump, comes up against US champion Brittney Reese who with 6.95m is the third best in the world this summer.

Susanna Kallur, the World Indoor record holder for 60m Hurdles, hasn’t raced the 100m Hurdles since Oslo on 6 June (12.71sec). Injured at the end of the indoor season she is clearly trying to get into acceptable shape and fitness for a credible Olympic campaign, so her performance on home soil against a strong field will be a revealing test. Jamaican pair Brigitte Foster-Hylton (12.50) and Delloreen Ennis-London (12.54) are the fastest this season of those who line-up.

Vlasic, of course in the High Jump

On the 7 August 2007, Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic set her national High Jump record of 2.07m at the DN Galan. Since then the Croatian has taken the World outdoor and indoor titles and established herself as one of the very top names across the sport. Even with the presence of Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko on the starting card, we have come to rely so much on the consistency of Vlasic that the win seems 'a given', so we are left to ponder, ‘what heights of success will she reach?’

Defar attempts to step out of Dibaba’s seasonal shadow

In Oslo on 6 June, Tirunesh Dibaba took five and half seconds off 2007 World Athlete of the Year Meseret Defar’s World record for 5000m, registering a time of 14:11.15. Two days later the response came from Defar but her 14:38.73 in Eugene, while still the fifth fastest clocking of the year, was not quite the level we had been expecting, and significantly the World and Olympic 5000m champion has not stepped on to a track in competition since.

Secure in her selection for Beijing - the Ethiopian team announcement was made a week ago (Mon 14 July) - what are we to expect from Defar in Stockholm? The presence of renowned Russian pace maker, Olga Komyagina, suggests a record attempt might be in the planning.

Mohamed - 8:11 in Paris

There will be a fast Kenyan led men’s 3000m both on the flat and over the Steeplechase barriers. However, look out for Sweden's Mustafa Mohamed who ran 8:11.10 in Paris on Friday which took third spot in the Steeple. The fourth placer from last year's World Championships will also harbour medal ambitions in Beijing.

Elsewhere on a packed programme, Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen throws in the men’s Javelin, and many of those national teams qualified for the Beijing sprint relays will also have a dress rehearsal blow-out too.