Four more Beijing Olympic Champions Sign up for Lausanne
- IAAF World Athletics Tour
Angelo
Taylor leads a US sweep in the 400m hurdles
Lausanne,
Switzerland – Four more Beijing Olympic champions have confirmed their
participation for next month’s edition of the Athletissima in Lausanne on July
7th.
The Athletissima is a Super Grand Prix status meeting as part of the IAAF
World Athletics Tour 2009.
The organizers are pleased to welcome four additional Olympic champions
who have confirmed their participation at the Pontaise Stadium in Lausanne on
July 7th.
Americans Angelo Taylor and Dawn Harper, Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser and Nancy
Lagat will all be lining up for the meeting’s 34th edition at Pontaise Stadium.
Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt, 110m Hurdles winner Dayron Robles, long
jumper Irving Saladino, pole vaulter Steve Hooker and javelin thrower Barbora
Spotakova have previously been announced.
With Taylor, who won his second Olympic crown in the 400M Hurdles in Beijing,
joining the field, the men’s race will feature the top three finishers from
last year’s Olympic final. Kerron Clement, who is also the reigning World
champion, and Beijing bronze medallist and 2005 World champion Bershawn
Jackson, the level of the 400M Hurdles race will be exceptionally high.
In the women’ races, the Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser will face her
compatriot Kerron Stewart, a silver medallist in Beijing. In the Chinese
capital, Fraser ran 10.78 and also won the 100m in Lausanne 10 days later.
In the 100M hurdles, Harper will run against Sally McLellan of Australia, the
runner-up in Beijing. McLellan’s ran her personal best last year in Monaco,
where she clocked 12.53, a scant 0.01 seconds faster than the American when she
took the Olympic gold.
Last but not least, Nancy Lagat will face Maryam Jamal in the 1500M. Jamal, who
knows this track very well as she trains there often, hopes to clock a very
fast time in her build up to the World championships. The winner in 2005, 2007
and 2008, she will be aiming for the stadium record of 3:58.60 set in 2006.
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