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IAAF Meet Preview: Herculis Monaco Super Grand Prix

Posted July 28th, 2008 at 11:21 AM by Jesse Squire

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

On Tuesday, the IAAF World Athletics Tour comes to Monaco for the Herculis Meeting, a Super Grand Prix event in Stade Louis II. It is the final major meet before the Olympic Games.

Coverage: Universal Sports and WCSN.com, live from 2-5 p.m. EDT
Meet Website (in French)
IAAF preview

Event-by-event Previews

The meet begins with two women’s field events, the start lists for each of which are quite strong. The long jump includes six of the world’s top ten: #1 Naide Gomes, #3 Brittney Reese, #5 Tatyana Kotova, #6 Tatyana Lebedeva, #8 Lyudmila Kolchanova and #9 Karin Mey. The pole vault should be even better, with only American Jen Stuczynski absent; #1 Yelena Isinbayeva, #3 Svetlana Feofanova , #4 Monika Pyrek, #5 Fabiana Murer, #6 Yuliya Golubchikova, #7 Silke Spiegelburg, #8 Anna Rogowska and #9 Tatyana Polnova make this competition potentially better than the Olympic final.

Leading off the running events are 400 meter hurdles races for both women, with top Olympians #1 Melanie Walker, #2 Anna Jesien, #3 Tiffany Ross-Williams, #5 Sheena Tosta, and #6 Christine Spence, and men, featuring #3 Danny McFarlane and #5 Marek Plawgo.

The men’s field events get started with the high jump, where #2 Andrey Silnov, #4 Jesse Williams, #5 Ivan Ukhov, #6 Linus Thörnblad, #7 Andra Manson and #8 Andrey Tereshin should make for a great competition. Also on the schedule is the shot put, with #4 Tomasz Majewski, #5 Dorian Scott, #6 Peter Sack, #8 Rutger Smith and #9 Dan Taylor, and the triple jump, with #2 Nelson Évora, #4 Dmitrij Valukevic,#6 Randy Lewis, #7 Aarik Wilson, #9 Leevan Sands and #10 Jadel Gregorio.

#5 Shedrack Kibet Korir attempts to create a win streak in the men’s 1500 meters. Vitorious in London on Friday, he defeated Bernard Lagat among others. #6 Daniel Kipchirchir Komen will attempt to regain form after a series of poor outings, and Olympians #10 Mohamed Moustaoui and #16 Geoffrey Kipkoech Rono will put them to the test.

In the women’s 100 meter hurdles, #3 Brigitte Foster-Hylton, the Jamaican champion, takes on #5 Joanna Hayes and #8 Sally McLellan, who nearly pulled off a huge upset of Lolo Jones in London on Saturday.

On that same day, we were supposed to get a great matchup in the men’s 800 meters between #2 Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Worlds silver medalist Gary Reed. But both got tripped up in a crowded field and neither finished. They are slated to try again in Monaco, with #4 Yusuf Saad Kamel and #7 Yuriy Borzakovskiy added in to make it even more interesting.

Beijing medal favorite #2 Asafa Powell headlines the men’s 100 meters. Last week he dealt Usain Bolt his only defeat of the year. Others entered include #3 Nesta Carter, #11 Kim Collins and #14 Frances Obikwelu.

The women’s 100 meters is another deep USA versus Jamaica affair. #4 Marshavet Hooker and #10 Torri Edwards lead the way for us and #3 Sherone Simpson, #6 Kerron Stewart, and #8 Shelly-Ann Fraser for them.

Olympians are the top draw in the women’s 3000 meters: Kenya’s Sylvia Kibet and America’s Sara Slattery and Jen Rhines, who won in London on Saturday.

Half of the men’s 110 meter hurdles field are Americans: #2 David Oliver, #6 Antwon Hicks, #9 Anwar Moore, and NCAA champ Jason Richardson. Joining them is #14 Stanislav Olijars, third in London this past weekend.

The curent start list shows a crowded race of 18 athletes in the men’s 3000 meters. Kenyan Trials champ #9 Mark Kiptoo leads the field, along with Abraham Chebii, Alistair Cragg, Joseph Ebuya, and Boniface Kiprotich Songok.

It appears that the A-level stars in the men’s 400 meters are resting up for Beijing, but this race still looks to be a competitive affair between #5 Ricardo Chambers, World Indoor silver medalist Johan Wissman, and NCAA champ Andretti Bain.

American #8 Christin Wurth-Thomas gets her final pre-Olympic tuneup in the women’s 1500 meters. #3 Gelete Burka and Aussie Sarah Jamieson are the leading contenders.

The men’s steeplechase is the final individual event of the evening and fully deserves to be, as all of the world’s top four are going head-to-head: Michael Kipyego, Paul Kipsiele Koech, Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong, and Brimin Kiprop Kipruto, joined by #7 Collins Kosgei and #8 Wesley Kiprotich.

4×100 relays for women and men cap the meeting. The USA is slated to run two teams in each against squads from Italy, Germany and France.