7/10/08
By Bob Ramsak
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission

ROME –- With many of the key Olympic trials competitions now history, the AF Golden League series resumes on Friday night in Rome. For many, the Golden Gala Kinder+Sport, the third stop on the six-meet Golden League circuit, will provide a tune-up of the highest order with the Beijing Olympic Games just a month’s glance away. And for five athletes in particular, it will be the resumption of the chase for a slice of the $1 Golden League Jackpot.

Among the five still in contention for the Jackpot is the women’s 800m headliner and this year’s breakout talent, Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo. The 18-year-old took commanding victories in Berlin (1:54.99) and Oslo (1:55.41) after her international breakthrough in Hengelo (1:55.76), where she notched her first of two world junior records this year. She arrives in the Italian capital on the heels of her 1:57.71 victory at the Kenyan trials, the fastest ever run in the east African nation and considering Nairobi’s altitude, another notable performance. In her last four races, her average winning margin of victory was been 3.39 seconds.

She’ll face reigning world champion Janet Jepkosgei, with whom she handily dispensed in their last two head-to-heads, most recently on Saturday at the Kenyan trials, where she finished three seconds behind the teenager.

Tirunesh Dibaba returns to action after a 28 day break to lead the field in the women’s 5000m. On June 6, the 22-year-old twice world 10,000m champion ran a superb 14:11.15 at Oslo’s Bislett Games; in Rome she’ll tackle the distance again for the first time since. A world record pace isn’t expected, but a fairly fast race is.

The 13-minute barrier in the men’s 5000m was first breached in Rome in 1987 when Said Ouita clocked 12:58.39. 13 minutes still remains an honorable threshold, and that will be the target on Friday. Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine returns to defend his Rome title, and he’ll face Tariku Bekele, and Beijing-bound Eliud Kipchoge, and Ugandan Moses Kipsiro. Bekele and Kipsiro finished 2-3 in Berlin last month.

In terms of pure star power, it’ll be difficult to beat the men’s steeplechase. Kenyans Ezekiel Kemboi, Richard Matelong and Brimin Kipruto swept the podium at the world championships in Osaka last summer and last weekend Kemboi again led the trio to the Beijing squad at the Kenyan trials. Kemboi is the defending Olympic champion, and Kipruto the Athens silver medallist.

The men’s 800m too will be primarily an African affair. Alfred Kirwa Yego, the world champion arrives pressure-free after punching his ticket to Beijing last weekend at the Kenyan trials. The field also includes South Africa’s Olympic silver medallist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Uganda national record holder Abraham Chepkirwok, in a follow-up to their sub-1:43 performances last weekend in Madrid. Chepkirwok defeated both at the Golden League opener in Berlin.

World indoor champion Deresse Mekonnen has already won two races this month, and comes to Rome to lead the men’s 1500m. Daniel Kipchirchir Komen, the Golden Gala winner two years ago, returns after finishing a distant seventh at the Kenyan trials last weekend, and looking to salvage his season with solid outings on the international circuit. His 3:29.02 PB was set here in 2006. Frenchman Mehdi Baala, the European champion and the winner last month at the European Cup, will face an international field for the first time this season.

Others in the Jackpot hunt after victories in the series' stops in Berlin and Rome include Blanka Vlasic in the high jump, Bershawn Jackson in the men's 400m hurdles, Hussein Taher Al-Sabee in the men's long jump, and Spanish 100m hurdler Josephine Onyia.

ENDS

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