China hoping a strong comeback in athletics

Dinesh WEERAWANSA

ATHLETICS: Sri Lanka’s Susanthika Jayasinghe would know her start list schedule for Sunday’s women’s 100m quarter finals of the IAAF World Championship after the Technical Committee meeting scheduled for Thursday evening. However, the organisers issued the provisional entry lists yesterday.

Of the three women sprinters from Bahamas, competing in women’s 100m, Debbie Furguson has the season’s best timing of 11.12 seconds. But Bulgarian Tezzhan Naimova (11.04), France’s Christine Arron (11.06) and Russian Yevgeniya Polyakova (11.09) too have been impressive this season.

However, the season’s most impressive women sprinter has been Jamaican Veronica Campbell who recently clocked 10.89 second in 100m. Her team mates Sheri-Anne Brookes (11.05) and Kerron Stewart (11.03) too have maintained bullet-style speeds this season.

Beside Campbell, the only other woman sprinter to go bellow the 11-second barrier this season is American Torri Edwards (10.90). But her team mates from the USA team - Allyson Felix (11.01), Carmelita Jeter (11.05), Michelle Lewis (11.13) and Lauryn Williams (11.11) too have clocked impressive timings this season.

Jayasinghe, who won women’s 200m World Championship silver ten years ago, has clocked 11.25 seconds this season. But she has a personal best of 11.04 seconds in women’s 100m. Uzbekistani Guzel Khubbieva too has fared slightly better (11.20) this season.

The Uzbekistani lass won the first two meets of the 2007 Asian Grand Prix Series pushing aside Jayasinghe to the second spot. But Jayasinghe was third time lucky beating Khubbieva in the third and final meet of the Asian Grant Prix Series.

Meanwhile, China is well set for a dream comeback in the World Championship series. China, the hosts of next year’s summer Olympic Games, plans to test their preparations for the mega event as they field a formidable team for the 11th IAAF World Championship which begins in Osaka on Saturday (25).

China has been making big preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games not merely as the host nation but also to make their presence felt performance-wise. With the IAAF World Championship coming to a neighbouring Asian country, China will get a golden opportunity to test their track and field preparations under favourable Asian conditions.

Athletic is one key area the Chinese have been making long preparations and this will be the ideal stage they could test their young blood. Many feel that China would be in a strong position to challenge long standing dominance of the United States at the Olympic Games.

Many expect China to throw a challenge to the American dominance in the international athletic circuit. Hence it would be interesting to see how the Chinese athletes fare this time around.

China was invincible when they had a world famous coach to build that famous Ma’s Army. But subsequent doping allegations did not allow them to maintain the same high profile situation.

China will be fielding a strong team for the IAAF World Championship in Osaka. They will have to face a stiff competition from the USA, Bahamas, Japan and former Russian Republic countries. Nevertheless, it is going to be a keen battle for world athletic supremacy.