Bolt back on track for bumper Stockholm payday
The world’s fastest man Usain Bolt is back in action at the Diamond
League meeting here on Friday and hoping to erase bad memories of last
year.
Twelve months ago, the Jamaican, who is the reigning world and
Olympic champion as well as world record holder at 100m and 200m,
suffered a shock defeat in the 100m at the hands of the American Tyson
Gay.
Bolt |
However, he has been lured back to the Swedish capital for the 11th
stop on the Diamond League circuit — his appearance fee is two million
kronor ($310,000) according to local media — and will feature this time
in the 200m, which he considers his better distance.
Gearing
“I will be back — and I will not lose,” said Bolt, who is gearing up
not just for next month’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea but
for next year’s London Olympics.
His biggest competition on Friday is likely to come from Panama’s
Alonso Edward, who collected silver behind Bolt at the 2009 world
championships, and Norway’s Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, both of whom have run
under 20secs.
While some may shudder at the amount of appearance money being paid
out to Bolt, the Swedish organisers rate it as good value.
“He was worth it last year, and I think he’ll be worth it this year
too,” said competition director Rajne Soderberg. “That’s what I hope, at
least.”
Fastest
The second fastest sprinter in women’s history Carmelita Jeter admits
that she has her eyes firmly set on winning herself a 1-carat diamond,
valued at $10,000 which the organisers award to anyone who breaks a
stadium record.
“I would love to get a diamond,” said the American who will run the
100m. “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”
The stadium 100m record currently belongs to Irina Privalova who ran
10.90 in 1994, a time that is well within Jeter’s best of 10.64.
She will be up against Jamaican Kerron Stewart, the world’s seventh
fastest woman with 10.75 and a season best of 10.87, as well as the
evergreen 35-year-old Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas.
Comeback
Yelena Isinbayeva will continue her comeback in the pole vault after
a lengthy self-imposed 11-month lay-off.
The Russian, who won in Belgium last week with a height of 4.60m,
still a long way short of her world record of 5.06m, will be hoping that
a wrist injury suffered last week will not affect her progress towards
the world championships.
Another woman on the comeback trail is the women’s 800m world
champion Caster Semenya. The 20 year-old South African won in Paris,
finished second in Eugene and third in Oslo, her 1:58.61 season’s best
coming in the Norwegian capital.
A field that boasts 10 runners who have clocked under 1:59.00 this
season, including season leader Morocco’s Halima Hachlaf, should give
her a decent test.
STOCKHOLM, Friday, AFP
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