NAIROBI, September 1 – Ten days after winning an Olympic gold medal, Wilfred Bungei will be back on the track at the Athletissima Super Grand Prix meet in Lausanne on Tuesday.
The 28 year old will face off with World champion Alfred Kirwa Yego, 1500 metres silver medalist Asbel Kiprop, 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy and Yousef Saad Kamel in a classy 800 metres field.
In the women’s 800 metres race, World champion Janeth Jepkosgei will be looking to register her first win of the season. The 25 year old has lived under the shadow of wonder teenager Pamela Jelimo for most of the season losing in all races to her younger compatriot.
Olympic champion Nancy Jebet Lagat will be up against World champion Maryam Jamal In the women’s 1500 metres. Lagat pulled off the surprise of the Olympics by winning gold in the three and three quarter lap race an another strong showing will cement her position as the new queen of the event.
Kenyan are also set to dominate the men’s 1500m with African champion Haron Keitany who produced a major upset in Zürich winning in a new PB of 3:32.06 beating Olympic champion Rashid Ramzi.
Also in a field are Daniel Kipchirchir Komen and Shadrack Korir, the two fastest 1500 metres men in the world this year with 3:31.49 and 3:31.94 from the Monaco Super Grand Prix meeting, who were not in the Kenyan team in Beijing.
Jamaican Olympic sprint star Usain Bolt, the first man in history to win three Olympic sprint gold medals (100, 200 metres and 4×100 relay) with World records, will run his favourite 200 metres distance on the super-fast Pontaise track which has produced big results in the past two editions – Xavier Carter’s 19.63 meeting record in 2006 and Tyson Gay’s 19.78 in 2007.
Bolt comes to Lausanne directly from Zürich where he stormed to a winning 9.83 last Friday (29). The entire Beijing podium, Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix plus World bronze medallist Wallace Spearmon will line up in Lausanne.
The other highlight will be the men’s 110m Hurdles where Olympic champion Dayron Robles will clash against Olympic bronze medallist David Oliver from the USA. The two had a very close battle in Zürich with 12.97 to 12.98, with the Cuban World record holder just prevailing. It was Robles’ sixth sub-13 seconds race of the season.
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