At least two high profile athletes will be going all out for World Records (WR) in their various events as the Norwegian city of Oslo hosts the Exxon Mobil Bislett Games, which is the sixth leg in the IAAF Diamond League series.
They are Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim in the men’s High Jump, and Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia, who would try to snatch the world 5000m record of 14:11.15 from her elder sister, Tirunesh, who incidentally established the record in the very stadium 7 years ago.
Barshim already holds the enviable position of the second-highest jumper of all time after clearing 2.43m last season. He has already won his first two Diamond League meetings with 2.38m and 2.41m in Shanghai and Eugene respectively, but will now attempt to break the WR of 2.45m under the watchful eyes of its owner, Javier Sotomayor, who will be one of the spectators in Oslo.
To achieve this feat, he must out-jump a field that includes four athletes with PB’s above 2.40m: Russia’s Ivan Ukhov, the Ukrainian duo of Bohdan Bondarenko and Andriy Protsenko, and Canada’s Derek Drouin will provide stiff competition for the Qatari, as well as China’s Zhang Guowei who jumped a Personal Best (PB) of 2.38m in Eugene.
Focus would be on Dibaba as the 24 year old ran a whooping 14:19.76s in Eugene, thereby placing 4th on the all-time list, and will aim to become the 70th world record breaker at the Bislett Stadium.
Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown will be making her Diamond League debut for the year in Oslo. The two-time Olympic 200m Champion who beat Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor to the 2014 Diamond Race Trophy in the 100m, will be up against a respectable field at the Bislett stadium.
Cote d’Ivoire’s Mureille Ahoure is expected to be her strongest competitor. The 2013 World Championships double Silver medallist has shown great form this season, finishing 2nd to Allyson Felix in the 200m in Doha, before narrowly losing to Olympic Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in Eugene, with the pair clocking a World Lead (WL) of 10.81s, which doubled as a National Record (NR) for the Ivoirian.
Also expected to add value to this field is USA’s Carmelita Jeter and one of the fastest women in 2014, Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye. The local interest in the line-up is Ezinne Okpareabo, who is the Norwegian record holder with 11.10s and would be hoping to go under the 11s mark for the first time.
The men’s 200m is one to watch out for as it features the top two sprinters from the African continent who are also record holders for their respective countries; they are South Africa’s Anaso Jobodwana (20.04s) and Carvin Nkanata (20.14s) of Kenya. Former European Champion Christophe Lamaitre, Great Britain’s Richard Kilty and homeboy Jaysuma Saidy Ndure with a PB of 19.89s, are also expected to make the race an unpredictable one.
World Leader in the women’s 100m Hurdles, Jasmin Stowers, would hope to put behind her the disappointment of finishing last at the Rome meeting and disqualification for a false start in Birmingham. She goes against European Champion Tiffany Porter, teammates Brianna Rollings and Queen Harrison.
Asian Record holder in the 400m Hurdles Kemi Adekoya of Bahrain, would aim to improve on her outstanding performance at the just concluded Asian Championships where she set a new NR, PB and WL of 54.31s to claim GOLD
. She would be up against the fastest over the event last year, Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer, 2013 World Champion Zuzana Hejnova, European Champion Eilidh Child and USA’s Moline Georganne.
Another eye-catching clash would be in the men’s Long Jump event where world champion Aleksandr Menkov, Olympic champion Greg Rutherford and African record holder Godfrey Mokoena would go against each other. The duo of Micheal Hartfield (8.27m) and Triple Jump specialist Christian Taylor (8.11m) are also expected to be stiff competitors.
