Allyson Felix, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Carmelita Jeter and Bianca Knight sat side by side by side by side on stage at the final pre-race press conference Friday before the adidas Grand Prix, and to say they can’t wait to race each other on Saturday is like saying … well, let them say it.
“It’s always good to run against the best in the world,” said Knight, the 2008 NCAA Champion and 200-meter NCAA record-holder indoors who finished 2010 ranked #6 in the world. “Other than the World Championships, this will be one of the best races of the season.
“We’re all in one race so someone’s going to run fast,” she said, “and I hope it’s me.”
“Running against Allyson is something I’ve been really looking forward to,” said Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, the reigning Olympic and World Champion at 100 meters. “She has been running great 200 meters for a long time and this will be the first time I am in the field with her.”
“I’m looking forward to hopefully putting a complete race together for myself, to really execute the curve,” said Allyson Felix, a three-time World Champion outdoors who ranked #1 in the world in 2010 at both 200 meters and 400 meters. “I have people like Shelly-Ann and Carmelita who are amazing in the 100, and Bianca running the turn, they all get out really well. I think that will be an amazing challenge for me.”
As if that quartet won’t have enough just dealing with each other, they will also face Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, who brings some hardware of her own to the starting line: the Jamaican veteran is the 2001 World Champion and 2009 World Championships bronze medalist ranked #4 in the world last year. Shalonda Solomon of the U.S., ranked #3 last year, will also be in the thick of things.
Of the group, Fraser-Pryce and Jeter – both 100-meter specialists – will bear watching. Fraser-Pryce said recently that until this year she hated running the 200, but simply decided that she was going to like it and so now she does. Jeter, on the other hand, said at the press conference that she not only likes the 200, but that it was actually her preferred event in high school and college. “The 100,” she said, “was just something I did for points, really. I’m glad that I’m able to run it more this year. I’m very interested to see what I can put together in the 200.”
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Among other press conference highlights:
• LJ van Zyl, the 25-year-old South African who is undefeated this season in his seven races, attributed his new 400-meter hurdle success to losing four kilograms – almost nine pounds – since last fall. “Last year I was very strong in the weight room, but not so fast on the track,” he said. The new training plan, he observed, “seems to work.” With the top five times in the world so far this year, it does indeed. As for his newfound stardom? “It’s a new feeling,” he said, “but I could get used to it.”
• At the 2010 adidas Grand Prix, Bershawn “Batman” Jackson ran 47.94 in the 400 hurdles to finish second, but it was a victory of sorts. After a stretch of injuries, “it gave me my confidence again.” He went on to finish the season ranked #1 in the world for the first time since 2005, when he was World Champion. Speaking of confidence, he concluded the hurdles portion of the press conference with an unprompted announcement: “And I will say the 400 hurdles will be the best event tomorrow.”
• The triple jump on Saturday will be a reunion of Christian Olsson, Phillips Idowu and Teddy Tamgho, the young Frenchman who last year launched a jump of 17.98m/59 feet here to not only defeat the veterans but also make him the #3 jumper in history. But there’s no bad blood. “I get on really well with Teddy, we’re cool,” said the 2009 World Champion. “I sent him a message after her jumped in Doha to say well done and he sent me a message after Rome to say well done. There’s mutual respect there.”
• Asked what his goal is tomorrow in the 5000 meters, American Record-holder and 2007 World Champion Bernard Lagat deferred to his 5-year-old son. “Miika told me ‘you should win’ and so I’m here with a purpose. To make my son happy, I have to win.”