Keila Costa improves to 6.81 in Fortaleza (© Wander Roberto de Oliveira/CBAt)
For the sixth time in a row, Belém, the capital city of the state of Pará, will be the venue of the IAAF Brazilian GP which will take place on Sunday 20 May.
The 23rd “Grande Prêmio Brasil/Caixa de Atletismo” is part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2007, and expects another massive crowd from the people of Belém, which has turned the event into the biggest athletics meet in South and Central America. The 2004 edition marked the attendance record with over 42,000 people at the “Estádio Mangueirão”.
Cuban throwers Yumileidi Cumbá and Osleidys Menéndez, Olympic Champions in Athens 2004, will be among the biggest names on the program. Americans Sandra Glover, Tiffany Ross-Williams and Sheena Johnson will also be part of the meet in their event, the 400m hurdles.
Johnson vs. Glover in 400m Hurdles
38-year-old American Sandra Glover will compete once again on Brazilian soil. The two-time World Championship medalist (silver in Paris 2003 and bronze in Helsinki 2005) will face compatriots Tiffany Ross-Williams and Sheena Johnson, fourth at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, in what seems to be an early preview of the National Championships that will decide who will be running the Osaka IAAF World Championships.
Glover comes from a 54.70 performance in Atlanta (12 May), while Ross-Williams ran a world leading mark of 54.34 in Santo Domingo on the same day and 54.88 in Fortaleza. Johnson hasn’t competed in 2007 yet, but is the fastest of the field, since she is one of the only eleven women to have broken the 53 seconds at the distance (52.95 ’04).
Costa against Savigne in the Long Jump
The competition will start at 9:00 AM local time with the Women’s Long Jump, where Brazilian Keila Costa will be trying to extend her good form that took her to victories in the three Brazilian events.
Costa started with a windy 15.10m mark at Triple in Uberlândia (6 May) and followed with a 6.67m Long Jump at the Rio GP, and with a personal best of 6.81m in Fortaleza (16 May).
Two of the opponents that Costa was going to have in Belém, were scratched due to injuries. That was the case of Brazilian Maurren Maggi, who came back from the Doha GP with a muscular injury, and the 2007 world leader Akiba McKinney, who suffered a fracture to her right fibula at the Rio GP.
But that’s not the case of Cuban Yargelis Savigne, the 2005 CAC Champion and 2005 World Championships finalist (4th), who has jumped 6.60m this season at the ALBA Games in Venezuela, and will be present in Belém.
Savigne is known as a Triple Jump specialist, event where she won the silver medal at the 2005 World Championships, and at which she leads the 2007 World lists with 14.99m (Caracas, 11 May).
Along with Savigne will compete another Cuban, Yudelkis Fernández, Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova (6.63m PB) and Greece’s Stilianí Pilátou (6.75m PB).
Menéndez and Bisset in the Javelin
Then, Cuban Osleidys Menéndez, who didn’t have a good 2006 season, will be looking for a good start of 2007, with the Pan-American Games and Osaka IAAF World Championships on her sights.
The two-time World Champion, Olympic Champion and World record holder will find her toughest opponent in compatriot Sonia Bisset, the bronze medalist of the 2001 World Championships.
Bisset, also the 1998 and 2006 CAC Games Champion, has thrown 60.10m this year in Fortaleza (16 May), while Menéndez has reached 58.98m (Caracas, 11 May).
But what is expected to be a Cuban fest could be upset by American Kim Kreiner, who in Fortaleza obtained a new national record and world leading mark of 64.19m, beating Bisset. Also in the event will be competing Bahamian Laverne Eve and Brazilian Alessandra Resende.
Tosca, Gregório and Betanzos in Triple
What seems to be another great Brazilian-Cuban rivalry shall be seen in the Triple Jump.
2007 world leader Osniel Tosca of Cuba (17.52m, Caracas, 11 May) starts as the favorite, and will encounter local hope Jadel Gregório and compatriot Yoandri Betanzos.
Betanzos, who has jumped only 16.96m this season, is the more accomplished of the trio, with two silver medals won at the World Championships, and a fourth place at the 2004 Olympic Games.
Gregório, now based in Gateshead, England, is entering his second season under coach Peter Stanley, the man who guided the great Jonathan Edwards to Olympic and World glory, and a 18.29m World Record.
The 2.03m tall Brazilian is hoping to have a breakthrough in 2007, since he is missing a major medal from an outdoor competition, though he has two World Indoor silvers (2004 and 2006). So far, his best result of the season is 17.04m (Doha, 11 May), and a windy 17.08 (Fortaleza, 16 May). His personal best is 17.73 from 2005.
Some fine young blood will also jump in Belém. Ecuadorian Hugo Chila, silver medalist at the 2006 IAAF World Junior Championships will be in the contest, along with 23-year-old Brazilians Leonardo Elisiário dos Santos (16.75m this year) and Thiago Dias (16.36m in Fortaleza).
Cumbá leads Shot Put field
The Women’s Shot Put also promises to be highly contested. 2004 Olympic Champion, Cuban Yumileidi Cumbá, heads the field, which includes compatriot Misleidis González, Trinidad & Tobago’s Cleopatra Borel-Brown, American Jillian Camarena and German Nadine Kleinert.
Camarena has the best result of the season so far, 18.92 (Stanford, 31 March), while Kleinert, with three silver medals at Olympic Games and World Championships, is the only one who has thrown over 20m (20.06m, 2005). Borel-Brown was the winner in the Fortaleza meet with a season’s best of 18.67m.
Martínez, Esenwein and Janek in the men’s Javelin
The men’s Javelin Throw also promises to be fiercely contested. Cuban Guillermo Martínez, the CAC record holder and 2006 CAC Games Champion, starts as the favorite. Martínez has thrown 87.17m in 2006, and has already registered 85.93m at the recent meet in Fortaleza.
39-year-old German Peter Esenwein will be among the contenders, along with Poland’s Igor Janik and Canadian Scott Russell. Esenwein has a lifetime best of 87.20m (2004) and has reached up to 80.09m this season (Osaka, 5 May). The 24-year-old Janik has 82.86m (2006) as his personal best, and so far, his 2007 best is 80.50m, also obtained at the Osaka GP. Russell threw 83.98m in Fortaleza, very close to his PB (84.41m 2005), to finish second to Martínez.
18-year-old Paraguayan Víctor Fatecha, 4th at the Beijing World Junior Championships and also with a fresh South American Junior record from Fortaleza (78.01m), and Brazilians Alexon Maximiano (PB of 78.57m in Fortaleza), Luiz Fernando da Silva and Júlio César de Oliveira will complete the field.
The rest of the field events to be contested in Belém are the Men’s High Jump and Women’s Pole Vault.
Strong 110m Hurdles field
10 track events will also be staged at the “Mangueirão” Stadium: 100m (men and women), 200m (men and women), 400m hurdles (men and women), 100 and 110m hurdles, 800m (men) and 300m Steeplechase (women).
The ones that present the strongest field are the 110m hurdles and the women’s 400m hurdles.
In the men’s sprint hurdles, the field will be headed by Jamaican Maurice Wignall, the 2006 Commonwealth Games Champion. His toughest opponents will be American Robby Hughes (13.26 PB from 2006) and Cuban Yoel Hernández, a three-time World Championships finalist (PB 13.24, 1999).
Brazil, also strong at this event, will present its best of the moment: Anselmo Gomes da Silva (PB 13.30, 2005) and Éder de Souza (PB 13.60, 2007, the best this season). National record holder Redelen dos Santos and Olympic and World Championship finalist Matheus Inocêncio will be absent due to injuries.
Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF
