Liu, Dibaba among stars for New York athletics meet
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NEW YORK - World record-holder and 2004 Olympic champion Liu Xiang of China and Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba, reigning 5,000m and 10,000m world champion, lead the field for an IAAF Grand Prix meet here Saturday.
Liu won China's first men's Olympic athletics gold at Athens in the 110m hurdles. The 23-year-old Shangahi surprise smashed the world record last July in 12.88 seconds at Lausanne and three of the 10 best times ever in the event. US rivals Anwar Moore and David Payne have the year's best times of 13.12 seconds with two-time Olympic runner-up Terrence Trammell and Dominique Arnold also among Liu's foes in this tuneup for August's World Championship at Osaka. "For me, the only thing that ever matters is the search for extra speed between the hurdles," said Liu, the 2005 world runner-up. "I really want to see what winning the gold feels like this time." Dibaba will try to surpass the major run at this meet last year, the women's 5,000m world record of 14:24.53 set by Ethiopia's Meseret Defar. "Only if conditions are right, there might be a (world record) chance," Dibaba said. Wallace Spearmon, the 2005 world runner-up and US champion, will defend his 200m crown against Jamaican Usain Bolt. Reigning world 100m champion and Athens Olympic runner-up Lauryn Williams races fellow American Allyson Felix, the reigning world 200m champion, and Jamaican treble Olympic medalist Veronica Campbell in a women's 100m showdown. Felix also runs the 400m while 2005 world runner-up Rachelle Smith is a women's 200m favorite. Tyson Gay tops a men's 100m field that features fellow Americans Derrick Atkins, Shawn Crawford and Leonard Scott. Kenyans Boaz Cheboiywo, Boniface Songok and Jonas Cheruioyot will be tested in the men's 5,000m by Irishman Alistair Cragg and Ethiopia's Markos Geneti. Americans Bernard Lagat and Alan Webb, Australian Craig Mottram, Canadian Kevin Sullivan, New Zealand's Nick Willis and Kenya's Suleiman Simotwo top the men's mile field. |
