Olympic and world stars headline Shanghai event
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, May 13, 2013
Seven track-and-field gold medal winners at the 2012 London Olympic Games, eight reigning world champions, three world record holders and 26 Olympic medalists have confirmed their participation for the 2013 IAAF Diamond League Shanghai on Sunday, the organizers said yesterday.
The men's 400m will pitch world and Olympic champion Kirani James against LaShawn Merritt of USA, who took the gold in Beijing 2008, but missed out on London final because of an injury. James, from Grenada, will also face the two men he beat for the Olympic title - world junior champion Luguelin Santos of Dominican Republic, who took the silver, and Trinidad and Tobago's bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon.
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Grenada's Kirani James beat LaShawn Merritt in the 400m at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu. |
No less than three Olympic champions will square off in the men's long jump when Britain's London gold medalist Greg Rutherford takes on Panama's Beijing champion Irving Saladino and USA's Dwight Phillips - the 2004 Athens winner - but hasn't competed since September 2011. Australia's world and Olympic silver medallist Mitchell Watt is also in the mix.
It's a similar story in the men's javelin where Trinidad's surprise Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott faces Norwegian great Andreas Thorkildsen, the Athens and Beijing gold medalist. In the 110m hurdles, Olympic champion and world record holder Aries Merritt will take on world champion Jason Richardson, also the London silver medallist.
Three double Olympic champions are among the stars in the women's events. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, whose 100m duel with her US rival Carmelita Jeter, promises to be one of the highlights in Shanghai.
Ethiopian distance runner Meseret Defar, who claimed her second Olympic gold in London, heads a field of talented Kenyans and Ethiopians in the 5000m here.
Russia's multi-world record breaker Yelena Isinbayeva tops the women's pole vault entries.
There's also China's new sprint hope, Zhang Peimeng, who clocked 10.04 to break the national 100m record last month.
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