Feast of sprinting for Athletissima | 15.08.2012

Churandy Martina of the Netherlands will join the top sprinters of the world at the Athletissima Diamond League Meeting in Lausanne on 23 August.

One month ago, Athletissima boss Jacky Delapierre promised an exceptional line-up for this year’s event. Now with just 10 days left until Athletissima 2012, he is keeping his promise.

“Nine Olympic champions have confirmed their participation in the 37^th edition of Athletissima, and there are more to come,” said Delapierre.

Both the men’s and women’s sprint events will boast truly world class line-ups.

Seven of the eight men’s 100m finalists from London will be in Lausanne on August 23: Usain Bolt (9.63), Yohan Blake (9.75), Justin Gatlin (9.79), Tyson Gay (9.80), Ryan Bailey (9.88), Churandy Martina (9.94) and Richard Thompson (9.98) – Bolt will be running the 200m.

Only Asafa Powell will be missing, due to the injury he sustained in the Olympic final.

The women’s 100m promises to be every bit as electrifying as the men’s, with Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, silver medallist Carmelita Jeter, and bronze medallist Veronica Campbell-Brown all set to compete.

However, these won’t be the only post-Olympic rematches taking place in Lausanne. In the 400m Olympic gold medallist Kirani James will face the runner-up from that race, Luguelin Santos.

In the field events, the following Olympic champions have already been confirmed: Ivan Ukhov in the high jump, Renaud Lavillenie in the pole vault, Brittney Reese in the long jump, Olga Rypakova in the triple jump, Barbora Spotakova in the javelin and Valerie Adams in the shot put.

Rutherford versus Taylor in Birmingham

Britain’s Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford will return to action on British soil for the first time since his Olympic gold medal performance when he competes at the Aviva Birmingham Grand Prix on August 26.

Speaking about competing once again in front of a home crowd, Rutherford said: “The Olympics were an amazing experience from start to finish, the crowd were unbelievable.

“I’m looking forward to competing in front of a home crowd once again.”


In a mouth-watering twist that will see two Olympic champions go head-to-head, Rutherford will take on America’s newly-crowned Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor, who will compete in the long jump for the first time in Europe since 2008.

They will be joined by Australia’s Olympic long jump silver medallist, Mitchell Watt, as well as joint British record holder Chris Tomlinson.