by Larry Eder
Five More Stars set for Saturday’s adidas Grand Prix
Tickets for the event, which is marking its 10th year of bringing the world’s top athletes to Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island, are on sale at www.adidasgrandprix.com or by calling1-877-849-8722.
LaShawn Merritt, 27, won two Olympic gold medals in 2008 (400m, 4x400m), and is a seven-time IAAF World Champion. The American had the fastest time in the world last year, 43.74, and finished the year ranked #1 in the world.
Also ranked #1 in the world last year was Abeba Aregawi, 23, of Sweden, the reigning World Champion indoors and outdoors at 1500 meters. Her time of 3:56.60 was the fastest in the world last year. The addition of Aregawi adds to already deep 1500-meter field that includes Jenny Simpson, the 2011 World Champion and 2013 World Championship silver medalist; Brenda Martinez, the 2013 World Championships bronze medalist at 800 meters; Shannon Rowbury, the 2009 World Championships bronze medalist at 1500 meters who recently set an American best at 2 Miles; and Morgan Uceny, ranked #1 in the world at 1500 meters in 2011.
Alexa Efraimson, the prep runner from Camas, WA, who recently broke the national high school record for 1600 meters, has also been added to the open 1500-meter race.
Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart is the 2008 Olympic silver medalist at 100 meters, the distance that she will run here. She won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics as part of Jamaica’s 4×100 relay team, with which she won world titles in 2009 and 2013.
Also added to the women’s 100-meter field is Tori Bowie, the American who is having a break-out year in the sprints. Bowie, 23, is the 2011 NCAA Champion indoors and outdoors in the long jump who stunned the sports world when she won last month’s Prefontaine Classic 200 meters in 22.18 in only her second race at the distance as a professional. Then last week at the Rome Diamond League meeting, Bowie won the 100 meters in11:05, another personal best.
LoLo Jones, 31, is a two-time World Indoor Champion at the 60-meter hurdles. A five-time national champion, she finished fourth, just off the medal stand, in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2012 Olympics.
Mary Cain, previously announced for the 1500 meters, moves to a special women’s 800-meter race. Cain, 18, will graduate a week from Saturday from high school in nearby Bronxville, NY, and has had a whirlwind spring of proms, exams, and other pre-graduation rituals.
The previously announced Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Sally Pearson have withdrawn from the meet.
In addition to the women’s 1500 meters, the men’s high jump, 400-meter hurdles, and discus boast fields of exceptional quality and depth.
The high jump features three men–2013 World Champion Bohdan Bondarenko, 2014 World Indoor Champion Mutaz Essa Barshim, and 2012 Olympic silver medalist Erik Kynard–who are all jumping well enough to challenge the World Record on the right day; the 400-meter hurdles is headlined by Felix Sanchez, Michael Tinsley, Javier Culson, and Jehue Gordon (the entire 2012 Olympic podium plus Gordon, the 2013 World Champion); and the discus field, led by two-time Olympic gold medalist Robert Harting, features nine of the top 10 men in the world for 2013.
One of the premier track-and-field events in the world, the adidas Grand Prix has
hosted two World Records and 15 National Records in its first nine years, and its fans have witnessed almost a dozen performances that were the fastest ever on U.S. soil.
The sixth stop on the international IAAF Diamond League circuit, the adidas Grand Prixis in its 10th year at Icahn Stadium, in conjunction with the Randall’s Island Sports Alliance. The latest news, photos and information on the event can be found atwww.adidasgrandprix.com; on Facebook and on Twitter.
