Posted: April 15 2005

Athletics: Campbell, Jones V Pittman, Lagat Headline Mt. SAC Relays

By Bob Ramsak, Track Profile

(c) 2004 Track Profile all rights reserved TrackProfile.com

After several notable big name debuts at last weekend's Texas Relays, the season will pick up substantial steam this weekend as more than 15,000 athletes gather at the 47th Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif.

Topping Sunday's invitational fields is Olympic 200 meter champion Veronica Campbell, the brightest sprint star to emerge from the Olympic year. Here, the 22-year-old Jamaican will make her 2005 outdoor debut in the 100, an event in which she collected bronze in Athens. Mt. SAC marks her first outdoor appearance since her season-capping double victory at last September's World Athletics Final. In Monte Carlo, despite easing to the finish, she ended her season with a personal best 10.91, the year's second fastest performance.

Busy with her studies at Arkansas, Campbell raced little indoors this season, but when she did, she shined. In her only 200 race, she sped a 22.38 in Birmingham, England, more than three-tenths of a second up on the year's next fastest; she clocked 7.09 in her lone outing in the 60 meters, equalling the world's fastest; and in a 400 meter training run at the Razorback Invitational in late January, she clocked 52.24. All three were personal bests.

Campbell will face another Olympic champion, Joanna Hayes, who blasted to an Olympic record 12.37 in the 100 meter hurdles in Athens. Former Penn State standout Connie Moore and former Olympian Inger Miller are also in the field.

The women's 400 features an intriguing field as well. 2000 Olympic triple gold medallist Marion Jones makes her customary outdoor debut yet again at Mt. SAC. Jones's personal best, 49.59, came here in 2000. Reigning world 400 meter hurdles champion Jana Pittman is in the race, along with two other full-lap hurdles Olympians: American Lashinda Demus and Jamaican Allison Beckford.

Debuts of major players on the global scene figure prominently in the men's sprints as well. Olympic 200 meter champion Shawn Crawford, 100 meter bronze medallist Maurice Greene and last year's sprint sensation Asafa Powell are all scheduled to compete in relays. Justin Gatlin, the Olympic 100 meter champion was scheduled to compete in the relays portion of the program as well, but earlier in the week told TPR he will not make his first appearance of the year this weekend. That, he said, will come at the Penn Relays at the end of the month.

The men's invitational 100 features the first appearance of the season for Jamaica's Olympic semi-finalist Michael Frater, who finished second to Tyson Gay at last year's NCAA championships with a personal best 10.08. Top Canadian Pierre Browne will be following up his wind-aided 10.19 (+4.2) runner-up finish from Austin. The 25-year-old Browne is still seeking to improve on the form that propelled him to the 2002 Commonwealth Games bronze medal. This will be his third start of the year. Coby Miller, who opened the season with a 10.27 win at Azuza Pacific Meet of Championships last weekend after skipping the indoor season, is in the field as well.

In the 200, Wallace Spearmon of Arkansas, the reigning NCAA 200 champion, will make his first start since the NCAA indoor championships in March when he lowered the national indoor record to 20.10 in the first round. His 20.21 in the final was also faster than his outdoor PB of 20.25 from last year. Leonard Scott, hurdler Allen Johnson, and two-time world championships 400 medallist Tyree Washington are also in the field.

Last year, Bernard Lagat opened his outdoor season here with a speed workout in the 800 to follow up his world indoor title in the 3000 meters; this year he's moving up to the 5000 after rewriting the indoor lists in the 1500/mile. The last time the Olympic 1500 meter silver contested the 5000 was at Mt. SAC in 2002, when he clocked a PB 13:19.14 for the win. This time he also returns as a freshly-minted U.S. citizen. Among his challengers are Americans Steve Slattery, Bolota Asmerom and Adam Goucher; Canadians Kevin Sullivan and Simon Bairu, the reigning NCAA cross country champion from Wisconsin; former NCAA cross country and 10,000 meter champion Boaz Cheboiywo; and the Arkansas Kenyan duo Josphat Boit and Peter Kosgei. Lagat's brother Robert Cheseret leads the field in the 10,000, while Sylvia Mosqueda tops the women's.

An early start list had four-time world champion Allen Johnson in the hurdles; he is opting for the 4x100 relay and the 200 instead. In his absence, Ron Bramlett, who just missed a spot on the Olympic team after a fourth place finish at the Olympic trials behind Johnson, tops the field.

Heading the 400 meter hurdles is Panamanian record holder (48.23 - 2004) and Olympic semi-finalist Bayano Kamani, best known to date as the man who won the last hurdles race world and Olympic champion Felix Sanchez lost. In Brussels last September, when a hamstring injury ended Sanchez's 43-race win streak --as well as his shot at a share of the Golden League million dollar jackpot-- Kamani hit the tape in a near-PB 48.30. Rickey Harris, the 2002 NCAA champion, British national record holder Chris Rawlinson, and 2000 Olympian Eric Thomas are also in the field. Sanchez will be here this weekend, but will contest the flat 400. The women's race features the Andrea Blackett, the national record holder for Barbados.

Other notable outdoor debuts include:
- Olympic pole vault silver medallist Toby Stevenson.
- High jumpers Jamie Nieto and Amy Acuff, both fourth place finishers in Athens. For Acuff, it'll be her first competition since last September's World Athletics Final. NCAA champion and Olympian Chaunte Howard is also in the field.
- 2003 world indoor champion Savante Stringfellow, this year's U.S. indoor champion Brian Johnson, and NCAA indoor champion Tony Allmond (8.08m/26-6 ¼) in the long jump;
- Olympian Kenta Bell in the triple jump
- Olympians and national record holders in the javelin Breaux Greer (87.68m/287-8) and Kim Kreiner (60.86m/199-8). Kreiner will face recently-minted Danish national record holder Christina Scherwin (60.17m).
- World leader (80.85m/265-3) Libor Charfreitag of Slovakia is the favorite in the hammer.
- Gerd Kanter of Estonia, the world leader (66.05m/216-8) in the discus.

The distance carnival portion of the program takes place tonight, with most of the elite and invitational competition scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Portions of Saturday's and Sunday's events will be webcast live at vm.mtsac.edu/relays/webcast.html.

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