WAIS Duo Primed for London Diamond League

Published On: 12 July 2012

Steve Hooker will compete against the form pole vaulters of 2012 in the London Diamond League

With the Olympic Games two weeks from commencing, the world’s best track and field athletes are gathering for a prelude to the main event this Friday with the IAAF London Diamond League featuring WAIS athletes Steve Hooker and Kim Mickle.

Hooker will attempt to arrest a form slump and head into the Olympics with some confidence when he goes head to head with the top three ranked pole vaulters for 2012; Renaud Lavillenie (FRA), Bjorn Otto (GER) and Malte Mohr (GER).

Hooker is the reigning Olympic champion and is the captain of the Australian Flame athletics team, tipped for up top six medals in London.

Another WAIS field athlete flying the Australian flag in London is Olympic debutant and seven time national javelin champion Kim Mickle, who will head into the Diamond League meet in some career best form, having recently set a new personal best mark in Germany, before winning another warm up competition in Belgium last weekend.

Mickle will go head to head with Australian counterpart Katherine Mitchell, who is also reveling in career best form and set to make her Olympic bow in London.

The pair will be in esteemed company in the Diamond League meet with 2012 world-lead Sunette Viljoen (RSA) and reigning Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova (CZE) also set for competition.

In other events:

Discus thrower Benn Harradine (Vic) faces four-time Olympian Virgilijus Alekna (LTU), who won gold in Sydney and Athens as well as Gerd Kanter (EST) the reigning Olympic champion.

Also looking to defend his Olympic title is Irving Saladino (PAN) who will compete in the long jump on Friday evening. Silver medalist from Beijing Godfrey Mokoena (RSA) is also in the field which includes both Mitchell Watt (Qld) and Henry Frayne (Qld).

Watt has won both competitions he’s entered outside of Australia this season, in New York and last weekend in Madrid, while Frayne’s best leap of 8.27m (+1.4m/s) still has him within the top ten best jumps of the year. Britain’s Greg Rutherford (GBR) leads the waywith his 8.35 (+2.0) effort in Chula Vista (USA) in May.

The first Flame in action on the track will be Kaila McKnight (Vic) in her Olympic discipline the 1500m. Having set a personal best at the Diamond League event in Shanghai in May, McKnight will face two-time world champion Maryam Jamal (BRN) as well America’s Olympic-bound trio Shannon Rowbury, Jenny Simpson and Morgan Uceny.

Friday night’s action climaxes with a thrilling men’s 5000m and delighting the home crowd will be Mo Farah (GBR) who set a world-lead in Eugene last month. That was until the Diamond League event in Paris on Friday, when 10 athletes ran faster, six of whom went sub 12:50.00.

It’s been six years since Craig Mottram (Vic) lined up against Farah and yet now the Athens 2004 finalist, who is heading to his fourth Olympic Games, could face the world champion twice within the space of a month in London.

Mottram ran a season’s best of 13:16.08 in Belgium on Saturday while compatriot Collis Birmingham (Vic) will run his first 5000m since setting a personal best of 13:10.51 in Eugene last month.Also racing is current 10,000m Oceania record holder Ben St Lawrence (NSW).

On Saturday Sally Pearson (Qld) will look to maintain her unbeaten hurdles run in 2012. With a heats and final format, which Pearson favours in her preparation for the Olympics, the world champion will have two hit outs.

Pearson extended her world-lead to 12.40 (+0.0) in Paris last Friday, where Virginia Crawford (USA) proved stiff competition. Tiffany Porter (GBR) was also in that field and lines up again in Crystal Palace, as does Jamaica’s number one hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton and a third of the America trio who will race at the Games, Kellie Wells.

Frayne will make a second appearance at the London Diamond League on Saturday in the triple jump, alongside home favourite Phillips Idowu (GBR) and Christian Taylor (USA), the world champion and world-leader with 17.63m (+0.0).

Finally on the track Ryan Gregson (NSW) and Jeff Riseley (Vic) will contest the one-mile. Gregson returned from injury to finish ninth in this event last year, while Riseley arrives having clocked a season’s best of 3:36.10 to win the 1500m in Finland last Sunday.

Headlining the competition is Bernard Lagat (USA), who will head to his third Olympic Games in search of his first Olympic title, Olympic 1500m silver medalist Nick Willis (NZL) and the fastest man in the field Caleb Ndiku (KEN).

– with Athletics Australia