American All Stars in Shanghai Golden Grand Prix
Some of the world's top athletes are closing off their season with yet another international meet, this time to be held in Shanghai, China starting Friday, the twenty-eighth of September 2007. The 2007 Shanghai Golden Grand Prix has been picked as one of the qualifying events for next year's IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final (to be held on the thirteenth and fourteenth of September 2008).
It is therefore not surprising that this year's American stand outs are taking it on, hoping to own it and cap off the year spectacularly. Tyson Gay, who had left his competition in the dust in the World 100m and 200m events back in Osaka, will of course be competing in the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix's 100m, along with fellow Americans Marcus Brunson and JJ Johnson. Allen Johnson, who had won the world title in hurdling four times, will be taking on the 110m hurdles along with David Payne, who had won the bronze medal at the 2007 World Outdoor Championships. Jeremy Wariner will also be participating in his year's undefeated event, the 400m.
The female athletes prove themselves to be no slouches themselves. American sprinters Lauryn Williams, who had won a gold medal in back in 2005, and the 2007 IAAF Golden League jackpot co-winner Sanya Richards are determined to dominate the sprint events. Williams will be participating in the 100m dash; Richards will be taking on the short sprint. Michelle Perry, who had taken the gold in hurdling during this year's world championships and had so far sustained her victory streak by recently winning in Stuttgart, will competing with fellow Americans Dawn Harper, Nichole Denby and Danielle Carruthers in the 100m hurdles. American 400 hurdler Tiffany Ross-Williams, who had posted the world's fastest time earlier this year, will also be partaking in her event at the meets.
Other participants of the Golden Grand Prix in Shanghai include Jamaican 100m world record holder (now officially the fastest man in the world) Asafa Powell, who had chosen to run the 200m event for this meet, Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, who had won the world title three times in a row, Russian polevault princess Yelena Isinbayeva, who had recently split the 2007 IAAF Golden League Jackpot with Sanya Richards, and Shanghai's very own Liu Xiang, who had previously won the 110m hurdles in the Olympics.
