Colourful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting, May 12

European indoor silver medallist Tiffany Porter (Offili) will be mixing it with what looks like the hottest and toughest field in the 100m hurdles of that dress rehearsal for the oncoming World Championships, eyeing to bolster up her foothold in the reckoning for the medals in Daegu.

She comes up against in-hot form new global hurdle sensation Kellie Wells, fast-improving coming back from injury Lolo Jones and, of course, the reigning Olympic champion Dawn Harper, who got off to a sharp start of a winning 12.74 secs to her season last weekend, in a mouth-watering tussle that has all the makings of a cracker.

Sarah Claxton, a finalist in Beijing, is involved as well and will be looking to improve on a modest season opener in Guadeloupe as she endeavours to draw her career back on track. The depth of the field may turn quite too much for her at the moment but there is plenty to draw on such a high-calibre race.

A further Briton on show in Daegu will be an upbeat Shara Proctor in the women's long jump seeking to extend her early unbeaten run to three on the trot while she will also fancy her chances of landing the world A qualifying standard on the back of a 6.65m winning leap into a -1.2m/sec headwind in Guadeloupe on Saturday.

Heavyweights David Oliver, Walter Dix and Carmelita Jeter promise sizzling early times in the 110m hurdles and the 100m dashes respectively while 'Batman' Bershawn Jackson is taking on Olympic champion Angelo Taylor and Johnny Dutch in a very competitive men's 400m hurdles.

Start-lists (down right on the page):
http://www.world-challenge.org/news/317-daegu-brings-full-start-list

This is the official website for the meeting in Daegu:

http://www.dg-athletics.or.kr/english/index.jsp

Shara Proctor has come a close third in a women's long jump competition that ranged well below anticipated distances, which may have had to do with a heavy terrain due to plenty of rain overnight.

Her best of the day was a last-ditch 6.47m (not available wind-reading yet) in the fourth attempt to finish just 5cm down on a tied leading pair of Fumni Jimmoh (USA) and Anna Nazarova (RUS) at 6.52, the American getting the win on countback.

David Oliver looked hardly any affected, though, as he powered to a world-leading 13.14 secs in the 110m hurdles (0.0) from compatriot Aries Merritt, runner-up in 13.30 secs, and Jamaican record holder Dwight Thomas in 13.40 secs.

An impressive Walter Dix edged out Mike Rodgers in a tight men's dash to set the fourth fastest time in the world of 10 secs dead (0.3m/sec), a mere 0.03 secs separating the two Americans on the line. Norway's Jaysuma Saidy Ndure was third in 10.09 secs.

Despite a dreadful reaction to the gun (0.412!!), Japan's Yuzo Kanemaru felt inspired to inflict an upset on Beijing's bronze medallist David Neville by the narrowest of margins, 45.23 to 45.24 secs. Calvin Smith, the son of two-time world 200m champion in the 80s, was third in 45.36 secs.

Allyson Felix was in a class of her own to storm to a world-leading 22.38 secs, a meeting record as well, in the women's 200m (0.4) as she finished streets ahead of everyone else.

Equally dominant was Carmelita Jeter in the women's 100m to cross the line in 11.09 secs (0.0) way ahead of runner-up LaShauntea Moore in 11.27 secs.

On top of the men's flat 400m, Johnny Dutch made sure of yet another relative upset over the single lap in the hurdles to beat more illustrious compatriots Bershawn Jackson and Angelo Taylor, drawing just outside 49 secs in 49.03 secs.

The times for the latter two were 49.14 and 49.67 (SB) respectively).

Full results:

http://www.dg-athletics.or.kr/english/index.jsp

And guess what!! The results of the eagerly anticipated clash in the women's 100m hurdles, where Tiffany Offili could have erased Angie Thorp's long-standing UK record of 12.80 secs, don't come up but instead the men's 110m hurdles results appear again! Grrrrrrrrr!!

Well, from what I've gathered on the Twitter, Lolo Jones was leading up to the last hurdle but clipped it, somewhat of a curse on her as it seems, to allow Beijing gold medallist Dawn Harper to steal the race in 12.68 secs, a SB.

I don't know what were the times of the others behind her yet, though.

Athens Olympic champion Joanna Hayes says that winner's Dawn Harper's time was 12.73 secs...

Alright, Joanna Hayes is such an obliging girl!! I thank her so much!

100mh Results
1.Dawn Harper 12.73
2.Kellie Wells 12.81
3.Lolo Jones 12.93
4.Tiffany Offili 13.03
5.Candice Davis 13.14
6.Yvette Lewis 13.14

I'll find out later about Sarah Claxton.

The wind in the women's 100mh was 0.6 where Sarah Claxton came last in 13.43 secs, still a big SB.

http://www.dg-athletics.or.kr/pages/intro/result/2011/AT-100H-W-fr.pdf

Results for the 2 Brits are up there now. Little disappointing for both of them.

Nevertheless, Teassoc, you should take into account that Tiffany Offili has hardly stepped on the track in the last couple of weeks leading up to the race.

Final exams to obtain her degree, a long travel across a good length of the States for her wedding last Sunday and back home, and then straight off on a long haul across the Pacific to run in Korea.... Hardly an ideal preparation for such a high calibre race.

As for Sarah Claxton, at least she improved by 0.32 secs in five days and both times ran into poor weather conditions. Anyway, don't worry, there's plenty of time for everything. Cheers

The action review as seen through the 'eyes' of IAAF:

http://www.iaaf.org/IWC11/news/kind=100/newsid=59999.html

Having seen Allyson Felix sweep to a huge world-leading 22.38 secs earlier in Daegu, beside Veronica Campbell-Brown's slightly windy 22.37 secs in Jamaica on Saturday for good measure, I can't help feeling that the American is once again thriving on and having the edge over her great Jamaican rival settling into a world championships season.

I don't know how they do it but sometimes it looks as if they settled matters to share the spoils between them like some great rival Pirates Of The Caribbean. Veronica gets the most precious Olympic jewels and Allyson the World precious stones. So will tradition hold that has the latter prevail in an odd year like she has done ever since 2005? The first signs show that it is very likely.

Their rivalry also short of reminds me the one between greats Jan Zelenzi and Steve Backley in the javelin years ago. Jan was the undisputed master of the global games, particularly the Olympics, but Steve would always come up with something to claim the European titles even when he wasn't the favourite to do so. Quite amazingly, the Czech never won a continental title whereas he boasts three Olympic ones - and just missed out on a fourth one!