Jamaica's Asafa Powell will be hard to beat in the Men's 100m.
A strong Jamaican team are among the medal favourites who will compete in the Athletics events commencing on Super Sunday (19 March) at the revamped Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Jamaica could dominate two major events – the Men’s 100 Metres and the Women’s 200 Metres.
The star attraction in the Men’s 100 Metres will be Jamaica’s Asafa Powell who is returning to elite competition after injury.
Powell broke the world 100 Metres record in Athens in June by clocking 9.77 seconds and will be hard to beat.
He will be supported by his training partner, Michael Frater, who won the silver medal in the 100 Metres at last year's world championships.
Frater has a personal best of 10.03sec and was a semi-finalist at the Manchester Games.
In the Women’s 200 Metres, Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell, with plenty of medal credentials, will be the one to beat.
After winning a relay silver medal in 2000, she won gold in the 200 Metres at the Athens Olympics four years later. She picked up a bronze medal in the 100 Metres and was a member of Jamaica's gold-medal winning 4x100 Metres relay team. Last year, Campbell won silver in the 100 Metres at the world championships.
The Bahamas’ Tonique Williams-Darling will be seeking to win her first Games medal in the Women’s 400 Metres. She won the world title in Helsinki last year after replacing Cathy Freeman as 400 metres Olympic champion in Athens.
Australia has several athletes to watch out for in the Track and Field events at the Games. They include:
- pole vaulter, Paul Burgess, who won the silver medal in Manchester in 2002. He was ranked number one in the world in the Pole Vault after last year clearing six metres.
- Jana Pittman in the 400 Metres hurdles. The 2003 world champion, Pittman is the current Commonwealth Games champion.
- dual gold medallist, Nathan Deakes, who won gold medals in both the 20 and 50 Kilometre Walks in Manchester. An Athens bronze medallist in the 20 Kilometre Walk, Deakes was ranked number one in the world last year before injury forced him out of the world championships.
- Craig Mottram in the 5,000 Metres. Regarded as one of the best distance runners in the world, he was the first non-African to win a medal in the 5,000 Metres at the world championships for 18 years.
Mottram will compete against Kenyan Benjamin Limo who will present a formidable challenge to him in the 5000 Metres. Limo won gold at last year's world championships where Mottram won bronze.
In the Heptathlon, England’s Kelly Sotherton is expected stand out, having won the bronze medal at the Athens Olympics.
In the Women's Marathon, mother of two Kerryn McCann will defend her 2002 Games Marathon medal.
Spectators are invited to cheer on the runners in both the Men’s and Women’s Marathons on Super Sunday 19 March. The Marathon route will wind through Melbourne's streets, starting and finishing at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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