On the eve of the 2013 Zagreb IAAF World Challenge, some of the greatest stars of the Meeting were presented at the press conference. Reigning discus throw Olympic and world champion Sandra Perković said:
“I was in physical therapy this morning again; I hope I will be ready to throw on Tuesday evening. If I hadn’t got injured after the World Championships in Moscow, I could definitely throw over 65 metres now.“
The javelin throw is returning to the Zagreb Meeting after 15 years, and the field includes two best javelin throwers of the last decade, Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen and Finland’s Tero Pitkämäki.
„Tero is in great form, he threw the season’s best of 89.03 m last week, but I will still try to beat him“, Thorkildsen announced another duel against the current world vice-champion.
“I hope that it will be a good competition, that the weather will be nice and I will try to throw over 90 metres“, Pitkämäki said.
All three medallists from the Moscow World Championships will participate in the 110m hurdles Boris Hanžeković Memorial Race. David Oliver will lead the field. When asked whether he could run under 13 seconds in Zagreb, for the first time this season, Oliver answered:
„There is a good reason why only 14 persons in history have run under 13 seconds. It really isn’t easy. I wish I could run under 13 seconds each time, I have done it eight times in my career, but my primary goal is always to win, and only then look at the result.“
In the 100m hurdles, Zagreb’s audience will have an opportunity to see another duel betwen the gold and silver medallists from the London Olympics, Australia’s Sally Pearson and USA’s Dawn Harper.
„I wanted to have one of the runners who beat me in Moscow here to have a great race, but I didn’t know that Sally Pearson was coming. Judging by the field, I believe that the winner will break the meeting record of 12.60“, Harper said.
One of the stars of the Meeting is definitely US sprinter Justin Gatlin, 100m world silver medallist from Moscow, who even managed to beat the great Usain Bolt once this season.
„The track in Zagreb is very good and I expect that we will have to run under 10 seconds to win“, Gatlin said.
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