19.08.2010

Lapierre gets set for Diamond decider

Australian and world indoor champion Fabrice Lapierre will tonight aim to become the first man in history to take out the lucrative Diamond Race long jump title as the first of two series finals gets under way in Zurich, Switzerland, in the penultimate round of the 2010 Diamond League tour.

Lapierre will be joined in Zurich by fellow Commonwealth Games nominees Richard Colman (T54 1500m) and the men’s 4x100m relay team as Round 13 of the 14-stop Diamond League tour hits town.

In the seventh and final men’s long jump competition of the 2010 series, Lapierre will take on Diamond Race leader Dwight Phillips (USA) in the battle for the USD$40,000 winner’s prize purse, the New South Welshman needing to win tonight’s event to unseat the 2004 Olympic and three-time world champion from the top of the leaderboard.

Twenty-six-year-old Lapierre, who sits in second place on the Diamond Race ladder just five points behind his American rival, will need fate to fall his way in the sandpit tonight, the world indoor title-holder needing to win the event and Phillips to place no higher than third to secure the Diamond trophy.

While Phillips enters the Zurich meet with three Diamond League victories under his belt – in Rome (ITA), Monaco (MON) and London (GBR) – Lapierre has collected two titles of his own in 2010 in Shanghai (CHN) and Gateshead (GBR) and, with Diamond League honours on the line, the Texan-based Australian and proven performer when the pressure is on will be in his element tonight.

On the track, fellow Commonwealth Games ticket-holder Richard Colman will line up in the T54 1500m looking to continue his preparations for New Delhi after placing third at the London edition of the Diamond League tour last weekend.

Joining Colman on the track in the lead-up to October’s Commonwealth Games will be Matt Davies and Aaron Rouge-Serret in the 100m B race and Australia’s men’s 4x100m relay team of Davies, Rouge-Serret, Jacob Groth, Patrick Johnson and Isaac Ntiamoah, the sprint guns all set to take on the might of the USA and Jamaica in the eight-team field.

IAAF Diamond League – Round 13
Zurich (SUI)
Thursday, August 19

19:35PM/19:40PM (03:35AM/03:40AM Friday, August 20 AEST)
100m B: Matt Davies, Aaron Rouge-Serret (non-Diamond League event)

19:50PM (03:50AM Friday, August 20 AEST)
T54 1500m: Richard Colman (non-Diamond League event)

20:40PM (04:40AM Friday, August 20 AEST)
Long jump: Fabrice Lapierre

21:50PM (05:50AM Friday, August 20 AEST)
4x100m relay: Matt Davies, Jacob Groth,  Patrick Johnson, Isaac Ntiamoah, Aaron Rouge-Serret (non-Diamond League event)