13th IAAF World Championships in Daegu:

Christine Merrill, first Lankan in action

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from South Korea

DAEGU, Aug. 27 - Asian Championship medallist Christine Merrill will be the first Sri Lankan to be seen in action at the 13th IAAF World Championships when she competes in women’s 400m hurdles at the Daegu Stadium here on Monday (29).

The US-based Lankan lass who celebrated her 24th birthday only a week ago will be another dark horse who is raring to make her presence felt.

Hurdler Merrill, a former UC San Diego track standout is due to compete in the first round of the women’s 400m hurdles heats scheduled for Monday at 12.20 p.m. Korean time (8.50 a.m. SL time). If she comes out with an impressive timing, as she did at the Asian Championships in Japan last month, the Sri Lanka national champion could run in the semi finals of the women’s 400m hurdles scheduled for Tuesday (30) at 7 p.m. local time.

The final of this event is scheduled for September 1 under lights.

It was at the 2011 Asian Championships that Merrill achieved her best performance in her career, clocking 57.30 seconds at the Universiade Stadium in Kobe to win the bronze medal in her pet event. But that finish was well short of her career best timing of 56.83 registered in the first round to set a new Sri Lanka record.

“I had some stumbling at the back straight and as a result I was unable to reach the time I expected. However, I am satisfied with my run,” Merrill was quoted as saying after that dream run. However, Merrill had a good performance and offered good resistance to Japan’s Satomi Kubokura and China’s Qi Yang, who bagged the gold and the silver respectively, at the Asian Championship.

Here in Daegu, Merrill aims to register her personal best and set improve on her women’s 400m Sri Lanka record. She clocked 57.90 seconds to secure the first place at the Sri Lanka National Championships held at Diyagama earlier this month. The emerging champion has been based in the US as one of the top hurdlers in program history. She set school records in both the 400 hurdles (58.04) and 400-meter dash (54.76) as a senior at UCSD last year. She has also won the NCAA Division II title in the high hurdles after posting a first place time of 58.59 in San Angelo, Texas as a junior athlete.

Another milestone in Merrill’s career was marked when she was named the California Collegiate Athletic Association Track and Field Female Athlete of the Week last April.

The Lankan lass will definitely face an acid test in South Korea as there will be a tough competition in women’s 400m hurdles event. Former World junior champion Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica is one of the hot favourites for the women’s 400m hurdlers gold medal.

The 24-year-old lass sent a clear message out to her rivals last year of her growing stature by not only winning the Samsung Diamond League overall title but also ending her season scoring six out of seven victories on a competitive circuit which saw her conclude the campaign with six of the 10 fastest timings in the world. Spencer has began virtually where she left off this summer starting her SDL schedule in Shanghai with a victory against two other fiery gold medal favourites, American Lashinda Demus and her own training partner Melaine Walker who will be defending her title in Daegu.

The next two fixtures saw Spencer fall to the sword of Demus who beat her in Eugene on 4 June with what remains a season’s best of 53.31 while Zuzana Hejnova did likewise by 0.16 in Paris when lowering her Czech Republic record to 53.29, at that time the world lead.

Spencer, a convert from the 400 flat and 800m, nevertheless concluded the pre-World Championships when again beating reigning Olympic champion Walker in Stockholm, again in London scorching to a world lead and lifetime fastest of 52.79 to go equal eighth on the world all-time list.

Meanwhile, over ten athletes will fancy their chances of striking gold in men’s 400m hurdles event. South African L. J. Van Zyl, who has registered this year’s world’s best timing with a national record 47.66 seconds in Pretoria in February, is the hot favourite. But the USA, which has produced gold medallists in this event at each of the last three World Championships are gearing to maintain that proud record.

Jeshua Anderson (47.93) was a surprise winner of the national championships and will be a serious factor in Korea.

The 22-year-old is a former World Junior champion, although a modest sixth place finish in Monaco in 49.93 last month was not the result he was seeking.

He was considerably faster in his final tune-up, taking the World University Games title in 49.03 seconds. His compatriot Bershawn Jackson (47.93) landed this title in 2005 and ‘Batman’ has enjoyed another consistent season on the European circuit with a series of top three finishers.

The American challenge is further bolstered by the presence of two-time Olympic champion Angelo Taylor, who has registered an impressive timing of 47.94. But 32-year-old veteran has never won gold at World Championships and would like to win that elusive gold here after an impressive victory in Monaco in 47.97 last month. Defending champion Kerron Clement (48.74) completes the US quartet, however on his 2011 form he will struggle to complete a hat-trick of world titles. Clement has been well below his best this season only once dipping under the 49-second barrier and that was back in May. European champion Dai Greene (48.20) too is another hurdler who could make an impact.