Continental Cup's athletes eager to represent their continents
The Continental Cup kicks off this weekend in Split, Croatia as one of the few truly world-wide competitions, next to the Olympics.
The Continental Cup is not only something the whole world can participate in, but they also do things a little differently. Instead of countries competing against one another, the Continental Cup features continents competing against one another. It replaces the old IAAF World Cup, and has a slightly different format.
Instead of having eight separate teams representing five continents, and then another three national teams, the Continental Cup now sees four mixed-gender teams compete. The four teams are: the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia/Oceania.
Each region selects two athletes per event, except for the 1500m, 3000m and the 5000m, which will have three athletes from each team compete; however, only the top two in these events will count towards the team’s final score.
There are no rounds or heats in the events. Athletes compete like it’s one big Diamond League meet, and the team with the highest combined score after the two days, wins.
With the IAAF World Challenge in Zagreb happening on Wednesday, and some athletes looking to rest their bodies in preparation for next season, the Continental Cup has lost some of its star power, but not all. Missing from the field will be: Usain Bolt, Tyson g*y, Asafa Powell, Allyson Felix, Walter Dix, Veronia Campbell Brown and Dayron Robles, but there are also a number of notable athletes set to represent their continents. The controversial Caster Semenya will also not participate in the women’s 800m after missing the qualifying competition in Nairobi.
Here is a list of just some of the athletes that will make the Continental Cup worth watching:
Two Americans Wallace Spearmon and Jeremy Wariner coming off Diamond Trophy wins will compete at the Continental Cup. Spearmon owns the first Diamond League title in the 200m, and Wariner took the first Diamond League title in the 400m.
David Rudisha of Kenya, another Diamond Trophy winner, who set the world record in the 800m in Berlin with a time of 1:41.09, and then broke it again the following week in Reiti with a time of 1:41.01, will look to become the first man to break the 1:40 barrier. Nick Symmonds of the United States will also compete looking to improve upon his personal best time of 1:43.76.
Kenya dominated races 800m or longer during the Diamond League season, and Africa will look to continue that successful with men’s 1500m Diamond League title holder, Asbel Kiprop of Kenya, and Ethiopians Tariku Bekele and Imane Merga. But it will not be easy for them with Bernard Legat of the United States racing in both the 3000m and the 5000m, and Mo Farah of Great Britain attending, who won both the 5000m and the 10000m in the European Championships.
David Oliver, American hurdler will look to break the 110m hurdles world record of 12.87 seconds, and two more Americans will look to help dominate the hurdles for the Americas as Bershawn Jackson and Javier Culson will compete in the 400m hurdles.
In the men’s pole vault, Renaud Lavillenie of France will look to continue his season-long dominance over Steven Hooker of Austrailia. Lavillenie won five Diamond League meets including the final while Hooker finished second behind him twice.
Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei, women’s 800m Diamond Trophy winner, will compete against Mariya Savinova of Russia, who finished a close second to Jepkosgei in Diamond League standings, American Alysia Johnson, and Kenia Sinclair of Jamaica.
The two day competition will be held on 4 and 5 September.
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