Top stars to vie for honours in the Asian Grand Prix

Bangkok, June 18 (UNI) Top athletes of the continent will be seen in action in the Asian Grand Prix to be held here tomorrow.

The men's line-up is wide open with a number of Doha Asian Games medallists and podium finishers from previous continental and global competitions taking part in the competition.

However, as the margins of performance look 'thin' between the favourites and little-knowns, an emergence of new champions from this year's series will not be ruled out.

Following is the event wise preview: Men's 100m: Wachara Sondee (Personal Best: 10.38) and Sittichai Suwonprateep (PB: 10.36) will give other competitors a run for their money.

The Thai speed-masters were part of their Gold-winning relay quartet at Doha Asiad last year, where Sondee also took a bronze in the 100m. With the first leg being organised at their home ground, Alaguvel Aravind (India, 10.41), Mohd Latif Nyat (Malaysia, 10.45) and Vyacheslav Muravyov (Kazakhstan, 10.46) will have to work hard with the Thai duo for a podium finish.

Men's 400m: Sri Lankans are quite strong in this event. Prasanna Amarasekara had a good track record in the past Asian GP series. The silver medallist in last year's South Asian Games had the advantage from the absence of his compatriot Rohan Pradeep Kumara. Prasanna, credited with a personal best of 45.47, however expecting competition from Wang Liangyu of China (46.13) and silver medallist from last year's Asian junior championships Reza Bouazar of Iran.

Reza with a season's best 46.37s could pull a surprise. Also in the fray are 2002 Asian Games champion Fawzi Al-Shammeri and Thailand's Asian Indoor silver medallist Jukkatip Pojaroen.

Men's 1500m: Indian middle distance runners Chatholi Hamza (3:41.12) and Sajeesh Joseph (3:43.13) are favourites in this event. Hamza won the South Asian gold at Colombo while Sajeesh claimed a bronze in the Asian Juniors at Macau last year. Iran's Sajad Moradi, the 800m bronze medallist in 2005 Asian Championships at Incheon, is another athlete to watch here. This event is being introduced in the Asain GP series for the first time.

Men's 3000m: Indians are formidable in this event also. Sunil Kumar (PB: 8:12.58), fifth in 5,000m at the 2006 Asian Games together with Surendra Singh, the 2007 Asian cross-country silver medallist at Amman will form the challenge. The other athletes in the fray are Chaminda Indika Wijekoon (Sri Lanka, 8: 09.58) and Ajmar Amirov (Tajikistan, 8:16.43).

Men's 400m Hurdles: Two times world championship bronze medllist, Tamesue Dai of Japan seeded at the top with career best 47.89 and a season leading 48.73s. Meng Yan, the silver medallist at Doha, had a clean sweep of titles in the last series with personal best of 49.03 recorded at Bangalore. Meng's team-mate Zhu Zhi (49.88) and former World University Games silver medallist Yevgeniy Meleshenko (Kazakhstan, 49.46) are promised to make the competition a memorable one. India already had a blow in the withdrawal of Patlavath Shankar.

Men's High Jump: Korean jumper Kim Young-Min (PB: 2.24m), Kazakhstan's Sergey Zasimovich (2.23m), Sri lankan Manjula Wijesekara (2.23m) and India's Harishankar Roy (2.25m) are expected to do the unexpected.

Roy, with back-to-back victories in 2006, had also credited with a season leading 2.21m to start with this year. The other Indian jumper, Benedict Starly, had to skip the event following an injury.

Men's Triple Jump: This event will witness one of the best line-ups in recent years.

China's Li Yanxi (17.15m), gold medallist in Doha Asiad, together with silver medallist Roman Valiyev (16.98m) of Kazakhstan will clash with Renjith Maheswary of India. Renjith, fourth at Doha, surprised everyone at Kolkata with a 16.72m jump in the Indian Federation Cup. The second Chinese athlete on the start-list, former Asian indoor champion Zhu Shujing (PB: 17.03m), with a season leading 16.89 to his credit, clearly sent the message that only the 'fittest' can survive in this arena.

Men's Shot Put: The once Indian dominated event saw Iran's Medhi Shahrokhi, a silver medallist in last year's Asian Indoor Games, lead the list of entries with a 19.13m throw marked on his name. Saurabh Vij (18.33m), with a gold from South Asian Games at his belt, joins hands with compatriot Satyendra Kumar Singh and Korea's Shon Hyun (18.51m) to challenge the Iranian. Two other Arabs, Ahmed Gholum (Kuwait, 18.72m) and Amir Alvand (Iran, 18.26m), are also within the reach of a podium finish.

Men's Discus: India's Vikas Gowda leads the field. Sixth at both the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2006, Gowda improved his national record to 64.96m recently. Iran's Abbas Samimi, the Busan Asiad silver medallist in 2002 (4th at Doha 2006) had a personal best of 64.98m, but was just short of Gowda in his season's best pegged at 63.82m, will not leave the Indian take it for granted. China fielded its strong-man Wu Tao, the world junior champion in 2002 as well as Asian Games (2002) and World University Games (2003) gold medallist to make its mighty presence known.

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