2nd June 2015

14 Olympic And 27 World Champions Set For Sainsbury's Birmingham Grand Prix

2 June 2015

Some of the world’s best athletes will line up at the Sainsbury’s Birmingham Grand Prix on Sunday 7 June with 14 Olympic champions and 27 world champions confirmed as competing.

All three of Great Britain & Northern Ireland’s London 2012 Olympic gold medallists from ‘Super Saturday’ will be at the Alexander Stadium. Jessica Ennis-Hill (coach: Toni Minichiello) will compete in the 100m hurdles and shot put fresh from completing her first heptathlon since London 2012 in Gotzis last weekend,  Mo Farah (Alberto Salazar) will step down to the 1500m and Greg Rutherford (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) will contest the long jump.

Double Olympic, world and European champion Farah will run his first 1500m since setting a European record of 3:28.81 in Monaco two years ago and could have the Alexander Stadium record of 3:34.80 in his sights this time around.

The women’s 100m hurdles will be fiercely competitive with Ennis-Hill being joined by Olympic champion Sally Pearson of Australia, world champion Brianna Rollins of the USA, GB & NI’s reigning European champion Tiffany Porter (Rana Reider) and breakthrough star Jasmin Stowers, who shot to seventh all time in the world with a time of 12.35 at the Doha leg of the IAAF Diamond League.

There will be strong British representation in the men’s 100m with European 200m champion Adam Gemili (Steve Fudge) and world and European indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty (Linford Christie) facing the likes of Mike Rodgers and Kim Collins. 99 men in history have run sub-10 seconds for 100m so one of the British duo could become number 100 in Birmingham.

Arguably the race of the day will come in the women’s 200m where eight-time world champion and reigning Olympic champion Allyson Felix of USA will go head to head with Jamaica’s world champion and Olympic silver medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. With new British 100m record holder Dina Asher-Smith (John Blackie) also in the field, Felix’s stadium record of 22.19 could be under threat.

American Christian Taylor will compete in the triple jump after elevating himself to fourth in the world all time lists with a jump of 18.04m in Doha. The 2011 world champion and 2012 Olympic champion holds the current Alexander Stadium record of 17.66m.

David Rudisha has withdrawn from the 800m following an injury in Ostrava last week. He said: “I’m very disappointed not to be able to run in Birmingham this weekend. I enjoyed very much the meet last year and was looking forward to coming back. I hope the athletics supporters understand that it’s an important season for me and I just can’t risk a race that soon. I am making good progress these last days but it will be just a few days too soon.”

For full entry lists please visit: http://birmingham.diamondleague.com/list_results_bham_2015/

To buy tickets to the Sainsbury’s Birmingham Grand Prix visit http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/1F004E5399CA2DF6