10 August 2010

Aviva London Grand Prix Tickets for Saturday 14th August are now SOLD OUT. With the event line-up on Friday 13th looking more exciting by the second and less 1000 tickets remaining, fans are urged to buy their tickets now, before it’s too late!

European 10,000m and 5,000m champion Mo Farah will be taking to the track in the men’s 3000m on Friday night and will be facing tough competition from close rival Bernard Lagat, as well as from fellow Brit Chris Thompson, the European 10,000m silver medallist. Former world 1500m and 5000m champion Lagat has enjoyed a solid season, recording a time of 7:32.16 over 3000m in Ostrava in May which puts him third in the current world lead times. Thompson, buoyed by his outstanding performance in Barcelona, will be looking for a well placed finish and Farah will surely be looking to stamp his authority on the track once again.

Kings of the track Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay are set to battle it out on British soil for the second time this year when they take to their blocks for the 100m on Friday night. With their head to head score currently sitting at 8 – 6 to Gay, Powell will surely be looking for a win to readdress the balance. The Jamaican sprinter currently holds the world lead time of 9.82, shared with a certain Usain Bolt so has run faster than Gay this year, but it doesn’t look like the fastest American of all time is going to let that stand in the way of another triumph on the track, after he beat Usain for the first time over the distance last week in Stockholm.

Over in the triple jump pit it looks like it’s going to be a battle of the Europeans, with Sweden’s Christian Olsson, France’s European bronze medallist and reigning indoor champion Teddy Tamgho and Britain’s very own reigning World and newly crowned European Champion Phillips Idowu. Idowu has triumphed in his previous battles with Tamgho this year, most recently at the European Championships where the Brit took the gold, leaving the Frenchman to claim the bronze medal. Olsson, the former European Champion, was absent from the European Championships in Barcelona due to injury but will be fully fit in time for the Aviva London Grand Prix. The last time all three athletes went head to head was at the New York leg of the Diamond League in June where Tamgho produced an astonishing leap of 17.98m, leaving Olsson to finish second with Idowu in third place so it will be interesting to see what Friday’s result is!

European 400m hurdles Champion Dai Greene and fellow countryman Reese Williams, the European Silver medallist, will be on the track at Crystal Palace, taking on rivals Bershawn Jackson and Felix Sanchez. Former world champion Jackson has had a solid season and currently holds the 2010 world lead time of 47.32s. Sanchez, the former world and Olympic champion, sits just below Greene in the current world rankings and will be looking to finish as close to  Jackson as possible. Greene has spoken of his ambition to break Kiss Akabusi’s long standing 400m hurdles British record and has said that the Aviva London Grand Prix might be the place that he finally manages it. Friday the 13th is unlucky for some, but could it turn out to be Greene’s lucky day? Watch this space!

Other highlights from Friday night’s line up include the women’s 200m where three time World champion Allyson Felix will also be up against newly crowned double European Champion Tatyana Firova and world high jump champion Blanka Vlasic, who, over the weekend, added the European Champion title to her already impressive list of achievements, will go head to head with American record holder Chaunte Lowe (nee Howard) in a hotly contested competition.

It’s set to be a great evening of athletics and all round entertainment, click here to get your tickets now before they are all gone

Below is the schedule of when our European medallists will be competing over Friday and Saturday so you can get your Union flags at the ready! 

Friday

Mo Farah (3,000m) @ 18.09

Dai Greene (400m Hurdles) @ 19.04

Rhys Williams (400m Hurdles) @ 19.04

Phillips Idowu (Triple Jump) @ 19.38

Michael Rimmer (800m) @ 19.59

Mark Lewis Francis (100m) in heats @ 19.14/24 and in final @ 20.48

 Saturday

 Andy Turner (110m Hurdles) @ 14.28/57 and in final @ 16.08

 Chris Tomlinson (long jump) @ 15.03

 Perri Shakes Drayton (400m Hurdles) @ 15.07

 Jenny Meadows (800m) @ 15.18