Greene in fresh clash with Chambers in Zurich
Timothy Collings
World and Olympic champion Maurice Greene is determined to win Friday's Golden League showdown and re-stake his claim to supremacy over newly-crowned European 100 metres champion Dwain Chambers of Britain.
Fresh from a three-week break, American Greene may have the edge on most of the other competitors who come from the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and continental championships in Europe, Asia and Africa.
"I am not too worried about the other guys," Greene told a news conference on Thursday. "I am not thinking about anything else. I want to win."
After two early-season defeats by Chambers, Greene bounced back, his pace improving with the arrival of the European summer. His best time of the year, 9.89 seconds at the Rome leg of the Golden League, was faster than Chambers's European record time of 9.96 set in Munich last week.
Chambers's winning streak ended in June at the Athens Golden League when he came third to Greene who ran 9.97 to the Briton's 10.08.
The Commonwealth Games in Manchester last month brought more disappointment as cramp in his calf muscle forced Chambers to pull up in the closing stages.
But he returned to form last week, claiming the European crown in Munich in fine style.
READY TO CHALLENGE
Chambers, who believes he is capable of a time in the region of 9.80 seconds, is ready to challenge Greene again, and perhaps even his three-year-old world record of 9.79 seconds.
"I expect intense competition," said Chambers. "For me, it is always nice to race against the Americans, but really it is a learning process on how to compete at the highest level."
"I won my title in Munich and now I see the rest of the year as a chance to gain experience and confidence.
"If the mind is strong, the body will follow. That is my answer to those people who have said I may be tired compared to the American guys. I have great respect for Maurice, of course, for maintaining his high level of form for so long."
Meanwhile, five competitors are still in the running for the International Association of Athletics Federations' Golden League jackpot of 50 kg of gold.
The jackpot will be divided among those athletes who win their own event at all seven Golden League meetings.
The surviving gold-hunters are Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, in the men's 1,500 metres, Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republican in the men's 400 metres hurdles, American Gail Devers in the women's 100 metres hurdles, Mexican Ana Guevara in the women's 400 metres and American Marion Jones in the 100 metres.
Unsurprisingly, none of them has competed since the last Golden League meeting in Monte Carlo on July 19.
In the women's 800 metres, newly-crowned European champion Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia will bid to stop Mozambique's Maria Mutola from becoming the first person to win 10 consecutive races in Zurich's Weltklasse meeting.
Mutola's winning streak began in 1993 when she was only 20. She has since won the Olympic and world championships in a long and successful career.
