Ones to watch at the Great North CityGames

Greg Rutherford, Allyson Felix, Dafne Schippers, Jonnie Peacock and Jo Pavey are among those in street athletics action on the banks of the Tyne

Street athletics returns to the banks of the Tyne on Saturday (September 12) as the Great North CityGames welcomes some of the world’s top track and field stars.

You can find our full in-depth preview to the action in the September 10 edition of Athletics Weekly magazine but here are a few of the ones to watch out for to get you warmed up.

Men’s long jump

Greg Rutherford faces the long jump rival who pushed him closest at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing. While the Briton completed his major championship grand slam with a leap of 8.41m, Australian Fabrice Lapierre took silver with 8.24m.

Also in the line-up are American Mike Hartfeld, who reached the final in Beijing but failed to register a valid jump, and British indoor champion Dan Bramble.

Women’s 100m

They call Dafne Schippers ‘the Flying Dutchwoman’ and the 23-year-old will live up to her nickname before she even makes it to the start line on Tyneside. The newly-crowned world 200m champion, and third fastest female 200m runner of all-time, is one of several athletes booked on an early morning flight to Newcastle after competing in the Van Damme Memorial Diamond League final in Brussels on Friday evening – in her case against Allyson Felix over 200m. Felix herself is also in CityGames action as she drops down to race over 150m.

Schippers will be up against half of the British 4x100m relay team that finished fourth in a new national record in Beijing: Asha Philip and Desiree Henry. Meanwhile the 150m will see Felix race her fellow Americans Candyce McGrone and Jeneba Tarmoh as well as Britain’s Jodie Williams.

Men’s T44 100m

GB blade runner Jonnie Peacock crosses swords with his arch American rival Richard Browne in a prelude to their eagerly-anticipated head to head at the IPC World Championships in Doha next month.

Peacock has clocked a wind-assisted 10.80 seconds for the 100m this year and legal 10.96 seconds, while Browne has run 10.78 seconds. Also in the field are Germany’s world junior champion Felix Streng and Italy’s Emanuele Di Marino.

Men’s 500m

Having produced an intriguing battle among a cross section of British women a year ago, it is the turn of an international men’s field to have a crack at this rarely-run distance. The line-up is headed by Nijel Amos, the Bostwanan who took Olympic 800m silver behind David Rudisha in 2012, who turned the tables on the great Kenyan at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and who failed to get beyond the semi-finals of the hotly- contested two lap event at the 2015 World Championships.

Kyle Langford, Shaftesbury Barnet’s European junior and senior British champion, and American Erik Sowinski are the other 800m men in the field. The distance is likely to prove more suitable to a quarter miler finding an extended second breath. There are three Britons in the line-up: Conrad Williams, Nigel Levine and the in-form Rabah Yousif, sixth in the individual World Championship 400m final and a member of Great Britain’s bronze medal winning 4x400m relay quartet.

Women’s 2 miles

The two miles at the Great North CityGames marks the start of Jo Pavey’s build up to 2016, in she will be attempting to secure Olympic selection for a fifth time. She has longer tests to come on the road – over 13.1 miles in the Bank of Scotland Great Scotttish Run on October 4 and ten miles in the Morrisons Great South Run on October 18 – but the two miler on Tyneside will be a gauge of where the European 10,000m champion’s fitness happens to be.

The favourite is Mercy Cherono, the Commonwealth 5000m champion and world silver medallist from Beijing.

There will be several other Britons in the field alongside Pavey, including Steph Twell, Bobby Clay and Jenna Hill.

Timetable

13:00 Women’s pole vault
13:10 Great School Sprint – Girl’s B 100m
13:15 Great School Sprint – Boy’s B 100m
13:20 Great School Sprint – Girl’s A 100m
13:25 Great School Sprint – Boy’s A 100m
14:05 Men’s long jump
14:12 Men’s 110m hurdles
14:22 Men’s 1 mile
14:36 Men’s T44 100m
14:46 Men’s 500m
14:56 Women’s 100m hurdles
15:06 Men’s 150m
15:16 Women’s 150m
15:26 Women’s 2 miles
15:40 Men’s 100m
15:50 Women’s 100m

» Further info and startlists can be found at www.greatcitygames.org/newcastle. The action will be shown live on BBC One from 14:00-16:00