Olympic stars line up for Golden Spike meeting

Usain Bolt and Mo Farah headline a cast of Olympic champions at tonight’s 56th Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in the Czech Republic.

Bolt, lining up in the 100 metres, makes his ninth and final appearance in Ostrava, a goodbye from the triple double Olympic champion to the eastern Czech city that was among the first to welcome him when he joined the professional ranks over a decade ago.

Bolt said: “It’s the fans, they always come here.

“No matter how cold it is, I have been to many meetings around the world and sometimes when the weather is really bad people do not show up. But every time I’ve been here, it was always a full stadium. And for me it really matters because it pushes me to do my best.”

In his only appearance so far this year, Bolt ran 10.03 in Kingston.

Farah contests the 10,000m having clocked a world-leading 13:00.70 in the 5000m in Eugene one month ago, illustrating solid form in the run-up to his bid to defend his back-to-back world titles.

A dozen men will chase the World Championships qualifying standard of 27:45.00.

Closest to Farah on paper are Ethiopians Belay Tilahun Bezabeh and Leul Gebrselassie, with sub 27:20 lifetime bests. The world lead is 27:08.26 set by Ethiopia’s Adabi Hadis in Hengelo.

Meanwhile, Olympic 400m champion and world recordholder Wayde van Niekerk will gauge his form over the rarely-run 300m distance a week after he lowered his 100m career-best to 9.94. Twotime Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha of Kenya will be making his debut over 1000m.

Another two-time Olympic champion Christian Taylor (USA) is expected to dominate the triple jump.

Usain Bolt at yesterday’s press conference.