Five world champions head to Berlin

BERLIN: Five world champions, freshly crowned from Beijing, will be gracing Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on Sunday (tomorrow) in the annual ISTAF track-and-field meet.
Germany’s shot-put world champions Christina Schwanitz and javelin queen Katharina Molitor will be crowd favourites in their respective events having both won gold medals at last week’s world athletics championships in Beijing.
Men’s discus gold medallist Piotr Malachowski is favourite in his event while women’s 800m Beijing winner Marina Arzamasova will also be in action.
France’s world record holder Renauld Lavillenie, who won joint bronze in Beijing, will be battling Canada’s gold medallist Shawnacy Barber in the men’s pole vault in a very strong field.
Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe, who took silver behind Barber, will also be in the mix along with Polish pair Piotr Lisek and Pawel Wojciechowski, who shared bronze with Lavillenie in Beijing.
“My main goal is to come through the competition in a healthy state. It’s always a bit tricky at the end of a long season,” Holzdeppe told German broadcaster ZDF.
“It’s a big meeting in Germany and it’s missing on my CV, so it would be nice to win it this year.”
World hammer champion Anita Wlodarczyk had been due to compete in Berlin, but has withdrawn with illness.