Berlin champions gather for Herculis Monaco – Samsung Diamond League

24 June 2010 – Monaco – In the latest additions to its already prestigious entry list, the organisers of Herculis 2010 - Samsung Diamond League have confirmed 4 more reigning outdoor World champions, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (800m), Yusuf Saad Kamel (1500m), Kerron Clement (400m Hurdles) and Dwight Phillips (Long Jump) for the meeting on 22 July. In the men’s 800m, last year’s Berlin gold medal winner Mbulaeni Mulaudzi from South Africa will meet some very serious opposition led by Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki, the double World Indoor champion who has already run a memorable 1:42.23 personal best in Oslo this season. Also in the field is European number one Marcin Lewandowski from Poland who has run 1:44.56 this season, also in Oslo, and will be aiming for the continental title in Barcelona, a few days after he runs in Monaco. The 1500m will offer a clash of titles which brings together the entire World Championships medal podium from Berlin 2009. World champion Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain will be running against Ethiopian Deresse Mekonnen, the double World Indoor champion, and USA’s 2007 World champion Bernard Lagat. These three finished in that order in Berlin last summer, and so the winner in Monaco has the chance of laying down a good marker a year ahead of the next World Championships in Daegu. USA’s Kerron Clement is the reigning double World champion in the 400m Hurdles. Second in Doha and the victor in Oslo and New York, Clement currently leads the Diamond Race standings and will come to Herculis with the ambition of setting a new stadium record and improving his personal best of 47.24sec. His best so far this season is 47.86 thanks to his win in New York, and he will have to be at his very best to defeat South African LJ Van Zyl, the storming winner in Monaco last year after an incredible comeback over the last barriers. With a second place in Shanghai and a win in Rome, USA’s reigning World Long Jump champion Dwight Phillips is another of Monaco’s latest entrants who leads his discipline’s respective Diamond Race. Phillips, who before 2009 had already won two outdoor and one indoor World title as well as the 2004 Olympic crown, made an amazing return to the top last season which allowed him to set up a new personal best of 8.74m, and then in Berlin to win his third World outdoor title. The current world season leader thanks to his 8.42m victory in Rome, Phillips will use this year which is without any global championships as a chance to concentrate on the Samsung Diamond League, and just maybe improving the World record of 8.95m set by Mike Powell in 1991. All these champions are expecting a large crowd at Louis II stadium in Monaco on 22 July to help inspire them to produce another wonderful night of athletics. Herculis Monaco – Samsung Diamond League