MOSCOW, Russia (Sporting Alert) — The opening day at the 2013 IAAF World Athletics Championships begins on Saturday with several of the world’s best athletes, including World record holder Usain Bolt down for action.
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Bolt will enter the men’s 100m during the second session when the heats are being run, following the early morning preliminaries to select the final set of runners who will make up the heats at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Amongst those down for the preliminaries is Antigua and Barbuda sprinter Daniel Bailey.
Olympic 10,000m and 5,000m gold medal winner Mohamed Farah of Great Britain goes for his first gold medal of the world championships.
Farah, the hottest distance runner this summer, is in the best shape of his life, according to his coach, and Great Britain front runner is being backed to repeat his gold medal performance in the 10,000m on Saturday night.
Ibrahim Jeilan of Ethiopia, Farah’s training training partner and London silver medallist Galen Rupp, as well as Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia will be waiting closely, should Farah make a mistake.
The men’s 800m heats will go off without world record holder David Rudisha of Kenya who is out because of an injury.
Americans Duane Solomon, Nick Symmonds and Brandon Johnson, along with Ethiopian Mohammed Aman, who will now start as the pre championships gold medal favorite.
French pole vault star and Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie starts his quest for a world championships outdoor gold medal when he line up amongst some of the world’s best in the event he’s dominated all summer.
German Olympic silver medalist Björn Otto and teammates Raphael Holzdeppe and Malte Mohr, with USA’s 2007 champion Brad Walker down to challenge for the title as well.
Elsewhere, Ashton Eaton of USA start his quest to win the men’s Decathlon, while Nigerian sprinter/jumper Blessing Okagbare goes in the women’s Long Jump qualifying round. Defending champion Brittney Reese is in the same flight has Okagbare and the pair is expected to make light weight of 6.75m qualifying standard.
Sostene Moguenara of Germany and Russian Darya Klishina, who have both been over the 7-metre mark this season will be in the second flight.
