Yesterday a press conference was held at the Media Centre at the Doha Sheraton Hotel. It was attended by 3 athletes who will be vying for gold medals at the Qatar Athletics Super Grand Prix, which will be held at the Qatar Sports Club on Friday the 11th of May 2007. The conference was also attended by the President of the Qatar Association of Athletic Federation, Mr. Dahlan Al Hamad. He said “It is an honour to host the Super Grand Prix this year in Qatar and we will try to improve the sports scene in Qatar. I wish all the athletes who are participating at this event the best of luck and I hope to see world records being broken this Friday at our event.”

Then the President of the Federation left the stage to the athletes. The following are their quotations:

TIANNA MADISON, (U.S.A) - Long Jump - Gold medal, Helsinki World Championship 2005.
“You will definitely see me crossing the 7m mark this year, I am much more prepared. Although this is my first time, I like Qatar. The weather here is just lovely. I began training for Osaka 2007, the day after I won the gold at Helsinki, hopefully I can defend my title. May the best champion win in Osaka but I more than hope that it will be me.”


KUMIKO IKEDA, (Japan) – Long Jump – Gold medal, 15th Asian Games 2006.
“It is much more difficult for Asian women to cross 7m as they require more physical aptitude but I am trying very hard. It’s great to be back in Qatar after winning in December. I want to win the gold at Osaka. I had a long preparation and I have been watching and studying the Russians who have crossed 7m.”


 

ANDREAS TORKILDSEN – (Norway) – Javelin Throw – Silver medal, Helsinki World Championship 2005 and 2004 Olympic Champion.
“After I won last year, I decided then and there that I would like to come back to Doha. I have my own career goals. I plan to continue throwing and win as many gold medals as possible. I am training in almost the same way as I did last year but I am concentrating more on the technical aspects of the throws. World Championships are very different from Olympics, but the same amount of training goes into both of them. If on Friday, there is a good tail wind, then there is a possibility of throwing more than 90m. The weather in Qatar is great, my body positively reacts to this climate and I have less chance of getting injured. ”