Preview: Six athletes seek jackpot share

By Peter Juny Sep 1, 2006, 14:05 GMT

Berlin - Pay day has almost arrived as six athletes led by 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell seek their share of a 1-million-dollar jackpot in the sport of athletics.

If none of the contenders fail at the ISTAF meet on Sunday, Powell, American 400 metres runners Sanya Richards and Jeremy Wariner as well as Ethiopian 5,000m runner Tirunesh Dibaba will have won their event at all six stops of the elite Golden League series.

In addition, distance runner Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia and Panama long jumper Irving Saladino can make it five wins from six meets which make them eligible for the big money as well.

Under new jackpot rules 500,000 dollars are for all five-time winners and an additional 500,000 for six-time winners.

In this scenario Powell, Richard, Wariner and Dibaba would each get 208,333 dollars, Bekele and Saladino 83,333 dollars each.

However, all winners must also compete at the season-ending World Athletics Final September 9/10 in Stuttgart to be eligible for the money.

Five-time winners are now eligible after Russian triple jumper Tatyana Lebedeva hopped, skipped and jumped away with the full million as the only athlete to win at all stops of the 2005 edition in Oslo, Rome, Paris, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.

With no global championship staged this year, record-breaking runs and/or the jackpot became the top season priority for many athletes.

Powell equalled his world record 9.77 seconds for the second in Zurich and stayed alive in Brussels as well last Friday with a stunning catch-up effort after a disastrous start.

'The jackpot wasn't even on my mind. I wanted to run fast,' insisted Powell.

Dibaba, the 5,000m and 10,000m world champion from 2005, also had one narrow escape when she was almost upstaged by compatriot world record holder Meseret Defar in Paris.

Wariner and Richards have dominated the 400m but Richards still faces a final threat from world and Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling of Jamaica - who shared the jackpot with Swedish triple jumper Christian Olsson in 2004.

Richards already has a rough idea what she will do with the cheque, saying: 'I will thank my parents and invest the rest so it grows.'

The half dozen contenders is also good news for Berlin organizers, who have already sold more than 40,000 tickets in the Olympic stadium.

'We have never had a field like this before. This will be great for the fans. These six athletes naturally want to compete at the ISTAF. That gives us six stories to promote and not just one,' said meet general manager Gerhard Janetzky.

Not invited to Berlin are US coach Trevor Graham and his athletes after 100m world and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin became the latest Graham-athlete to fail a doping test.

Marion Jones was also not welcome even before she reportedly failed a doping test for the blood doping substance EPO.