Compeed Golden Gala, Lemaitre takes on Bolt and Powell in Rome

The star-studded line-up of the 2011 Compeed Golden Gala will feature another top sprinter. On Thursday 26 May triple European sprint champion Christophe Lemaitre will line up against World record holder Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell. The 21-year-old Frenchman dominated the 100 and the 200 metres in Barcelona and collected his third gold medal in the 4×100 relay. No other European sprinter had achieved this feat before in the history of the continental Championships. His name had already gone down in history on 9th July 2010 at the French Championships in Valence when he set the French record with 9.98 becoming the first white sprinter ever to dip under the 10 seconds barrier in the blue-riband 100 metres race. He equalled this time later in the summer on 29th August in the 100 metres heats and improved it to 9.97 in the final. at the Rieti Meeting. Lemaitre has already taken part at the Golden Gala last year when he was beaten by former world record holder Asafa Powell who prevailed in 9.82 to 10.09. However the 100 metres race will not be the only highlight of the Rome meeting. The Compeed Golden Gala will be also headlined by the double 200-400 metres sprint clash between the two US sprint reigning world champions Sanya Richards (400) and Allyson Felix (200). Six names have already been confirmed for the 2011 edition for the meeting in the Italian capital. Besides the stars above mentioned the other top name previously confirmed is Kenyan 800 metres World record holder David Rudisha who has already clocked world-class times in the early part of the 2011 season (1:43.88 in Melbourne on 3rd March).