Commonwealth Games: Stars in a distant galaxy

By DAVID LEGGATT at the Games

When the 17th Commonwealth Games are over, whose names will be on our lips? Whose achievements will we savour? Unlike the Olympic Games, with its cluster of world records, the very best beating the next best, these Games - with the odd exception - occupy a lower plane in terms of times, distances and heights.

Some performers would be stars in any company. Here are five who fit that billing and will be strutting their stuff in Manchester.

1. KENYA'S DISTANCE RUNNERS

If backing dead certainties is your idea of a sporting wager, look no further than a Kenyan to win the 5000m.

The world rankings in the event list the top five as: Richard Limo (Kenya) 1, Benjamin Limo (Kenya) 2, Paul Bitok (Kenya) 3, John Kemboi Kibowen (Kenya) 4, Sammy Kipketer (Kenya) 5.

In total, Kenya boasts seven among the world top 10.

At Manchester, in the 5000m, Ben Limo and Kipketer will be joined by Willy Kurui, who doesn't even figure in the world top 50 at the distance. Politics? Most likely.

Also, some of the Kenyans were not enamoured with taking part in the Games, rather saving themselves for the African championships, the lucrative European running circuit and the World Cup in Madrid a month later.

However, the 27-year-old Limo will be hard to stop. In the first three Golden League meetings of the season, he had two wins and a second.

History and all commonsense favour a Kenyan, and Limo's form is not in doubt. Simple when you think about it.

2. IAN THORPE

In a strange move, Games organisers have reversed the swimming and track and field programmes.

This time the athletics comes first, which means the lasting image of the Games might be Ian Thorpe collecting his seventh gold medal in the 4x100m medley final, the last event in the pool on the final night of competition.

Don't bet against old flipperfeet doing it, either. After all, he was the youngest male world champion when he won the 400m in Perth in 1998; won four golds in Kuala Lumpur four years ago; three golds and two silvers at the Sydney Olympics.

He seems to have been around a long time, yet he's only 19. Thorpe stands 1.95m, with size 17 feet and is the dominant figure in a powerful Australian swim squad.

The seven? The 100m, 200m and 400m freestyle, the 100m backstroke, and three relays - the 4x100m and 200m freestyle and 4x100m medley.

Expect to hear Advance Australia Fair until you're blue in the face, mate.

3. SARAH FITZ-GERALD

Remember when Susan Devoy dominated the world of women's squash? She reigned supreme as the ultimate competitor in the 1980s and early 1990s. Her mantle passed to Australian Michelle Martin, and now Martin's compatriot Fitz-Gerald is world No 1.

Fitz-Gerald took over the No 1 ranking last October (replacing New Zealand's Leilani Rorani) and has been unchallenged since.

She won three successive world open titles from 1996-98 before going through two operations on her left knee. That crushing win over Rorani, 9-0, 9-3, 9-2 in 44 minutes in front of her home fans in Melbourne last year, was the culmination of a two-year fight to regain her mantle as queen of the court.

How dominant is she? Last year, she won 11 of the 12 women's professional events she entered.

This year, at the Australian Sports Awards, Fitz-Gerald was named female athlete of the year and was awarded the Dawn Fraser Award for achievements on court and contribution to the community, pipping the likes of Thorpe and tennis star Lleyton Hewitt.

She won't have it all her own way in Manchester. New Zealand's Carol Owens and Rorani, nee Joyce, are ranked second and fourth in the world respectively, split by England's Cassie Jackman. But put it this way: they have their work cut out.

4. JONATHAN EDWARDS

Edwards, the 36-year-old triple jumper from Gateshead in the north of England, is looking to join an elite club at the Games.

Should he win gold, which is highly likely, he will join decathlete Daley Thompson, sprinter Linford Christie and middle-distance runner Sally Gunnell as the only Britons to have collected a grand slam of golds at the Commonwealth, European and Olympic Games and world championships.

He was the first person to push the world record beyond the 18m mark, and his world record of 18.29m, set in Gothenburg seven years ago, still stands.

Second at the Atlanta Games in 1996, he went one better in Sydney, and in his own, vaguely Confucian words, is in the process of making a long goodbye. "I am like the grandfather seeing off his young grandchildren" he said of his up-and-coming rivals.

Expect this grey-haired grandad to see them off again this month.

5. JASON ROBINSON

Just as Jonah Lomu was the star attraction of the 1998 Games, expect the zippy Lions winger to shine in a similar fashion.

Robinson was a brilliant rugby league winger with Wigan and Great Britain.

In his early years he also liked the bright lights and he has frequently credited his old Wigan team-mate and former All Black Va'aiga Tuigamala with helping him change his ways, to the extent he is now a born-again Christian.

Then he "went south" to rugby, won a place in the England team, toured Australia with the Lions, scored five times in his first game there, won a place in the test team and did so well he became one of the first names pencilled in by coach Graham Henry.

If that all sounds as if 27-year-old Robinson's rugby career has had a comet-like quality, it has. In sevens, he's a pure matchwinner, and that means while New Zealand are expected to be favourites for the title, England must rate a decent chance.

Full coverage:
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