Now that the National Championships are done, and the teams for the World Championships are set, the European season gets under way in earnest today in Oslo. The second stop on the Golden League Oslo has a rich history of fine distance running, and should live up to that today. Potential highlights:

Men’s 800 – Abubaker Kaki (SUD) v Yuri Borzakovski (RUS). Borzakovski is a fine kicker but Kaki has been the dominant 800 man the past couple of seasons. Could be an early picture of the final in Berlin.

Women’s 5000 – Merseret Defar (ETH) takes to the track once again in search of a World Record. Defar has a history of running fast in Oslo, having set a World Record here back in ’07. She was supposed to meet rival Tirunesh Dibaba, but that fell through when Dibaba pulled from the meet with an injury earlier in the week. Still expect Defar to run fast as several Kenyans remain in the race.

Dream Mile – One of the long standing traditions in Oslo, we should not be disappointed this year as world leader Augustine Choge (KEN) leads a strong field in one of the meets signature events.

Men’s 5000 – We get a chance to see Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) in action. Bekele is the World Record holder in the event and will be looking for his first sub 13:00 clocking of the season. His chief competition should be Ali Abdosh (ETH) who currently sits in the #2 spot on the yearly list (12:59.56) just ahead of Bekele (13:00.76).

Men’s 100 – They do sprint in Norway, and their top sprinter Jaysuma Saidy Ndure will take on the challenge of some of the worlds best. Lead by former World Record Holder Asafa Powell (JAM), the field also contains Olympic finalist Churandy Martina (AHO) who has been running well in ’09, and rising star Daniel Bailey (ANT).

Information on the meet can be found here