Africa’s best performance in the 100m was a fifth place finish by Ivorian Ben Youssef Meite.

France’s Christophe Lemaitre who led the European contingent won gold with a time of 10.06 seconds followed by Daniel Bailey from the Americas in10.10 seconds.

The Continental Cup which was introduced in 1975 was known as the IAAF World Cup but has gradually lost its shine following the introduction of the IAAF World Championships.

Analyst Karl Tuffuor thinks Aziz Zakari’s disappointment should push the Ghana Athletics Association to begin a conscious search for new talents.

“It is clear to me and it is obvious that the likes of Zakari are over the hill. I personally have had major problems with him ever since he failed the drugs test. If I had my way he wouldn’t be running for Ghana,” he said.

He added the new officials at the Ghana Athletics Association must take steps to develop new talents.

The 24-year-old Bolt told BBC Radio that he plans to play professional soccer once his track and field career ends.

“I’m definitely a good player – a defensive or attacking midfielder,” Bolt told BBC’s Sportweek show. “I always watch those guys and I think I could be a professional footballer.”

Bolt said that he probably has about four years left in track and field and plans to set a potentially-unbeatable 100m sprint record of 9.4 seconds.

The Manchester United fan went public with his soccer aspirations just days after saying in an another interview he could have been a professional cricket player.

“I was playing cricket one day and my coach said, ‘You know what? Try track and field’, because I was running pretty quickly,” he told the CBBC.

Bolt, who ran a 9.58 in the 100 meters last year, says he wants to lower that world record and and then become “a defensive or attacking midfielder” on the pitch.

“I have four more good years in me if I train hard,” he told BBC Radio. “When I finish I’d like to play football for two years. I always watch those guys and I think I could be a professional footballer.”

Greene, 24, beat Puerto Rico’s Javier Culson and this year’s fastest man, United States’ Bershawn Jackson, at the IAAF Continental Cup in Split, Croatia.

Swansea Harrier Greene went under 48 seconds for the first time, clocking 47.88 to beat the stadium record.

Greene now has Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi in October in his sights.

He also has his sights on the 47.82s UK record of Kriss Akabusi in his sights, having beaten his stadium record in Split and become the first Briton to go under 48 seconds in 18 years.

Greene beat fellow Welshman Rhys Williams into second place at last month’s European Championships in Barcelona and says his training has improved since then.

“If anything my training has been getting even better since Barcelona,” he said.

“When I felt Jackson go past me so soon, I felt annoyed, but I had a feeling the race would pan out like that because he’s done that several times throughout the season.

“I just tried to stick to my own race and when I changed down my stride pattern I felt really smooth.

“I’ve been fighting for a time like that all season, and it came when I least expected it.”

He insisted she take more exercise and asked her to run daily the 2km round trip from their home in the southern Russian city of Volgograd to the River Volga.

Zarudneva carried out the request and the illnesses disappeared and now a little under two decades later the Russian steeplechaser has celebrated her finest ever season, landing the European crown in Barcelona and the IAAF VTB/Bank Continental Cup title here in Split.

Her triumph yesterday showed how the 24-year-old has matured into one of the world’s finest at her craft. Skilled technically over the barriers she controlled the race beautifully from the front slowly injecting the pace at key moments of the race before pulling clear of Samsung Diamond League winner Milcah Chemos of Kenya in the latter stages to win for Europe in a competition record 9:25.46.

“Of course the European Championships was a really big event but I’m really pleased to win this event because it is the first time I have won this title,” added Zarudneva.

“I was a little bit surprised because last night I had a bad head and a sore throat and I didn’t sleep very well.”

Front run – a comfortable tactics

When asked whether it was a cold Zarudneva said she thought it was but then added it is a rare instance of a cold these days – certainly when compared to her younger days.

What was eye-catching about the performance in the Croatian seaport was her confidence to take the race by the scruff of the neck from the front. So is this her preferred tactic?

“I’m comfortable in the front position because I can control the race however I want to,” she added.

As a child she dreamt of being a triple jumper because her idol was fellow Volgograd resident Tatyana Lebedeva, the three-time former World triple jump gold medallist.

Yet the daughter of two club standard middle-distance athletes followed in their footsteps and made the Russian team for the 2005 European Junior Championships in the 800m. There she exited the heats of the 800m before finishing a respectable eighth in the European Cross Country Championships in Holland later that year.

The following year she took time away from the sport to give birth to her daughter, Lennochke, who is now aged four, but vowed to take up the steeplechase in the hope of returning to the Russian team. And the move has worked.

Daughter is motivation for success

In 2008 she landed the Russian Under-23 title for her new discipline, but it was her progress the following year that was simply astounding as she improved her personal best from the previous season by 46 seconds to record 9:08.39 en route to silver behind Marta Dominguez at the World Championships in Berlin. Earlier this summer she then avenged that defeat to the Spaniard by beating her to gold at the European Championships in Barcelona.

Besides the personal glory Zarudneva has another special reason to find motivation to succeed and that is because of her daughter.

“I am often away from her because I’m competing or training, so I want her to make me feel proud of me. She is a big inspiration,” added Zarudneva, who is coached by Mikhail Kuznetsov.

And for next season?

“It is all about winning the World Championships,” she adds.

Indeed, she very may well go on the achieve that target and if she does Zarudneva might well reflect on those 2km runs to the River Volga and back as being pivotal to her future success.

On the one hand, the Olympic, World Indoor and World Outdoor champion and on the other the World bronze medallist and only other man to scale the magical 6 metre barrier in the last two years.

But then as the year unfolded, the showdown proved less and less intriguing not because one had lost interest in the Pole Vault but simply because the matchup never came even close to materialising.

After the tremendous disappointment of not qualifying for the World Indoor Championships final back in March, Lavillenie regrouped and returned to score four consecutive Samsung Diamond League wins, secure the European title in Barcelona and set the year’s highest mark at 5.94 when taking the National title in Valence.

It was opposite fortunes for Hooker who returning from a victorious World Indoors as one of 14 Diamond League Ambassador had to face disappointment in all of his seven showings.

Alongside three meetings where he no-heighted, Hooker’s best outdoors, outside a 5.91m effort at home in February, remained a series of 5.80m clearances, not the standard the milk man has been used to these past couple of years.

As it turned out, one would have to wait until the IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup, the last showdown between the two Pole Vault aces, to finally be treated to the best.

Hooker struggled with an opening failure at 5.40m, a height he wouldn’t normally even consider but it being a team competition and point-scoring event, a low mark is always a secure tactic.

Yet for a seasoned competitor like the Australian champion, having to do with a failure at this height certainly is far from being the most confidence-boosting start.

Again, Hooker failed at 5.70m but again he corrected and cleared the second time of asking.

Meanwhile Lavillenie was having the perfect competition with first time clearances all the way up to and including 5.90m.

Game was on when Hooker produced his best in all of six months and scaled 5.90m and although local poster girl Blanka Vlasic was drawing all of the 27,500 spectators’ attention to the other side of the track, fans started showing more and more interest in the Pole Vault, could they go higher?

Hooker and Lavillenie found themselves failing first and second attempts at 5.95m and it was the Asia/Pacific Team captain on first for his final chance.

Reminiscent of his Beijing and Berlin form, Hooker mastered that height to perfection putting pressure on the Frenchman.

It wasn’t going to be Lavillenie’s day and for the first time in seven head to heads this summer, Hooker had the upper hand.

“I am most surprised I didn’t jump at this level the rest of the year,” said a delighted Hooker adding “I knew I had this height in me.

“Today it was back to basics, I just thought about a few basic things saying I have been competing a lot and then training a lot and it felt like competition was always in the way and now I have been thinking about 1 or 2 things at the time.

“I am not back to my best just yet but we can say I am jumping well; I still have some ordinary jumps, I had to work my way to this victory, I was actually never in control.

“The World Indoor title was my main target but the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games are also equally important. I had several goals so spread out and that’s why this has been a tough year.

“I am happy to have won here, I am the Asia/Pacific Team Captain and as a captain I have to set a good example for the rest of the team. I won this competition under a different name four years ago and I enjoy it.

“I’m glad I had my best result; I am still tired though but I am working towards something,” he said referring to those who compare his strongest motivation to Lavillenie’s.

“My season has been longer and harder but I still have something to look forward to and that is keeping me hungry.

“For some reason my form went somewhere during the Diamond League season; it still is not there as it should be but it feels good to have a good competition!”

Greene, 24, beat Puerto Rico’s Javier Culson and this year’s fastest man, United States’ Bershawn Jackson, at the IAAF Continental Cup in Split, Croatia.

Swansea Harrier Greene went under 48 seconds for the first time, clocking 47.88 to beat the stadium record.

Greene now has Commonwealth Games gold in Delhi in October in his sights.

He also has his sights on the 47.82s UK record of Kriss Akabusi in his sights, having beaten his stadium record in Split and become the first Briton to go under 48 seconds in 18 years.

Greene beat fellow Welshman Rhys Williams into second place at last month’s European Championships in Barcelona and says his training has improved since then.

“If anything my training has been getting even better since Barcelona,” he said.

“When I felt Jackson go past me so soon, I felt annoyed, but I had a feeling the race would pan out like that because he’s done that several times throughout the season.

“I just tried to stick to my own race and when I changed down my stride pattern I felt really smooth.

“I’ve been fighting for a time like that all season, and it came when I least expected it.”

The fastest in the field this year are American’s Ryan Wilson (13.12) and Joel Brown (13.24) but the start list also includes Great Britain’s European champion Andrew Turner, Jamaican record holder Dwight Thomas, and Petr Svoboda, the Czech record holder.

Meanwhile, in the women’s 100m Hurdles race, American Lolo Jones and Canada’s former World champion Perdita Felicien figure prominently.

Jones, the twice World indoor champion, will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing fifth place finish in Brussels last weekend which knocked her out of the Diamond Trophy chase.

Felicien brings better momentum to Zagreb after a runner-up finish in Berlin and a third place showing in Brussels where she clocked 12.68, her second fastest run of the year. Derval O’Rourke, who lowered her own Irish national record to 12.65 in Barcelona to take European silver, will also be in the hunt.

Over the full lap hurdles, Diamond Race winner Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica tops the women’s field, where she’ll face Rieti winner Sheena Tosta while South African LJ van Zyl is the man to beat on the men’s side.

Zagreb has already proved memorable for the reigning World champion indoors and outdoors, playing host to the 26-year-old’s first career two-metre leap back in 2003, as well as her most recent national record, a sensational 2.08m clearance one year ago which gave her sole possession of the No. 2 position all-time. Zagreb will also be Vlasic’s final outing before her appearance next weekend in Split, her hometown, where she’s been busy as the Continental Cup’s poster girl.

On paper, her chief opposition hails from Russia: Svetlana Shkolina, who’s jumped 1.98m this season, and Irina Gordeyeva, who’s gone 1.97m.

Dilshod Nazarov of Tadjikistan, Hungary’s Krisztián Pars and Sergej Litvinov of Germany currently occupy spots one, two and three in the Challenge standings and are expected to figure prominently in the competition as well.

Arriving with the best momentum however is 2004 Olympic champion Koji Murofushi of Japan who after a three-month break, returned to competition in Rieti last weekend where he produced the season’s two farthest throws: 80.99m and 80.96. Nazarov (80.11m) and Slovak Libor Charfreitag (80.59m), the European champion, are other 80-metre throwers in the field.