Krishna Poonia-Dani Samuels $20,000 duel for real, Jan 22 proposed date

In what could be the first of its kind contest involving an Indian, the proposed $20,000 winner-takes-all discus throw duel between Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia and world champion Dani Samuels is moving ahead with the Australian proposing January 22 as the date.

Samuels's coach Hayden Knowles told PTI from Sydney that the plan is to hold the contest on January 22 at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Center as part of Pirtek Athletic Allstars Meet and hence the event will have to be in Australia though the date could be worked out.

The meet is billed as athletics counterpart of Twenty20 cricket with celebrities from Hollywood and athletics world taking part. Recently on September 15, world and Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt took part in men's 100m relay event though he did not run in 100m dash because he did not want to stress himself much due to his injury.

In that meet, Samuels won the discus throw event with a 61.90m effort to beat Olympic champion Stephanie Brown Trafton of United States and former world champion Beatrice Faumina of New Zealand, who finished fifth in the Commonwealth Games.

"Pirtek Athletic Allstars organiser is offering the contest. The event has a few sponsors with Pirtek being the major one and the event has enough sponsorship dollars to stage such a featured event. The sponsors want me to bring the best athletes and they are right behind providing quality opposition for Dani," Knowles said.

"We did some different things that attracted great public interest and increased the profile of many athletes. My training and management company looks after Dani but we also run an event called 'Pirtek Athletic Allstars' and my sponsors would put up the $20,000 for the winner. The September 15 event in Sydney was great success with great corporate support.

"We plan to hold another meet and if we can get the girls together for a battle between the current world champion in Dani and current Commonwealth champion in Krishna it would be a feature event and we would build the whole meet around them both. The money of $20,000 would and is still on offer but I would have to stage the event in Sydney," he said.

Knowles said Samuels has agreed to the contest but made it clear that it was his company and not the athlete who had proposed the duel.

"The suggestion of this event is an appealing one and has far and wide interest. Dani has agreed to do it and I believe Krishna and her coach are also keen. I have tentatively booked the (Sydney) stadium for January 22 but this may not suit so we would try again another time if the interest is still there. This date suits us, or there could be times later in March during the Australian track series which could be looked at but this would depend on Krishna's plans for the year leading up to World Championships," he said.