World 200m champion Shericka Jackson is one of five Jamaican athletes who will continue their preparations for next month’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest by competing in the Wanda Diamond League in London on Sunday.
The London meet represents the final leg of the Wanda Diamond League before the commencement of the World Athletics Championships on August 19.
Notably, Jackson and US champion Sha’Carri Richardson will lock horns over 100m for the third time this year.
They clashed in Doha at the start of the season with Richardson winning comfortably on that occasion, clocking 10.76 to Jackson’s 10.85. But their race in Silesia last weekend was a lot closer; Richardson once again clocked 10.76, but this time she won by 0.02, passing her Jamaican rival just metres before the finish.
Their career head-to-head record now stands at three wins apiece, so Sunday’s race will be something of a decider.
Jackson, who will be competing for the second time in three days, leads this season’s top list thanks to the PB of 10.65 she recorded when winning at the Jamaica trials in Kingston earlier this month. That mark moved her to equal fifth on the world all-time list – one place ahead of Richardson, who improved to 10.71 in the heats at the US Championships and went on to win the national title in 10.82.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou will also be one to watch, having won in Oslo (10.75) and Lausanne (10.88) last month. US indoor champion Aleia Hobbs and British duo Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita add further quality to the field.
Olympic champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica takes on world champion Grant Holloway of the US in the 110m hurdles. Three other US athletes with PBs of 13.00 – Daniel Roberts, Trey Cunningham, and Freddie Crittenden – are also in the field, as is Japanese record-holder Shunsuke Izumiya.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, world leader Femke Bol takes on US champion Shamier Little and the Jamaican due of Commonwealth champion Janieve Russell and Rushell Clayton.
The women’s 800m is the last event on the programme, so organisers and fans will be hopeful for a home victory from Keely Hodgkinson.
Following a superb indoor season, the world and Olympic silver medallist opened her outdoor campaign in Paris last month, where she clocked a world-leading 1:55.77, breaking her British record.
Three weeks later, she was beaten in Lausanne by Kenyan rival Mary Moraa, but since then Hodgkinson has won the British 800m title in 1:58.26 and worked on her speed at the European U23 Championships, where she took bronze in the 400m in a PB of 51.76.
The 21-year-old returns to her main event in London and takes on 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi, Jamaica’s Natoya Goule-Toppin, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji, Australia’s Catriona Bisset, Olympic finalist Jemma Reekie and world finalist Anita Horvat.
See also
Schedule for Jamaicans
