Blake, Fraser-Pryce for Adidas classic
REIGNING 100 metres world Champion Yohan Blake and defending Olympic champion Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, headline a lineup of Caribbean track stars billed to compete at the Adidas Grand Prix on Saturday.
Fraser-Pryce, Sherone Simpson and Kelly-Ann Baptiste will face off against reigning World Champion Carmelita Jeter in the 100-metre dash.
Baptiste, from Trinidad and Tobago, is the 2011 World Championships bronze medalist at 100 meters, and the 25-year-old’s personal best of 10.84 is a national record. Fraser-Pryce, also 25, Simpson is the 2008 Olympic silver medalist at 100 meters and 2004 Olympic gold medalist in the 4×100-metre relay.
Also competing will be Jermaine Gonzales, who will face Jeremy Wariner, who is on the comeback trail from a torn toe ligament that kept him out of the World Championships last summer.
400 metres Novlene Williams-Mills will also take the track along with rising sprint hurdler Hansle Parchment.
The 21-year-old Parchment, clocked a personal-best 13.19 in winning the 110-meter hurdles at the Jamaica International Invitational. Parchment will tackle a strong field including world record holder Dayron Robles, reigning World Champion Jason Richardson, 2008 Olympic bronze medalist David Oliver, and Aries Merritt, the World Indoor Champion at the 60-meter hurdles.
In the adidas Boys’ Dream 100, rising Jamaican star Jazeel Murphy, the two-time Under-20 Carifta Games gold medalist at 100 meters, will take on some of the top American high school sprinters in this premier, invitational race that is the culmination of the adidas Golden Stripes series. A student-athlete at Bridgeport High School in St. Catherine, Jamaica, Murphy has a personal best of 10.27.
Jamaican teams who have been extended an invitation to compete in the high school relays include: St. Elizabeth Tech High School and Munro College in the Boys’ 4×400, and Vere Tech High School and Edwin Allen High in the Girls’ 4×100.