Bailey-Cole leads Jamaicans in Zagreb today
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Fresh from retaining his 100-m title at the ISTAF IAAF World Challenge meeting in Berlin on Sunday, Jamaica’s World Championships finalist Kemar Bailey-Coley will line up against another quality field in the men’s 100m at the penultimate WC meeting in Zagreb, Croatia, today.
Six Jamaicans, including horizontal jumpers Dammar Forbes and Kimberly Williams, will take part in the meet that will see several World Championship medallists taking part.
One more IAAF World Challenge meeting will be held this season following today’s meet, in Rietti, Italy, on Sunday.
Today, Bailey-Cole, the 21 year-old Jamaican who was fourth in the World Championships in Moscow, Russia, last month, will join compatriot Jacques Harvey in the event that will also see World Championships double silver medallist American Justin Gatlin, Mike Rodgers and St Kitts and Nevis’s evergreen Kim Collins.
The 37-year-old Collins was second to Bailey-Cole on Sunday.
The veteran Aileen Bailey will line up in the women’s 100m, where she will face Bulgaria’s Ivett Lalova and the American trio of Alexandria Anderson, Barbara Pierre and LaKeisha Lawson.
World Championships 4×400-m relay silver medallist Edino Steel will run in the first of two men’s 400m races, while the big guns including World Champion LaShawn Merritt, Kerron Clement, Martin Rooney of Great Britain and Trinidad’s Renny Qouw will line up in the second race.
Kimblerly Williams, who just missed a medal in Moscow, while achieving a personal best 14.62m in triple jump, will go into the meet with a chance of winning as her main rival will be Ukraine’s World Championships and Olympic bronze medallist Olha Saladuha.
Damar Forbes, who was a finalist in the men’s long jump in Moscow, and fourth in Berlin, goes up against American triple jump specialist Christian Taylor and South Africa’s Godfrey Khotso Mokoena today.