Sprint hurdler Jasmin Stowers and 200m/400m runner Shaunae Miller will seek to defend their titles at next month’s Jamaica International Invitational meet at the National Stadium, it was confirmed yesterday.

The American Stowers ran a then world-leading 12.39 seconds to win the women’s 100m hurdles at last year’s staging, while Miller of the Bahamas won the 200m last year before going on to win the silver medal in the 400m at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, a few months later.

They were among six athletes confirmed over the weekend, organisers told the Jamaica Observer.

Sprint hurdlers Andrew Riley of Jamaica and Americans Jeff Porter and Aleec Harris, as well as colourful American sprinter Ryan Bailey, were all included in the line-up in what is shaping up to be one of the best meets in the series so far.

Meanwhile, meet organisers have hastened to confirm that Jamaica’s Asafa Powell and Canadian speedster Andre De Grasse will contest the 200m, and not the 100m as was earlier reported.

The tall, elegant Stowers got her season off to a good start at last year’s meet when she beat the Jamaican sister pair of Daniel and Shermaine Williams in the 100m hurdles race.

Miller had run 22.14 seconds in the small 200m field, beating American Tori Bowie, with Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce third.

Riley, the Commonwealth Games champion and a finalist at the World Championships in Moscow in 2013, will line up in the 110m hurdles against Harris and Porter, who were first and second, respectively, last year.

Harris just missed making the final in Beijing, finishing ninth overall in the semi-finals.

Bailey led the American team to victories over Jamaican squads at the 2015 Penn Relays and the IAAF World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, making a throat-slitting gesture after, which was roundly criticised by Jamaican fans.

Bailey was second in the 100m last year in 9.93 seconds, beaten by Asafa Powell who ran a meet record and then world-leading 9.84 seconds.