Nine Jamaicans to compete at opening Diamond League meeting in China
Sprint hurdlers Hansle Parchment, the Olympic champion and double World Champion, Danielle Williams, are among nine Jamaicans who are down to compete at the opening Wanda Diamond League Meeting in Xiamen, China on Saturday.
While Parchment will be making his first appearance this season, Williams has been competing since the indoor season and will be racing over the 100m hurdles for the second time this month.
Orlando Bennett will also contest the 110m hurdles while Olympic Games bronze medallist Megan Tapper will also race over the 100m hurdles.
Male sprinters Yohan Blake, Ackeem Blake and Rohan Watson are down for the 100m; Danielle Thomas-Dodd will compete in the women’s shot put and Christoff Bryan lines up in the men’s high jump.
Saturday’s meet is the first of 14 meetings that will be held before the finals set for Brussels, Belgium in mid-September, while the tour will continue in Shanghai/Suzhou, China next week Saturday.
The women’s sprint hurdle has so far been one of the best competitions so far and Saturday’s race will feature the World Champion Williams, the Olympic champion- Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, 100m world record holder Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan and World 60m record holder and World Indoor champion Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas.
Williams has clocked the fastest time of the athletes who will line up with 12.57 seconds set two weeks ago at the Florida Relays.
Parchment, who won his second World Championships silver medal last year in Budapest, Hungary, has not competed since September last year when he ended the year as the world leader with a personal best 12.93 seconds.
American Jamal Britt will go into the race with the fastest time, 13.48 seconds, followed by compatriot Eric Edwards (13.60 seconds), while Bennett has run 13.72 seconds so far this year.
Former Carifta champion Wilhem Belocian of France, Daniel Roberts and Freddie Crittenden will add to the depth of the event. Ackeem Blake, the World Indoor 60m bronze medallist, will hope to extend what has so far been a good season and will face a tough field that will include American Christian Coleman, who won the Indoor gold medal and former Word Athletics Championships 100m champion Fred Kerley.
Watson, the national champion and former World Champion Yohan Blake will also be hoping to kick start their seasons after failing to impress at the Miramar Invitational.
Thomas-Dodd faces another tough field in the women’s shot put field where three women, American World Champion Chase Jackson, Maddison-lee Wesche of New Zealand and China’s Jiayuan Song have all thrown over 19.00m already.
Bryan will be facing arguably his toughest field since returning to the sport and will go up against World and Olympic champion Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, Hamish Kerr of New Zealand and Japan’s Tomohiro Shinno.
There will also be a number of other events that produce outstanding competition and results including the women’s 200m which is expected to feature World Championships medallist Sha’Carri Richardson, American 4x100m relay gold medallist Twanisha Terry, Jamaica-based Bahamian, Anthonique Strachan and Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji.
The women’s discus throw will include World Leader Yaime Perez and World Championships silver medalist Valarie Allman, while the women’s 400m will see Barbados’ two-time World Championships medallist Sada Williams, World Champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic as well as Americans Britton Wilson and Lynna Irby-Jackson.