Olympic Games medallists Shanieka Ricketts and Rajindra Campbell will lead a number of Jamaicans seeking honours at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Rome, Italy, the fifth stop in the Wanda Diamond League series.

Women’s triple jumper Ricketts will be in search of her second Diamond League win of the season.

Men’s shot-putter Campbell and women’s intermediate hurdler Andrenette Knight had placed second in their respective events in the most recent Diamond League appearances.

Ricketts will go into the triple jump with the best mark so far this season, 14.54m. But she faces a tough line-up that includes Olympic Games champion Thea LaFond of Dominica, Neja Filipic of Slovenia and the Cuban pair of Liadagmis Povea and Leyanis Perez Hernandez.

Campbell was beaten in the final round at the previous Diamond League meeting in Rabat, Morocco, after he threw 21.95m, just 26 centimeters off his national record.

American Payton Otterdahl, who threw a world leading 21.97m to beat Campbell, is set to feature, as well as Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri who is joint second on the World Athletics rankings with Campbell, Joe Kovacs and Roger Steen.

After a strong showing at the third Grand Slam event held in Philadelphia last weekend, Knight will hope to kick on as she is set to go up against compatriots Rushell Clayton and Shiann Salmon. American Cassandra Tate and Italy’s Ayomide Folorunso are also expected to be competitive.

Carey McLeod is the only Jamaican in the men’s long jump where he will face a quality field featuring former World and Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, Liam Adcock of Australia and Italy’s World Under-20 record holder Mattia Furlani.

Former Olympic Games and World Championships gold medallist Omar McLeod and his compatriot Orlando Bennett will contest the 110m hurdles where they are expected to face World leader Cordell Tinch and his American compatriots Dylan Beard and Daniel Roberts and Spain’s Asier Martinez.

Romaine Beckford and Raymond Richards are down for the men’s high jump. New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr, Sanghyeok Woo of South Korea and JuVaughn Harrison of the United States are also down to compete.

— Paul A Reid