WITH two more meets left before the final of the Wanda Diamond League in Zurich, Switzerland, next week the chase for points will continue in Brussels, Belgium, today and tomorrow.

Despite the withdrawal of Kishane Thompson and Shericka Jackson, both winners at last weekend’s meeting in Poland, Jamaica will be represented by six athletes, two each in the men’s 100m and men’s long jump and the 100m hurdles.

Diamond League winners will earn a wild card entry to the World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo, Japan, next month and so far five Jamaicans have qualified in their respective events.

Thompson has qualified for the men’s 100m final but it was heard earlier this week he would not take any further part in the series. This will open the door for Ackeem Blake (on 10 points) and Oblique Seville (eight), who won his debut race in London, and both are down to compete today.

Jordan Scott and Shanieka Ricketts lead the men’s and women’s triple jump points tables, respectively; Romaine Beckford qualified for the high jump final and is in third place with 22 points, while Andrenette Knight has qualified for the women’s 400m hurdles.

Other highly placed Jamaicans are Tina Clayton, who is in fifth place in women’s 100m standings, and twin sister Tia in eighth place, while Jackson is in third place in the women’s 200m.

Today, Seville will be seeking back-to-back men’s 100m wins but takes on a strong field that will include the United States’s reigning World and Olympic champion Noah Lyles, who was second to Thompson in Poland on Saturday; Akani Simbine of South Africa; and Seville’s training partner Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain.

Blake, who has run just two sub-10.00 seconds races 100m this season and was eighth on Saturday, will be hoping for a better placing today.

National 100m hurdles record holder Ackera Nugent and national champion Megan Tapper will also be hoping for a better finish today, after Saturday when both were in the lower half in Poland.

American world leader Masai Russell is the favourite to win, with Nigeria’s world record holder Tobi Amusan and Nadine Visser of the Netherlands — Europe’s fastest so far this season — also expected to do well.

National champion Carey McLeod and Tajay Gayle will line up in the men’s long jump where they will go up against Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, Mattia Furlani of Italy, and Simon Ehammer of Switzerland.

Shanieka Ricketts produces a jump of 14.52m in the women’s triple jump event at the JAAA national senior championships at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday, June 28. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Oblique Seville