Jamaican trio to compete in Wanda Diamond League meet in Rome
A trio of Jamaicans — former World Champion Yohan Blake, Rushell Clayton and Candice McLeod — are down to compete in Friday’s World Athletics Wanda Diamond League meet to be held at Stadio Luigi Ridolfi in Rome, Italy.
The meet is the third stop on the season-long series where a number of World and Olympic champions are scheduled to take part.
Clayton, who was second in the women’s 400m hurdles at the Doha Diamond League meeting, will line up against a quality field that will include world leader and World Championships silver medallist Femke Bol of the Netherlands, Americans Shamier Little and Anna Hall — both in the top six of the world ranking.
Clayton, the leading Jamaican in the event so far this year with a season’s best 54.15 seconds, was a finalist in both the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games last year.
The veteran Blake, who started his professional career 14 years ago and was part of arguably the best era of Jamaican male short sprints, has a season’s best 10.18 seconds, slowest of the eight men in the race.
American world leader and World champion Fred Kerley will start favourite in the race that will also see the silver and bronze medallists Marvin Bracey and Trayvon Bromell also lining up.
Jamaican Candice McLeod, who was fifth in Doha and has a season’s best 51.17 seconds, will go up against Guyana’s Aliyah Abrams, American Lynn Irby-Jackson, and Cuba’s Roxana Gomez.