Olympic silver medalists Shanieka Ricketts and Wayne Pinnock will spearhead Jamaica’s quest for Diamond League titles Friday as they headline the opening day of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme Wanda Diamond League finals in Brussels.
Each athletes, riding high on the momentum of their recent successes, wish to cap their seasons with a coveted Diamond Trophy and a profitable money prize of US$30,000.
Pinnock would be the first of 10 Jamaicans in motion Friday, competing within the males’s lengthy bounce finals at 2:17 p.m. (Japanese time). Contemporary off his first Diamond League victory in Zurich final week, the place he triumphed over Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, Pinnock is primed for one more large efficiency.
Season’s greatest leap of 8.36 meters
His season’s greatest leap of 8.36 meters will likely be examined in opposition to a area of sturdy rivals, together with Tentoglou, who boasts a season’s better of 8.65 meters, Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer (8.41m), and Italy’s Mattia Furlani (8.38m). Fellow Jamaicans Carey McLeod and world champion Tajay Gayle may even be part of Pinnock within the occasion, including additional depth to the competitors.
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In the meantime, Ricketts, who secured a silver medal on the Paris Olympics with a season’s better of 14.87 meters within the girls’s triple bounce, will likely be trying to construct on that success. The 32-year-old is focusing on her second Diamond Trophy, having first claimed the title in Zurich in 2019. Ricketts will face fierce competitors from Cuba’s Leyanis Hernandez-Perez, who has three Diamond League wins this season and a season’s better of 14.96 meters, in addition to fellow Jamaican Ackelia Smith, an Olympic finalist.
Jamaica’s sprinting hopes Friday relaxation on the shoulders of Ackeem Blake and Rohan Watson, who will line up within the males’s 100m remaining. Blake, who just lately clocked a morale-boosting 9.96 seconds at a World Athletics Continental Tour meet in Switzerland, enters the race with a season’s and private better of 9.89 seconds. He’ll face stiff competitors from People Fred Kerley, the Olympic bronze medalist with a season’s better of 9.81, and Christian Coleman, who has clocked 9.86 this season.
Different Jamaicans in motion
Different Jamaicans in motion Friday embrace Danniel Thomas-Dodd within the girls’s shot put, Fedrick Dacres within the males’s discus, and Natoya Goule-Toppin within the girls’s 800m.
One of the anticipated showdowns of the day would be the girls’s 100m, that includes a conflict between Olympic champion Julien Alfred of St. Lucia and American world champion Sha’Carri Richardson. Alfred claimed victory in Paris, however Richardson just lately edged her in Zurich, setting the stage for an exciting rematch in Brussels.
Moreover, three Jamaicans will compete in non-Diamond League invitational 400m occasions. Stacey-Ann Williams, contemporary off a private greatest of fifty.00 seconds in Zagreb, Croatia, and Stephenie Ann McPherson will problem American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone within the girls’s occasion. Within the males’s 400m, nationwide record-holder Rusheen McDonald will go up in opposition to Belgian brothers Kevin and Dylan Borlee.
