Caribbean athletes set for Diamond League opener
Jamaican sprint queen Shericka Jackson will headline the list of English-speaking Caribbean athletes in this year’s World Athletics Diamond League in Qatar. Jackson was last year’s Diamond League 200 champion and world 100 silver medallist. Also in the mix will be TT’s double-Olympic javelin medallist, Keshorn Walcott.
Apart from Jackson and Walcott, former world 200 champion Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain, American sprint darling Sha’Carri Richardson, women’s 400 metres world bronze medallist and Commonwealth Games champion Sada Williams of Barbados, Jamaican duo Candice McLeod and Stephanie-Ann McPherson. Among them are Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper of Jamaica, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quin of Puerto Rico and 2019 world champion Nia Ali of the United States. European indoor champion Reetta Hurkes of Finland, rising American duo Alaysha Johnson and Tones Marshall, Jah Nhai Perinchief of Bermuda and two-time men’s world javelin champion Anderson Peters of Jamaica are all carded to make their appearance at the meet.
The meet at the Qatar Sports Club has attracted it’s best fields ever, with 15 reigning individual Olympic and world champions, plus a host of major championship medallists taking part in this event, hoping to best the five world-leading performances, two meet records and three area and national records set 12 months ago in Qatar.
The Diamond League comprises of 14 athletics meets and concluded with a slew of finals across two days on September 16 and 17 in the American city of Eugene in the state of Oregon.
