Broadbell, Holloway face off in Poland today
Three days after their clash at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting, Olympic champion Grant Holloway and bronze medallist Rasheed Broadbell will square off again in the 110m hurdles at the The Kamila Skolimowska Memorial at Silesian Stadium in Chorzów, Poland, the 12th stop on the Wanda Diamond League series on Sunday.
Unlike in their previous race on Thursday that was won by Broadbell, today’s race will not be part of the Diamond League programme, just like the men’s 100m that will feature Olympic Games silver medallist Kishane Thompson and the men’s 400m that will see Roshawn Clarke.
Twenty Jamaicans are set to compete at the meet, including Olympic Games high jump finalist Romaine Beckford who will be making his first Diamond League appearance.
Broadbell will be full of confidence after beating Holloway in Lausanne for the second time, coming from behind to catch the tall American on Thursday.
This was Holloway’s first loss of the season and no doubt he will be ready to reverse the last result.
Orlando Bennett, who was also a finalist at the Olympics, will also feature, as well as American silver medallist Daniel Roberts and his compatriot Cordel Tinch.
Ackera Nugent rebounded from her failure to finish the final at the Olympics with a third in the 100m hurdles on Thursday and along with compatriots, two-time world champion Danielle Williams and Yanique Thompson. They face a tough field and the event will be run over two rounds.
All three medallists from Paris are down to compete as well — gold medallist Masai Russell of the USA, France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela, and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who won on Thursday.
Rushell Clayton earned a creditable second place in the women’s 400m hurdles on Thursday and will line up again against Femke Bol of the Netherlands and American Olympic Games silver medallist Anna Cockrell.
Olympic Games finalist Shiann Salmon and World Championships finalists Janieve Russell and Andrenette Knight, as well as American Shamier Little are also down to run.
Clarke was denied in the men’s 400m hurdles final when he hit the final barrier hard and did not complete the race. He will line up for the first time since.
He will compete against world record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway, Abderahman Samba of Qatar and his own teammate Jaheel Hyde.
Thompson has promised much all season and after his close silver medal in the men’s 100m at the Olympics, a fast time could be in the making today in the one-off race.
Thompson, who will join Ackeem Blake and Rohan Watson in the race, will also go up against American Christian Coleman, Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, former World Champion Fred Kerley, and Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy.
After making her Diamond League debut on Thursday, Tia Clayton and Natasha Morrison are set to run in the women’s 100m and will go up against Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, who ran a season’s best 10.88 seconds to win on Thursday, Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of the Ivory Coast, Tamari Davis of the USA, who was second in Lausanne, and Gina Mariam Bass-Bittaye of Gambia.
Shanieka Ricketts look to be the class of the women’s triple jump field and will be boosted by her silver-medal performance in Paris as she takes on bronze medallist Jasmine Moore of the US, the Cuban duo of Leyanis Perez-Hernandez and Liadagmis Povea, as well as Jamaica’s Ackelia Smith.
Rajindra Campbell won back-to-back shot put competitions after his surprise bronze at the Olympics and will face a quality field that includes both Americans who finished ahead of him in Paris, Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs, as well as Leonardo Fabbri of Italy, who was fifth in Paris, as well as Jordan Geist and Payton Otterdahl.
Beckford will get his first taste of professional high jumping and is in a field that includes Olympic champion Hamish Kerr of New Zealand, and former Olympic gold medallist Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy.