Thompson Herah, Forte in final DL showdown

Olympic sprint double champion Elaine Thompson Herah and Julian Forte will be the two Jamaicans in action in the Wanda Diamond League in Doha, Qatar, today.

Thompson Herah, who will line up in the women’s 100m at 11:56 a.m., will be hoping to end her season on a high as she aims to better her world-leading time of 10.85 seconds done a week ago in Rome. Once again, she will go head to head with Marie-Josée Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast, who finished third in Rome in a season’s best 11.14s. The United States’ Aleia Hobbs, who finished runner-up in Rome with a season’s best 11.12s, will also line up at the start, as will The Bahamas’ Anthonique Strachan, who trains in Jamaica. She will be hoping to improve on her season’s best of 11.42s.

Thompson Herah said during the press conference yesterday that she is grateful to be competing overseas despite the pandemic.

GRATEFUL

“I was very grateful for Rome, where I did a world best of 10.85s despite not getting high-quality competition in Jamaica, where I did 10.88s,” she said. “I was a bit surprised with my world lead in Rome, and I definitely want to end on a high in Doha to put myself in good stead for 2021.”

After a sixth-place finish in the men’s 100m in Rome, Forte will be hoping for a better result in the men’s 200m, which will start at 10:33 a.m.

With a season’s best of 20.71s, done in a headwind of -2.9m per seconds at the Velocity Fest Meet at the Ashenheim Stadium in St Andrew in July, Forte will be hoping to upstage France’s Christophe Lemaitre, who has a season’s best of 20.65s, and Qatar’s Abdelaziz Mohamed, whose season’s best is 20.66s.

The meet, the third and final of the season, takes place at the Doha Sports Club, where 27 Olympic and World champions will be in action.