World champ Williams faces Diamond League test in China

SUZHOU, China (CMC):

WORLD CHAMPION sprint hurdler Danielle Williams will face newly minted World Indoor champion Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas and another global champion at the World Athletics Diamond League meet on April 27 in China.

Organisers announced yesterday that the three reigning global women’s world champions in the sprint hurdles – all from the Caribbean – Charlton, Williams, and Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico – will go head-to-head at the Yangtze Delta Athletics Diamond Gala.

Charlton is hoping to claim her first Diamond League win this season when she looks to transfer her world-beating indoor form into the outdoor season.

The 28-year-old Bahamian twice broke the world indoor 60 metres hurdles record earlier this year, clocking 7.67 seconds at the Millrose Games in the American city of New York and then 7.65 to take gold at the World Indoor Championships in the Scottish city of Glasgow.

Williams, 31, regained the world title last year in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, eight years after her first global gold in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

In between her two triumphs at the World Championships, she was also crowned a Diamond League champion five years ago.

Camacho-Quinn, 27, is a seasoned Diamond League campaigner, with no fewer than nine victories on the circuit over the past three years.

The Olympic 100 metres hurdles champion and world silver medallist over the distance will be hoping to pick up a first career Diamond League trophy this year.

Along with the season opener in the Chinese city of Xiamen on April 20, the Suzhou-Shanghai meeting will be the second of two events in the country that kick off the Diamond League season.