Tue | Nov 5, 2024

Stona set to compete in Rome Diamond League

Published:Tuesday | August 20, 2024 | 12:10 AM
Roje Stona after his record-breaking winning throw of 70.00 metres in the discus at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Gladstone Taylor
Roje Stona after his record-breaking winning throw of 70.00 metres in the discus at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games discus gold medallist, Jamaica’s Roje Stona, is among nine Olympic champions down to compete at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea Diamond League meet in Rome on August 30.

Stona will renew his rivalry with world record-holder Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania and Matthew Denny of Australia and Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh, who holds the Rome meeting record of 70.72m set in 2022.

Also down for the Rome meet is 100 metres silver medallist Kishane Thompson. Another Jamaican medallist in Paris, shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell, will face gold medallist and world record-holder Ryan Crouser of the United States.

100m clash

Letsile Tebogo who won the 200 metres in Paris will race the 100m in Rome after making history for Botswana while American Quincy Hall is back in 400m action after his one-lap triumph at the Olympics.

Thompson is one of several elite sprinters in the 100m. The field also includes Fred Kerley of the United States, the bronze medallist in Paris.

World leader Thompson, with his 9.77 seconds from the national championships in June, lost by just five-thousandths of a second to USA’s Noah Lyles, after both clocked 9.79 in Paris. Also in the star-studded lineup are Italy’s Marcell Jacobs, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion, who finished fifth in Paris, and Tebogo who was sixth. Other top sprinters down for the event are USA’s Christian Coleman, Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown, Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake, and Italy’s rising star Chituru Ali.

For Kerley, the Golden Gala holds special significance, having won the 100m title in Rome in 2022 and Florence in 2023. Meanwhile, Jacobs returns to the Stadio Olimpico less than three months after capturing gold at the European Championships in 10.02.

Pole vault gold medallist Nina Kennedy of Australia and long jump winner Tara Davis-Woodhall of the United States will also be in action and they will be joined by Hamish Kerr (high jump), Masai Russell (100m hurdles), and Winfred Yavi (3000m steeplechase).