Down for Doha
Ricketts takes hot form into Middle East for Diamond League
Published:Friday | May 28, 2021 | 12:14 AMRaymond Graham/Gleaner Writer
World Athletics Championships triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts will lead four Jamaicans down to compete at the second Wanda Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, today.
The expected women’s 100m clash between double Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and the American world leader Sha’Carri Richardson will not take place as the American, who suffered her first defeat of the season in the Diamond League opener in Gateshead, England, on Sunday to Great Britain’s (GB) Dina Asher-Smith, has pulled out of the meet.
The in-form Ricketts, who earned maximum points by winning in Gateshead, will be hoping to take back-to-back wins but will have stern competition as she faces a star-studded line-up.
A FAVOURITE
Two-time World Champion and world leader Yulimar Rojas, of Venezuela, will start favourite here, fresh off her season’s best 15.43m at a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze meeting in Andújar, Spain, on Saturday. She will be targeting the world record of 15.50m, set by Ukraine’s Inessa Kravets, at the Gothenburg World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, 1995.
Colombia’s Caterine Ibargüen, 35 years old, will also make her season’s debut in the event. United States of America’s (USA) Keturah Orji, with a season’s best of 14.92m, Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova, Ukraine’s Olha Saladukha, and Jamaica’s two-time Commonwealth Games champion Kimberly Williams will also take part.
With the late withdrawal of Richardson, Fraser-Pryce starts as the favourite in the 100m despite finishing behind Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou in cold and wet conditions in Gateshead on Sunday. Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare and the American duo of Kiara Parker and Javianne Oliver could all make this an exciting affair.
After her recent world-leading run of 1:24.00 minutes over 600m at the Boost Boston Games on Sunday, Natoya Goule will contest the women’s 800m where she will take on USA’s Hanna Green, GB’s Keely Hodgkinson, and Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon.
Jamaicans in action
Women’s triple jump – 10:38 a.m.
Shanieka Ricketts, Kimberly Williams
Women’s 800m – 11:14 a.m.
Natoya Goule
Women’s 100m – 12:38 p.m.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
(Schedule in Jamaica time)