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The Birmingham Alexander Stadium, on Sunday 24th August, will feature a host of world and Olympic champions going head to head with some of Great Britain’s best in athletics, this at the 12th stop of the prestigious IAAF Diamond League this year.
Jamaica’s charge will be led by 400m hurdles diamond race leader Kaliese Spencer who is looking to extend a seven-strong win streak in her first race since claiming the Commonwealth crown last month. She has an unassailable 18 points lead over her nearest rival but will look to continue in her dominant form of 2014.
Spencer will renew rivalry with hometown girl Eilidh Child Commonwealth runner up and European 2014 Champion. Other athletes hoping to challenge Spencer for the top spot are US athletes Kori Carter and Georganne Moline.
The men’s 200m features two sub-20 seconds men in Jamaica’s Commonwealth games medalist Nickel Ashmeade and Alonso Edward,. Both althletes are gunning for top stop in the diamond trophy race. Ashmeade leads on 10 pionts, one more than Edwards. The field will also feature Commonwealth Games champion, Rasheed Dywer along with bronze medalist Jason Livermore.
The 100m will feature race leader Michael Rodgers, who was left disappointed after being disqualified in Stockholm Diamond league on Thursday. He will once again face up to Jamaicans, Stockholm winner Nesta Carter, and Commonwealth champion Kemar Bailey-Cole. Other key names will be veteran Kim Collins and Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre.
Kerron stewart will seek to continue her winning streak, after topping the field at the recently head Flames Games,. She will lead fellow Jamaican Schillione Calvert into battle in the women’s 100 which features a throng of hometown athletes Ashleigh Nelson ,Jodie Williams, Desiree Henry , Asha Philip. They will be joined by take USA ‘s Allyson Felix, fresh from 200m triumph in Stockholm, Tori Bowie, English Gardner and Carmelita Jeter.
Jamica Triple Jump Queen Kimberly Williams will seek to match jumps with Diamond race leader, Columbia’s Caterina Ibargueni
Other Great Britains stars who will look to put on a good show in front of their home crowd includes, double Olympic champion Mo Farah. Martyn Rooney will run off in the mens 400m.
British long jumper Greg Rutherford is already looking forward to his next challenge. He currently sits a top the world rankings thanks to his leap of 8.51m, which sparked a lot of social media frenzy. The Commonwealth and European gold medalist takes on Diamond Race leader Jeff Henderson and China’s Li Jinzhe, plus 2012 Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor.
Zurich 100m hurdles champion Tiffany Porter who finds herself back in the mix against the world’s best, including Sally Pearson who beat her in Glasgow to take her second Commonwealth title.
The Australian will be keen to make amends after false starting in Stockholm on Thursday night, a rare mistake by the 2012 Olympic champion from which the current Diamond Race leader Queen Harrison benefited.
She beat Pearson’s predecessor as Olympic champion, Dawn Harper-Nelson, and both feature in a heavily loaded line-up here alongside another American, the current world champion, Brianna Rollins.
David Rudisha The 800m world record holder steps into new territory at the Alexander Stadium tomorrow when he races over 600m for the first time in his career.The event is not part of the 800m Diamond Race, of course, which Rudisha leads by a slender two points from Amos with one race to come in Zurich.
Kirani James who dipped under 44 seconds in his last two diamond league outings, is another athlete ready to pick up his Diamond League campaign after bagging another championship gold medal.
The Grenadian returns to the UK just three weeks after adding the Commonwealth Games 400m title to his World and Olympic crowns from 2011 and 2012. He will be pushed by Botswana’s Isaac Makwala, a Diamond League winner in Monaco, and Great Britain’s newly minted European gold and silver medallists Martyn Rooney and Matthew Hudson-Smith, plus two other high quality Caribbean men in Chris Brown of the Bahamas and Luguelin Santos from the Dominican Republic.
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