Photo: Veronica Campbell-Brown and Asafa Powell at thepress conference for the Zurich Diamond League meeting on Thursday (IAAF/Getty Images)
The quest for Diamond League glory is set to continue in Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday August 28, 2014. Several athletes including Jamaica’s own Nickel Ashmeade,will look to secure the diamond trophy and gain an automatic spot at next year’s World Championship in Bejing China.
Jamaican athletes who have already secured diamond trophies for the 2014 are Novlene Williams Mills and Kaliese Spencer.
There is only one meeting left in the seven meet diamond series for all events and it will offer double points to the top three in each diamond race. All diamond race leaders and aspirants must compete in their final race to secure the respective diamond race titles.
In Zurich, Jamaica’s charges will be led by sprinters Veronica Campbell- Brown and Asafa Powell, who race off in the blue ribbon events. Usain Bolt who was scheduled to participate has opted to end his season after his win in Poland and will be absent.
Powell will be joined in the men’s 100 A race by, fellow Jamaicans Kemar Bailey Cole and Diamond race trophy challenger Nesta Carter who currently sits in third place on 8 points. They will match strides with USA’s Tyson Gay, Micheal Rodgers, Richard Thompson, Adam Gemli, Harry AIkines and James Dasolu. The final race for this event will be in Brussels Belgium.
VCB will be joined in women’s equivalent by a top quality field with six sub-eleven sprinters, including the likes of USA’s diamond race leader Torrie Bowie, Allyson Felix, Blessing Okagbare, Dafne Schippers, Murielle Ahoure, Ashleigh Nelson,Myriam Soumare, Kerron Stewart. Bowie leads the event with 12 points with Stewart in second on 7 points.
The men’s 200m will feature Diamond race leader Nickel Ashemeade,who will be seeking to wrap up that title when he goes head to head with rival Alanso Edward of Panama for the second time in less than week.
Ashmeade got the better of Edwards in Birmingham, to be top ranked on 14 points with Edwards on 11 points. The event will feature Common Wealth Champion Rasheed Dwyer ,French man Christophe Lemaiture and USA’s Curtis Mitchell.
Other Jamaicans on show will be Roxroy Cato who will run off with American Micheal Tinsley, Puerto Rican Javier Culson, veteran Sanchez Felix and Fellow Caribbean athlete Jehue Gordon.
Jason Livermore will run off in the men’s 100 B race against USA Ryan Bailey and Netherland’s Churandy Martina.
Other epic clashes to look out for will be in the women’s sprint hurdles, between Harper-Nelson, Harrison and Sally Pearson, BlanKa Vlasic versus Mariya kuchina in the women’s High jump, Sweden’s Abeba Awegarwi, Sofia Hassan and high riding American Jenifer Simpson in the women’s 1500m, and in the women’s 3000m steeplechase event with Ethiopian pair of Sofia Assefa and Hiwot Ayalew matching strides with Tunisan athlete Habiba Ghribi along with fearless American in Emma Courburn.
Jamaica will also have participation in the women’s sprint relay against top rival USA.
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