Tia hunts World Champs wild card berth

TWELVE JAMAICANS, led by sprinter Tia Clayton, will be in action at the two-day Zurich Weltklasse Diamond League finale tomorrow and Thursday – the last chance for athletes to secure wild card entries to next month’s World Championships in Tokyo.

Tia, Jamaica’s hottest female sprinter over 100 metres, heads into the meet full of confidence. She recently clocked a personal best of 10.82 seconds to finish second at the Silesia Diamond League, just behind world leader Melissa Jefferson Wooden of the United States, who ran 10.66. Now, Tia will be hoping to go one step further and book her ticket to Tokyo with a wild card bye.

Winning in Zurich may be her only hope of making the national team. At the Jamaica National Senior Championships, she was in top form but a hamstring injury in the final forced her to stop, halting preparations and sidelining her for seven weeks. However, her blistering personal best in Poland proved that the break did not set her back.

With world leader Jefferson Wooden not competing in Zurich, Tia’s chances of victory improve. Still, she must contend with Olympic champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia, the second-fastest woman in the world this season at 10.75. Alfred is returning after a short layoff, following her only loss of the season to Jefferson Wooden at the Prefontaine Classic, and will be determined to rebound.

Also in the line-up are veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou Smith of Côte d’Ivoire, who clocked a season’s best 10.87 for third in Silesia, and Jacious Sears of the United States with 10.85.

Field events

Action begins tomorrow with five field events: men’s shot put, men’s long jump, men’s pole vault, women’s shot put, and men’s pole vault.

Three Jamaicans will feature on day one. Rajindra Campbell, with a best of 22.04 metres in the shot put, faces Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri (22.82), American Joe Kovacs (22.48), and his countryman Payton Otterdahl (22.35). Carey McLeod (8.33 metres) and Wayne Pinnock (8.20 metres) will contest the men’s long jump, going up against Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece (8.46), Australia’s Liam Adcock (8.34), and Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer (8.34).

On Thursday, sprint hurdlers Ackera Nugent, Danielle Williams, and Orlando Bennett join intermediate hurdler Andrenette Knight and sprinter Ackeem Blake on the track.

In the women’s 100m hurdles, Nugent (12.30) and Williams (12.43) will face a strong field. World leader Masai Russell of the USA is absent, but Grace Stark (12.21) and Tonea Marshall (12.24), Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan (12.24), and the in-form Nadine Visser of the Netherlands (12.28) should make this another thriller.

Knight, with a season’s best of 53.67, lines up in the women’s 400m hurdles. She will face unbeaten world leader Femke Bol of the Netherlands (51.91), Panama’s Gianna Woodruff (53.69), and Slovakia’s Emma Zapletakova (53.58).

Bennett, who has a season best of 13.10, will look to sharpen his form ahead of Tokyo. The field is led by American Cordell Tinch, the only sub-13-second man this season (12.87).

Blake, last year’s winner, returns in the men’s 100m. With a season’s best of 10.88, he faces USA’s Trayvon Bromell (9.84), Christian Coleman (9.86), and South Africa’s Akani Simbine (9.90).

Shanieka Ricketts, Jordan Scott, and Romaine Beckford will be the Jamaicans in the field.

Ricketts, the Olympic silver medallist, will be looking to bounce back from her modest 14.29m fourth-place finish in Brussels. She faces a stacked field led by Cuba’s Leyanis Pérez Hernández (14.92), Liadagmis Povea (14.84), Davisleydi Velazco (14.72), USA’s Jasmine Moore (14.68), and Olympic champion Thea LaFond of Dominica (14.45).

Scott, dominant throughout the season with three Diamond League wins, aims to capture his first Diamond League Trophy in the men’s triple jump. With a personal and season’s best of 17.52m, he has every chance of doing so.

Beckford, with a season’s best of 2.26 metres, will be the last Jamaican challenging for a Diamond League place.