(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
Doha: Star high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim, the 2017 World Athlete of the Year, will be under the spotlight when the 28-year-old Qatari makes his first IAAF Diamond League appearance in 13 months tomorrow in London.
Barshim will join compatriot Abderrahman Samba and 19 reigning world champions as the British capital welcomes some of the top athletes in the world at the Muller Anniversary Games which begin today at the London Stadium.
The reigning world champion and the two-time Olympic medallist, Barshim, who was sidelined due to an injury which he suffered during an attempt on a would-be world record of 2.46m in Szekesfehervar last year, resumed training in April before making a roaring return to action, leaping to 2.27m to win at Sopot Grand Prix Athletics in Sopot, Poland, in June.
In London, he will be up against current world leader Ilya Ivanyuk who topped 2.33m in Szekesfehervar, Hungary nine days ago. Syria's Majd Eddin Ghazal, who took bronze at the IAAF World Championships London 2017, where Barshim won the gold, is also on the slate.
Meanwhile, the men's 400m will see a wide open contest. One-lap hurdles speciallist Abderrahman Samba will be contesting the flat after his runner-up finish in that Monaco race.
Jonathan Jones of Barbados will line up with hopes for a bit of redemption after last Friday's fiasco during which he ran the entire lap after not hearing the recall gun that sounded an apparent false start.
In the women's 400m, Salwa Eid Naser will start as favourite to capture her eighth 400m victory of the season, and 12th straight over the distance.
Thirteen days ago, the 21-year-old scorched to a 49.17 win in Lausanne, the second fastest of her career. But she was chased to the line there by Aminatou Seyni, the 22-year-old from Niger who clipped more than a second from her lifetime best in that race, finishing just 0.02 behind the Bahraini. She'll be looking to better time her finish on Saturday. Jamaica's Olympic bronze medallist Shericka Jackson, who clocked a 49.78 lifetime best in Kingston a month ago, is also in the line-up.
The men's 100m will round out the first day's action on the Diamond League programme. The favourites include African champion Akani Simbine, Olympic 100m bronze medallist Andre De Grasse and Great Britain's Zharnel Hughes, the European champion. British fans will also be delighted to see sprinter James Ellington return to the track two and a half years after surviving a serious motorcycle accident.
World leader Elaine Thompson (22.00) is the class of the field in the women's 200m while Karsten Warholm returns to action in the 400m hurdles for the first time since his European record run of 47.33 in Oslo in June. Another world champion, Omar McLeod heads the field in the 110m hurdles, taking on Briton Andy Pozzi and Asian champion Xie Wenjun of China.
MENAFN1907201900630000ID1098779099
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.