Ricketts takes aim at third Diamond League win

OLYMPIC GAMES triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts will be hunting for her third Diamond League win in the event this season when she competes at today’s sixth leg of the series, the Bislett Games in Oslo.

The leader in the women’s event with 16 points, following wins in Doha and most recently in Rome, the Jamaican will start as favourite and stretch her lead at the top of the Diamond League standings.

Ricketts, who won the event in Rome on her opening attempt with 14.64 metres, will be hoping to improve on that mark as she prepares for the Jamaica National Senior Championships in two weeks’ time.

Her biggest challenge should come from Cuba’s Leyanis Hernandez Perez, who was second in Rome with 14.46m, where she was plagued with foul problems.

Olympic gold medallist Thea Lafond of Dominica, who has been beaten by Ricketts in all their meetings so far this season, will be hoping to get the better of her Jamaican opponent this time.

She will also be looking to improve on her season’s best of 14.45. Jamaica’s Ackelia Smith, following her second-place finish at the recent Racers Grand Prix meet in Kingston, will aim to better her season’s best of 13.84.

Another Cuban athlete, Liadagmis Povea, will be hoping to upset the apple cart here.

Jordan Scott will be another Jamaican competing at the meet today, as he takes part in the men’s triple jump. Second in the Diamond League standings with seven points following his second-place finish behind Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo in Shaoxing, China, the Jamaican will be hoping to improve on his 17.00m effort. He narrowly lost out to Pichardo, who won with 17.03.

Olympic champion Julien Alfred will make her season debut in the women’s 100 metres. She is expected to get off to a winning start, facing the Great Britain duo of Dina Asher-Smith, who has a season’s best of 11.16 seconds, and Daryll Neita, whose best so far is 11.20. Veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou Smith of Côte d’Ivoire, with a season’s best of 11.16, will also contest the event.

It will be a mouth-watering clash in the rarely run men’s 300m hurdles, as the three fastest one-lap hurdlers – the United States’ Rai Benjamin, Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, and home favourite Karsten Warholm – will battle it out.

This will serve as a warm-up for the trio, who will once again square off this Sunday in the 400-metre hurdles at the Stockholm Diamond League.