Ricketts to face stern test in Rome

IT WILL be a busy day for Jamaican athletes on the fifth stop in the Wanda Diamond League in Rome tomorrow where 10 are down to compete.

Leading the way will be Olympic Games women’s triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts, who will contest the event hoping to make it back-to-back Diamond League wins after her success in Rabat. Ricketts is unbeaten this season, including a win over Olympic champion Thea Lafond of Dominica in Qatar. With a legal best of 14.54 metres this season, Ricketts will face her sternest test yet, with the Cuban pair of Leyanis Hernandez Perez (season’s best 14.93) and Liadagmis Povea (14.57), along with Lafond, potentially making it a very interesting affair.

Three Jamaicans will contest the women’s 400-metre hurdles, led by Andrenette Knight, who has a season’s best of 53.90 seconds and was second behind Femke Bol in the last Diamond League meet in Rabat. Shiann Salmon, with a season’s best of 54.62, and Rushell Clayton, with a best of 54.83, are the other Jamaicans in the event.

Following a disappointing showing in his last meet in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where he finished eighth, shot putter Rajindra Campbell will be hoping to return to the good form he showed in Rabat, where he was second with a season’s best of 21.95 metres. He was edged out in Rabat by the United States’ Peyton Otterdahl, who won with 21.97. Both will renew their rivalry here, with another American, Joe Kovacs, who has a season’s best of 21.52, also down to compete.

Raymond Richards, with a season’s best of 2.30 metres, and Romaine Beckford, with a lifetime best of 2.21, will contest the men’s high jump, going up against the likes of Hamish Kerr of New Zealand, Juvaughn Harrison of the United States, and home town favourite Gianmarco Tamberi.

Carey McLeod will be aiming to better his season’s best of 8.33 metres when he contests the men’s long jump. He’ll face stiff competition from Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, Liam Adcock of Australia – who also has a season’s best of 8.33 – and Italy’s rising star Mattia Furlani.

Sprint hurdlers Omar McLeod (season’s best 13.38 seconds) and Orlando Bennett (13.39) will close out the meet for Jamaican athletes in the men’s 110-metre hurdles. They’ll face the United States’ Cordell Tinch, who currently holds the world-leading time of 12.87.

Meanwhile, Olympic 100-metre bronze medallist Fred Kerley of the United States will make his season debut in the men’s 100.