News17 May 2018


Coleman to headline Eugene 100m field - IAAF Diamond League

FacebookTwitterEmail

US sprinter Christian Coleman (© Getty Images)

Christian Coleman, the 2017 world 100m silver medallist, will take on world champion Justin Gatlin in the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic, the third leg of the IAAF Diamond League, on 26 May in Eugene.

Coleman, the 2017 world leader at 9.82, broke the world indoor 60m record with a 6.34 run in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 18 February, and two weeks later took the world indoor title with 6.37. After a minor injury kept the 22-year-old from racing in Shanghai, Eugene will mark his 2018 outdoor debut.

Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic and 2005 world champion, has collected five victories in Eugene and three Diamond League Trophies. The 36-year-old has competed twice this season, clocking 10.05 to win in St. Georges on 21 April but more recently finished a distant seventh in Shanghai in 10.20.

The field also includes Ronnie Baker of the US, the winner in Eugene last year with a wind-aided 9.86 and currently the world leader at 9.97. He was third in the 60m at the World Indoor Championships in March.

Great Britain will come with a strong 1-2 punch, courtesy of Chijindu Ujah and Reece Prescod. Ujah won the 2017 IAAF Diamond League Trophy in the event while Prescod, a 100m finalist at last year's World Championships, won the first Diamond League showdown in the event, clocking 10.04 in wet conditions in Shanghai last weekend.

China’s Bingtian Su also returns to action. The 27-year-old, who took world indoor 60m silver, finished second in Shanghai.

Rounding out the field are Isiah Young, another US sprinter, and Ivory Coast's 2016 Olympic finalist Ben Youssef Meité. The 28-year-old Young clocked a windy-aided 9.92 to win last month's Drake Relays and has a lifetime best of 9.97 set last year while Meité was runner-up behind Ujah in the Diamond League final last year as both ran 9.97.

Organisers for the IAAF

2018 IAAF Diamond League calendar:
4 May – Doha, QAT
12 May – Shanghai, CHN
26 May – Eugene, USA
31 May – Rome, ITA
7 Jun – Oslo, NOR
10 Jun – Stockholm, SWE
30 Jun – Paris, FRA
5 Jul – Lausanne, SUI
13 Jul – Rabat, MAR
20 Jul – Monaco, MON
21-22 Jul – London, GBR
18 Aug – Birmingham, GBR
30 Aug – Zurich, SUI
31 Aug – Brussels, BEL