Bogdan Bondarenko at the 2015 Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Kawasaki (© Getty Images)
The eighth edition of the Meeting International Mohammed VI in Rabat, Morocco’s top annual athletics event and an IAAF World Challenge meeting, will have Bogdan Bondarenko, Allyson Felix and Kirani James among its stars on 14 June, organisers announced on Tuesday (19).
Bondarenko will face Russia’s Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov while James has Domincan Republic’s Luguelin Santos and Saudi Arabia’s Youssef Al-Masrahi among his rivals.
Felix has confirmed her presence but she has yet to decide whether she will contest the 100m or 400m.
The men’s hammer is part of IAAF Hammer Throw Challenge will have the top two in the world in recent years, Hungary’s current Olympic and European champion Krisztian Pars and Poland’s reigning world champion Pawel Fajdek, duel for supremacy once again.
Kenyan runners will be out in force in the longer distances, including Silas Kiplagat and Jairus Birech, the fastest men in the world in the 1500m and 3000m steeplechase in 2014. Both men will compete in their specialist events in Rabat.
Compatriots Vivian Cheruiyot, Sally Kipyego and Janet Kisa are the main names in the women’s 3000m.
France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and South Africa’s Godfrey Khotso Mokoena look to be the favourites in the 110m hurdles and long jump.
African javelin throwers, Egypt’s Ihab Abdelrahman and Kenya’s Julius Yego, will be part of what should be an entertaining competition that also includes Russia’s world bronze medallist Dmitri Tarabin and Czech Republic’s Petr Frydrych.
Ukraine’s In-form Anna Mishchenko and Greece’s Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou lead the list of names for the women’s 1500m and pole vault respectively.
Poland's Adam Kszczot will contest the 800m, which should be an exciting battle with Kenyan opponents Ferguson Rotich and Timothy Kitum ; while the women’s race over two laps of the track features Russia’s Olympic bronze medallist Yekaterina Poistogova against Belarus's European champion Maryna Arzamasova.
Phil Minshull and organisers for the IAAF
