News26 May 2016


Schippers to face Thompson and Bowie over 200m in Eugene – IAAF Diamond League

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Tori Bowie wins the 200m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene (© Kirby Lee)

The Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers will head an outstanding 200m field, the distance at which she won the world title last summer, at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene on Saturday (28).

This year, the Dutch sprint star has already run a world-leading 200 time of 22.02, her second-fastest ever, and also clocked a near-best 10.83 in the 100m, the latter at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha earlier this month.

Among her rivals at the famed Prefontaine Classic will be Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, 23, who was just a step behind Schippers in the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 200m and earned the silver medal in 21.66.

Last year at the Pre Classic, Thompson was second 100 in the 10.84 and this year she already the fastest 100m any conditions with a wind-aided 10.71. Eugene will be her 2016 debut in the 200m.

The field is augmented by the pre3sence of Tori Bowie, 25, who has the early 100m world-lead with 10.80, when just beating Schippers in Doha. 

Bowie is so far undefeated outdoors in all distances this year, her only 200m race in early April was timed at 22.26.  She shocked the world with a world-leading 22.18 to win the 2014 Pre Classic 200m out of lane one in the meeting’s fastest time since 1999. 

Jenna Prandini, 23, will return to Hayward Field for the first time since winning last year’s US title in a personal best of 22.20.  She will be welcomed to the track that was her home while winning three individual American collegiate titles in the long jump and 100m while at the University of Oregon.

USA’s Candyce McGrone, 27, nearly joined the sub-22 club with her 22.01 at last summer’s world championships, when finishing fourth in her first major international final. 

Also in the field is teenage prodigy Kaylin Whitney, who won the world junior 200m title in 2014 on the same track.

She lowered her 200m best to 22.47 at the 2015 US championships, just 0.03 from making the Beijing-bound but went on to win the Pan American Games gold medal in Toronto last summer.

US sprinters Kimberlyn Duncan and Joanna Atkins complete the classy line-up.

Organisers for the IAAF

2016 IAAF Diamond League calendar
6 May – Doha, QAT
14 May – Shanghai, CHN
22 May – Rabat, MAR
28 May – Eugene, USA
2 Jun – Rome, ITA
5 Jun – Birmingham, GBR
9 Jun – Oslo, NOR
16 Jun – Stockholm, SWE
15 Jul – Monaco, MON
22-23 Jul – London, GBR
25 Aug – Lausanne, SUI
27 Aug – Paris, FRA
1 Sep – Zurich, SUI
9 Sep – Brussels, BEL

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