News15 Jun 2016


Aman, Rojas and Beitia the latest stars announced for Madrid

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Ruth Beitia at the 2016 IAAF Diamond League meeting in Oslo (© Mark Shearman)

Former 800m world champion Mohamed Aman, IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 triple jump gold medallist Yulimar Rojas and local high jump heroine Ruth Beitia are among the latest names announced for the Meeting de Madrid 2016 on Thursday 23 June, organisers of the IAAF World Challenge meeting in the Spanish capital announced on Wednesday (15).

Aman will face the already-announced 2015 world championships bronze medallist Amel Tuka, from Bosnia, over two laps of the track as well as Burundi’s Antoine Gakeme, the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 silver medallist.

In addition, in what could be one of the highlights of the meeting, a plethora of top Spaniards will also be in the field: Spanish record holder Kevin Lopez, Daniel Andujar, Antonio Reina, David Palacio, Alejandro Estevez, Luis Alberto Marco and Alvaro de Arriba.

The women’s 800m sees Cuba’s 2014 world junior championships silver medallist Sahily Diago head a field that also includes New Zealand’s Angie Petty and Ireland’s Rose-Anne Galligan.

Rojas’ last two outings, at the IAAF Diamond League meetings in Rabat and Rome have been huge disappointments after her impressive start to her outdoor season in Doha, but she will have a great opportunity to get back to winning ways in Madrid as Centro Deportivo Municipal Moratalaz stadium in Madrid’s eastern suburbs is barely 50 kilometres from her training base in Guadalajara.

Among Rojas’ opponents will be Brazil’s Keila Costa, the Portuguese pair of Patricia Mamoma and Susana Costa, and Spain’s former world junior champion Ana Peleteiro.

Two-time European champion Beitia, a familiar face at the Madrid meeting which celebrates its 34th edition this year and a winner at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Oslo last Thursday, will be up against Italy’s former world youth and junior champion Alessia Trost and Ukraine’s Oksana Okuneva.

Caymen Islands’ Kemar Hyman and Antigua’s Daniel Bailey, both of whom have career bests under 10 seconds, head the men’s 100m while a good quality men’s discus field sees Spanish record holder Mario Pestano, up against fellow Spaniards Lois Mikel Martínez and two-time Olympic finalist Frank Casanas.

Phil Minshull and organisers for the IAAF

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