Ethiopian steeplechaser Hiwot Ayalew (© Getty Images)
World leader Hiwot Ayalew is narrowly tipped to win maximum points for Africa, but the Ethiopian will be pressed hard by USA’s Emma Coburn, who smashed the North American record tailing Ayalew home in July’s Glasgow IAAF Diamond League, and by Salima Alami who broke the Moroccan record in Paris in early July.
Alami will doubtless enjoy huge home crowd support, but the presence of world junior champion Ruth Jebet, who lowered the Asian record in Zurich recently, and Swedish record-holder Charlotta Fougberg, ensures this could be a genuinely cross-continental contest.
Jessica Furlan has also been breaking national records this year and the Canadian will be an able Americas team-mate to Coburn while Sviatlana Kudzelich will be hoping for another personal best to end the season after running eight so far in 2014.
All in all it should be a baptism of fire at senior level for 19-year-old Australian Stella Radford.
Matt Brown for the IAAF
