Werro, Broeders-Bol and Lyles among stars in Ostrava

An 800m clash starring Audrey Werro and Femke Broeders-Bol plus an attack on the world 150m best are among the expected highlights of the Ostrava Golden Spike, this season’s eighth World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, on Tuesday (16).

Switzerland’s Werro ran 1:53.98 in Stockholm last Sunday, beating Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson and moving to third on the world all-time list. Her competition in Ostrava includes another global gold medallist but this time it is two-time world 400m hurdles champion Femke Broeders-Bol, who has switched her focus to the 800m and makes her outdoor debut over the distance at the Golden Spike.

Broeders-Bol ran 1:59.07 for 800m indoors in March and the Dutch athlete holds the world 400m short track record of 49.17. She was third in the 400m in Ostrava last year in 49.98 and went on to retain her world 400m hurdles title in Tokyo.

Before her sensational run in Stockholm, Werro – last year’s overall Diamond League champion – also won the Diamond League meeting in Rabat and she secured world indoor silver behind Hodgkinson in Poland.

Noah Lyles and Gout Gout in the 150m is billed by organisers as another of the headline head-to-heads. 

USA’s Lyles, the Olympic 100m champion and four-time world 200m gold medallist, is targeting the world best of 14.92 set by Kishane Thompson in Miramar in April. Lyles has already run 9.88 for 100m and 19.91 for 200m this year.

Australia’s 18-year-old Gout lines up as the world U20 record-holder thanks to the 19.67 he ran in Sydney in April and he returns to the scene of his previous PB of 20.02 set last year.

Sinesipho Dambile, who finished second in the Diamond League 200m races in Stockholm and Oslo, is also in action.

Manuel among home favourites

Czechia’s Lurdes Gloria Manuel will want to impress in front of home fans in the 400m. The world indoor champion was runner-up in the Diamond League races in Oslo and Rome, the latter in a big PB of 49.77 – her first time under 50 seconds.

She takes on world finalist Roxana Gómez and Ireland’s Sharlene Mawdsley, plus world 400m hurdles bronze medallist Emma Zapletalová who races the flat after three Diamond League hurdles wins in Rabat, Rome and Oslo.

Karolína Maňasová recently broke the long-standing Czech 100m record with 11.01 in St. Pölten and she will look to build on that when she races as part of a field featuring 2024 world indoor 60m silver medallist Ewa Swoboda, 2022 world U20 200m champion Brianna Lyston and Zoe Hobbs, who ran her Oceanian record of 10.94 in Ostrava last year.

Czechia’s Tomáš Staněk forms part of a strong shot put field as he takes on four-time world indoor shot put champion Tom Walsh and two-time world medallist Leonardo Fabbri. Another home favourite, world bronze medallist Jan Štefela, stars in the high jump against world indoor silver medallist Erick Portillo.

World indoor 60m champion Jordan Anthony races his US compatriot Ronnie Baker and Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme in the 100m. Anthony set a PB of 9.91 in Florida and then won the 200m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Tokyo before finishing fourth in the Rome 100m, a race in which Eseme ran a national record of 9.94 for second place. 

USA’s world 400m short track record-holder Khaleb McRae leads the men’s 400m field and faces Lee Eppie, Alexander Doom and Attila Molnár.

Brazil’s Matheus Lima, who ran a PB of 47.37 when finishing second to his compatriot Alison dos Santos in Stockholm, returns to Ostrava to renew his rivalry with USA’s Chris Robinson, who beat him to Golden Spike victory last year.

Cuba’s Kendry Menéndez ran a PB of 13.07 in the 110m hurdles heats during the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Bydgoszcz and then finished a close second in the final. The 20-year-old will fight for top spot again when he goes up against world indoor champion Jakub Szymański and Damian Czykier.

Nadine Visser renews her rivalry with her fellow two-time world indoor 60m hurdles medallist Pia Skrzyszowska in the 100m hurdles, joined by Luca Kozák and Marione Fourie.

The men’s 1000m will see world 1500m champion Isaac Nader take on Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich, Hobbs Kessler, Peter Bol, Samuel Pihlström and Mark English, who won the 800m at the Diamond League in Shanghai.

Karalis back in Ostrava

Emmanouil Karalis returns to Ostrava on the hunt for his first pole vault win at the meeting after finishing second to Mondo Duplantis last year. Since then, Karalis has taken the Greek record to 6.17m and he now sits second on the world all-time list. The meeting record is Duplantis’ 6.13m from last year. Baptiste Thiery, who was third in Stockholm, also competes.

In the women’s pole vault, three-time world champion Katie Moon competes against Tina Šutej and Imogen Ayris, who cleared 4.81m to win at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Turku.

Fresh from his Sri Lankan record of 92.62m in Rome, Rumesh Tharanga heads the javelin line-up. Pathirage’s performance in Rome was a world lead that smashed the meeting record and moved him to eighth on the world all-time list, making him the second-best Asian thrower in history. Two-time world champion Anderson Peters was second that day and they clash again in Ostrava.

The women’s field features two-time world U20 champion Adriana Vilagoš, 2021 Olympic silver medallist Maria Andrejczyk and 2016 Olympic champion Sara Kolak.