OLYMPIC GAMES triple jump silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts will be aiming for her third Diamond League victory oqbaf the season when she lines up at today’s sixth leg of the series, the Bislett Games in Oslo.
Ricketts currently leads the women’s triple jump standings with 16 points after securing wins in Doha and, most recently, in Rome. The Jamaican enters the competition as the favourite and will look to extend her lead at the top of the leaderboard.
In Rome, Ricketts won with a first-round effort of 14.64 metres, and she’ll be aiming to surpass that distance as she gears up for the Jamaica National Senior Championships in two weeks.
Cuba’s Leyanis Hernandez Perez, who finished second in Rome with 14.46m despite foul issues, is expected to be her main rival.
Dominica’s Olympic gold medallist Thea Lafond, who has yet to beat Ricketts this season, will be seeking her first win over the Jamaican and to improve her season’s best of 14.45m. Jamaica’s Ackelia Smith, fresh from a runner-up finish at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, will try to better her current season’s best of 13.84m.
Cuban competitor Liadagmis Povea will also be looking to challenge the favourites and cause an upset.
In the men’s triple jump, Jamaica’s Jordan Scott will also compete. He sits second in the Diamond League standings with seven points after finishing runner-up to Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo in Shaoxing, China, with a jump of 17.00m. Pichardo edged him out with a 17.03m performance.
Olympic champion Julien Alfred will open her season in the women’s 100 metres. She is expected to make a strong start, going up against Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (11.16 season’s best) and Daryll Neita (11.20), as well as veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou Smith of Côte d’Ivoire, who also has a season’s best of 11.16.
A thrilling contest is expected in the rarely contested men’s 300m hurdles, featuring the world’s top one-lap hurdlers – the USA’s Rai Benjamin,
Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, and Norway’s Karsten Warholm.
This race will serve as preparation for their rematch in the 400m hurdles this Sunday at the Stockholm Diamond League meet.
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