OSLO, Norway, CMC—Women’s world 200 meters champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica will lead the English-speaking Caribbean talent on show during the Bislett Games, the sixth leg of the World Athletics Diamond League series, on Thursday in Norway.
The 29-year-old sprint queen will be making her second Diamond League appearance at the Bislett Stadion in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, where organizers have assembled a host of global champions and world record-holders.
Jackson got her season off to a winning start with a 200m victory at the Diamond League meet in Rabat-Marrakech in Morocco, when she clocked 22.82 seconds to maintain an unbeaten streak of 16 finals dating back to June 2022.
Her main rivals in the race will be the American trio of Jenna Prandini, Anavia Battle, and Brittany Brown, plus Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of the Ivory Coast and British sprinter Daryll Neita, who won the 200 in the second Diamond League meet of the season in Shanghai-Suzhou, China, and 100 in the third leg in Doha, Qatar.
Former world champion Yohan Blake of Jamaica will compete in the men’s 100 meters and look to improve on his season’s best time.
Blake ran 10.16 last week at Austria’s World Athletics Continental Tour bronze meet. He will try to do much better when compatriot Rohan Watson accompanies him in a race featuring reigning Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy.
Shanghai-Suzhou winner Akani Simbine of South Africa and Marrakech-Rabat winner Emmanuel Eseme will also face the starter, as well as American Brandon Hicklin and Briton Jeremiah Azu, who have both run personal bests below 10 seconds this season.
World bronze medallist Sada Williams of Barbados will try again to topple world champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic when they line up for the women’s 400, which also features world indoor silver medallist Lieke Klaver of Great Britain.
Williams’s season’s best time was 51.48 two weeks ago in the United States, but Paulino is the class of the field, and the Barbadian will be able to judge her progress over the distance when she faces the world champion.
The men’s 400 features the 2011 world and 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada, world indoor bronze medallist Rusheen McDonald of Jamaica, world silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain, and home favorite Håvard Bentdal Ingvaldsen.
World bronze medallist, Russell Clayton of Jamaica, leads the entries for the women’s 400 hurdles, which has also attracted her compatriots Andrenette Knight and Janieve Russell. Fellow Jamaican Natoya Goule-Toppin will face the starter for the women’s 800.
Fedrick Dacres of Jamaica will face a stacked field in the men’s discus, including world record-holder Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania, Olympic and world champion Daniel Stahl of Sweden, and 2022 world champion Kristjan Ceh of Slovakia.
Alekna won the discus clash in the Moroccan leg of the Diamond League series after setting the world record of 74.35 meters at a meet in April in the American town of Ramona in Oklahoma.
He surpassed 70m again with a toss of 70.70 to beat Australian record-holder Matthew Denny and Stahl in Rabat-Marrakech – and the trio will clash again in this meet.
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