• Social media has been ablaze in recent weeks thanks to world 100m champion Fred Kerley and Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs with the two sprint stars talking up their chances in a head-to-head.
• Sha’Carri Richardson, who sped to a wind-assisted 10.57 clocking over 100m earlier this month, will test her speed over 200m in Gaborone.
Image: /FILE
The World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series goes to southern Africa for the first time this weekend, with the Botswana Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone (29 April), to be swiftly followed by the 2023 Wanda Diamond League kick off next week in Doha (5 May), as the international calendar moves into top gear.
The Continental Tour Gold meeting in Melbourne back in February was a teaser of what to expect in the rest of the series, while the traditional early season competitions in the US have whetted the appetite for the next few months.
Now the world’s leading track and field athletes will turn their attention to the premier one-day meeting circuits as they ramp up their preparations for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23.
Social media has been ablaze in recent weeks thanks to world 100m champion Fred Kerley and Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs with the two sprint stars talking up their chances in a head-to-head.
Whether that clash will happen before Budapest is yet to be confirmed, but it’s highly likely the two global sprint champions will each appear several times on the Diamond League and Continental Tour circuits in the coming months.
Kerley has announced he will run his first 100m of the outdoor season in Yokohama, at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix on 21 May, while Jacobs has yet to reveal his competition schedule.
There will be many other head-to-head clashes as the season unfolds.
The Diamond League meeting in Doha will bring together Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and two-time world champion Anderson Peters in the men’s javelin, while the men’s 3000m boasts a star-studded field that includes world indoor record-holder Lamecha Girma and Olympic steeplechase champion Soufiane El Bakkali.
World and Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon will also open her season in the Qatari capital.
Before then, the focus in Gaborone will likely centre around the sprints as Botswana’s rising sprint star Letsile Tebogo takes on Olympic champion Andre De Grasse over 200m. The men’s 100m, meanwhile, features world silver medallist Marvin Bracy and African record-holder Ferdinand Omanyala.
Sha’Carri Richardson, who sped to a wind-assisted 10.57 clocking over 100m earlier this month, will test her speed over 200m in Gaborone.
Her Jamaican rivals are in varying form; double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah has clocked 23.23 for 200m so far this year, while world 200m champion Shericka Jackson ran a world-leading 10.82 for 100m in Kingston.
World 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had been set to open her season in Gaborone but had to cancel her participation due to a family emergency. She now plans to open at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi on 13 May.
The signs are already good for a bumper outdoor season on the way, with many big names showing impressive early season form.