Diamond League. The struggle in Rabat with the participation of the White and the Reds in front of us!
Three Polish athletes take part in Sunday’s meeting of the Diamond League in Rabat. Damien Szezicker will run at 110 metres, Anna Kepasinska at 200 metres, Michał Rozemis at 1500 metres, Patricia Wiszkiewicz Zawadzka and Patrick Sieradzki will be “bunnies” in the 800-meter races.
The competition in Rabat will be the second in this year’s Diamond League series. On May 5, the world’s top athletes competed in Doha, Qatar.
In the Moroccan capital, the first starts of the summer season will be scored by Czykier, who trained in the spring at training camps in Italy, South Africa and Spain. The last indoor season was not very successful for Podlasie Białystok. In February, the 30-year-old became the vice-champion of Poland in the 60m hurdles, but at the beginning of March he was eliminated in the qualifiers for the European Championships in Istanbul. Czykier has been the Polish record holder in the 110m hurdles since last year and will want to point to his form from the previous season, where he finished fourth at the World Championships in Eugene.
In Rabat, up to five competitors with a personal record of under 13 seconds will compete in the 110m hurdles: world champions Grant Holloway and Devon Allen of the USA, Rachid Broadbel and Hansel Parchmann of Jamaica and France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde. . The competition will be very strong and even improving the Polish record – 13.25 may not give Czykier a high position. The favorite will be Holloway, who this season had the best result in the world – 13.03, and last year he was close to the world record.
Kiełbasińska, who specializes in the 400 metres, will start this time at twice the distance. SKLA Sopot competitor won two bronze medals at the European Indoor Championships: individual and in the 4x400m relay. In the summer season, the sprinter will want to continue her good streak, and the 200m sprint will return to her roots, as she is a multiple Polish champion at this distance.
Seven competitors will compete in the 200m race in Rabat. Sherique Jackson had the best chance of winning. Jamaica won three medals at the World Championships last year: gold in the 200-meter sprint, silver in the 100-meter sprint and in the 4×100-meter relay. Jackson has shown great versatility and achieved world-class results in all sprint distances. Her best at 200 meters is also impressive – 21.45. US Representatives Kayla White and Tamari Davis can also be dangerous.
Michał Rozmys will face world record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen and his older brother Filip in the 1500 metres. Apart from the Norwegians, Kenyan Abel Kipsang – the African champion at this distance, who, after Ingebrigtsen, has the second best personal average – 3: 29.56.
Sieradzki was already a bunny at Diamond League meets the previous season, and on Sunday he’ll set the pace again at the 800m. Wyciszkiewicz-Zawadzka will make his debut in that role, returning to competition after a nearly two-year break due to injuries to both his Achilles tendons. The AZS Pozna competitor ran 400 meters throughout her career and was for a long time the basis of Poland’s relay team. He has, among other things, the gold medal at the European Championships in Berlin (2018) and the silver medal at the World Championships in Doha (2019). However, the 29-year-old intends to focus on the 800 metres, even though she has never completed a race at that distance. She participated several times in the 600-meter race and achieved the third result in the history of Polish athletics – 1: 26.39.
Up to seven runners who have broken the 10-second barrier in their careers will compete in the 100-meter race. Among them is the Italian representative Marcel Jacobs – Olympic champion from Tokyo, as well as Jamaican Yohan Blake, who has the second best result in history – 9.69. Only world record holder Usain Bolt has been faster than him. The Americans will also take part in the draw: Travon Brumell and Fred Curley – world champions from Eugene.
Three representatives of Ukraine will participate in the high jump competition: Yaroslava Mahucych, Yulia Levchenko and Irina Herashchenko. The first of them, on May 13 in Nairobi, Kenya, scores 2.00 and is the leader of the world lists. The discus throwers will include: Slovenia’s Christian See – current world champion and Lithuanian Andrius Godzius – bronze medalist from Eugene.
The meeting in Rabat will officially start at 6:50 pm and end at 9 pm.
