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Social media ablaze with prospects of 100m World Champion Kerley and Olympic 100m champion Jacobs going head-to-head.
World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series will go to southern Africa for the first time with Botswana's Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone penciled for Saturday, April 29. This will be swiftly followed by the 2023 Wanda Diamond League kick off next week Friday in Doha on May 5.
The world’s leading track and field athletes will turn their attention to the circuit as they ramp up preparations for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary scheduled for August 19 to 27.
Two-time world and Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon had announced earlier that she will be kickstarting her season at the Diamond League Meeting in Doha, Qatar.
Other Kenyans who have confirmed participation include the 2019 world 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot and the junior world cross-country champion Ishmael Kipkurui and they will be competing over the star-studded 3000m field.
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16:35 - 25.04.2023
ATHLETICS Kenya's Jarinter Mawia to face fellow greats at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix
The continental event is scheduled for Saturday, April 29.
The duo will be up against world indoor record-holder Lamecha Girma and Olympic steeplechase champion Soufiane El Bakkali.
The meeting will also bring together Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and two-time world champion Anderson Peters in the men’s javelin.
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.
World 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had been set to open her season in Gaborone but had to cancel her participation and she now plans to open at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi on 13 May.
Meanwhile, social media has been ablaze in recent weeks due to world 100m champion Fred Kerley and Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs 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.
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07:13 - 16.02.2023
ATHLETICS Omanyala beats Olympic champion Jacobs to set new 60m African record
Ferdinand Omanyala has only lost one of his four races in his indoor meetings. He now jets back into the country to kick-off his outdoor season.
Kerley has already announced he will run his first 100m of the outdoor season in Yokohama, at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix on May 21, while Jacobs has yet to reveal his competition schedule.
Wanda Diamond League calendar
5 May – Doha (QAT)
28 May – Rabat (MAR)
2 Jun – Florence (ITA)
9 Jun – Paris (FRA)
15 Jun – Oslo (NOR)
30 Jun – Lausanne (SUI)
2 Jul – Stockholm (SWE)
16 Jul – Silesia (POL)
21 Jul – Monaco (MON)
23 Jul – London (GBR)
31 Aug – Zurich (SUI)
2 Sep – Shenzhen (CHN)
8 Sep – Brussels (BEL)
16-17 Sep – Eugene (USA)
World Athletics Continental Tour Gold calendar
23 Feb – Melbourne (AUS)
29 Apr – Gaborone (BOT)
13 May – Nairobi (KEN)
21 May – Yokohama (JPN)
21 May – Devonshire (BER)
27 May – Los Angeles (USA)
4 Jun – Hengelo (NED)
6 Jun – Bydgoszcz (POL)
13 Jun – Turku (FIN)
24 Jun – New York (USA)
27 Jun – Ostrava (CZE)
18 Jul – Szekesfehervar (HUN)
10 Sep – Zagreb (CRO)
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