media_artricles :: 2016

Walcott chases Norway gold

T&T's Keshorn Walcott heads back into action tomorrow when he challenges eight worthy opponents in the seventh meeting of the IAAF Diamond League in Oslo, Norway.

On Saturday, Walcott's toss of 83.75 metres won him gold at the Meeting Maia Cidade de Desporto, in Portugal. At that same meet, another local field athlete Shakeil Waithe competed and he impressed taking silver with an effort of 71.48m.

The reigning Olympic men's javelin champion will look to be at his best and try to improve on his previous showing the premier meeting when his attempt of 74.99m at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, USA, placed him seventh, some two weeks ago.

Walcott, of Toco, who set a Caribbean record of 90.16m when winning at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Lausanne last year, will line up against two other global javelin champions in Oslo including Kenya's Julius Yego, 27, and Egypt's Ihab Abdelrahman.

The Kenyan set an African record of 92.72m to win gold at the IAAF World Championships Beijing last year, producing the farthest throw in the world since 2001. Earlier in the year, he set an IAAF Diamond League record of 91.39m when winning in Birmingham.

Abdelrahman took the silver medal in Beijing last year. Yego is the only African man ever to have thrown farther than Abdelrahman.

Germany's Thomas Rohler and Johannes Vetter are still seeking their first major international medals, though 2014 Diamond Race winner Rohler was just 23 centimetres away in Beijing last year. Vetter, who was seventh at last year's World Championships, has the early world lead at 82.96m. The other German in the contest is Andreas Hofmann.

The other competitors are Ryohei Arai of Japan, Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch and Australian Hamish Peacock.

Also on the weekend T&T elite athletes including Richard Thompson, Jehue Gordon and Kyle Greaux. Thompson followed American Justin Gatlin to the line in the "Mano a Mano" challenge at the Quinta da Boavista in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday. Gatlin won the exhibition 100m dash in a time of 10.19 with Thompson taking silver in 10.29.

At the Gala dei Castelli in Bellinzona, Switzerland, Gordon clocked 50.56 to place fourth in the men's 400m hurdles while Greaux ran a personal best of 10.36 to place second in the International le defi Amazoniam in French Guiana.

Top