The Rome crowd awaits a super women’s sprint contest at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, the fourth leg of the IAAF Diamond League on 6th June. The line-up features a world-class sprint race, which includes three-time European champion and British record holder Dina Asher Smith (10.85), 22.18 in the 200m in Stockholm, Jamaican Elaine Thompson, who won the double Olympic sprint title in the 100m and in the 200m in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and clocked the fourth fastest time of 10.70 in the 100m, and Ivory Coast’s Marie Josée Ta Lou, double world 100m and 200m silver medallist in London 2017 and also has a personal best of 10.85. The interest of this sprint grows day after day by reading the record of their head-to-head clashes. Thompson has never been beaten in the 100m by Asher Smith and is leading over Ta Lou, although the Ivorian sprinter won the most recent four head-to-head clashes. The star-studded sprint race also features 4x100 Olympic champion English Gardner (PB 10.74), two NCAA champions Aleia Hobbs (10.85) and Jenna Prandini, a US sprinter of Italian origin (10.92) and 2019 US Indoor champion Shania Collins (10.98). It’s a fabulous line-up of sprinters, who were able to dip under 11 seconds. Thompson has already won in Rome in 10.87 in 2016 and clinched two Diamond Race titles in the 100m in 2016 and 2017. Ta Lou returns to Rome to bid for a repeat of last year’s win in the 200m.
31 May, 2019
