Top Ja stars for tomorrow’s London Diamond League

THE final Wanda Diamond League meet before the Paris Olympics is on in London tomorrow and several Jamaican athletes will be seeking to test their readiness for the Games.

National champions, 400 metres winner Nickisha Pryce and Rushell Clayton, the 400m hurdles champion, will be the top Jamaican athletes at the meet.

Pryce, the national record holder for the 400m, is the second-fastest woman in the one-lap event this year with her 48.89 seconds. She sits behind American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone with 48.75. In London, Pryce will face her sternest test of the season as she goes up against Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland, the third-fastest woman this season with 48.98.

McLauglin-Levrone will not contest the event in Paris, and the winner tomorrow could have a big psychological advantage going into the Olympics. Also in the line-up are Amber Anning of the United States with a best of 49.51 and Liekle Klaver of the Netherlands with 49.64.

Clayton, who is ranked number three in the world in the 400m hurdles with 52.51, will face World champion Femke Bol of the Netherlands. Bol is coming off an excellent run at a World Continental meet in Switzerland on July 14, where she raced to a 50.95 seconds European record to be the second woman, behind McLaughlin-Levrone, to go sub-51 seconds in the event.

Two other Jamaicans, Paris-bound Shiann Salmon with a best of 53.71 and fourth-place finisher at the national championships, Andrenette Knight, with a best of 54.09 are in the field,.

Natoya Goule-Topping will be hoping to improve on her season's best of 1:59.06 in a very competitive 800m field led by world leader Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, who has a best of 1:55.78.

Four Jamaican men, Ackeem Blake and Yohan Blake, Zandrion Barnes and Roshawn Clarke, will be in action at the meet.

Ackeem Blake will be hoping to get below his season's best of 9.92 in the 100m. South Africa's Akani Simbine with 9.94 and Letsile Tebogo of Botswana with 9.99 are also in the line-up.

Clarke will be competing for the first time since the national championships when he was upstaged by Malik James-King in the 400m hurdles. With a season's best 48.04, he will go up against world number two Alison dos Santos of Brazil with a best of 46.54. American CJ Allen with a best of 47.82 and Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Island with 48.05 are also in the event.

Barnes will be hoping to better his season's best of 45.34 in the men's 400m when he faces world number two Christopher Morales-Williams of Canada with a best of 44.02 and world number three, Britain's Matthew Hudson- Smith, with a best of 44.07.

American Gabrielle Thomas, the world leader in the 200m with a season's best 21.78 will headline the women's half-lap event. She will be strongly challenged by Julien Alfred of St Lucia with a best of 22.16 and Great Britain's pair of Dina Asher-Smith (22.18) and Daryll Neita (22.36).

Selected events (Ja time)

8.04 a.m.: Women's 400m hurdles

8.33 a.m.: Women's 400m

9.08 a.m.: Women's 800m

9.32 a.m.: Men's 400m

9.42 a.m.: Women's 200m

9.52 a.m.: Men's 100m