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Fresh from representing the United States in the mixed bobsled at the Sochi Olympics, Lolo Jones is making a welcome return to the track and will race a top field at the Paris Diamond League meet today. |
The former double world indoor champion over 60m hurdles was part of the US team that bagged a world bobsled gold in 2013 but could only finish 11th in Sochi.
Now she has her mind turned fully on the track, with an outing over the 100m hurdles set for the Stade de France.
“If I get one more race where it’s cold and rainy I’m just gonna run in my bobsled uniform,” Jones tweeted as she eased back into business earlier this month at a meet in central Poland.
The 31-year-old is up against a stellar field that includes Australian Olympic champion Sally Pearson, and a powerful US quartet of world champion Brianna Rollins, newly-crowned US champion Dawn Harper-Nelson, London Games bronze medallist Kellie Wells and Queen Harrison, winner of the New York Diamond League.
Pearson, world champion in 2011, could only manage silver last year in Moscow behind Rollins, but the Paris meet is perfect timing for the Australian, with the Commonwealth Games to be staged later this month and her goal for the season.
But she had a slight hiccup last weekend at a minor meet in Nivelles, Belgium, when she lost to local hope Anne Zagre.
“Losing happens and Anne Zagre ran very well,” said Pearson. “The meeting remains a great event and I was hoping to do better.
“I was still feeling some pain in my thigh and so I had to pay a bit more attention to that.
“At the start, I said to myself that I had to give everything while still listening to my body.”
The men’s 100m has been hit by two major withdrawals, firstly of world and Olympic champion Usain Bolt and then by Jamaican teammate Asafa Powell.
While Bolt’s absence had long been anticipated, Powell’s pullout due to injury came only on Thursday.
The former 100 world record holder complained of feeling a slight pain in his hamstring and elected not to race as a precaution, organisers said.
Powell, 31, was expected to make his competitive return in the French capital after receiving a temporary reprieve following an 18-month doping ban he was issued in April.
He and training partner Sherone Simpson, who was also suspended for testing positive for the banned stimulant Oxilofrine at last year’s Jamaican Athletics Championship, have appealed their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). A hearing is set for July 7-8.
Powell was also a late withdrawal from last week’s Jamaican Athletics Championship after coming down with stomach flu.
In the duo’s absence, Jamaican hopes remain with Nesta Carter and Nickel Ashmeade, recent winner of the 100m at the national championships in 10.06sec.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Richard Thompson, a 2008 Olympic silver medallist with a season’s best of 9.82sec, will be in the running, along with French hope Christophe Lemaitre.
Lemaitre finished third in the 200m in the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday in 20.11sec. The winner of the 100m there, Justin Gatlin, and second-placed Tyson Gay will not, however, compete in the French capital.
Elsewhere Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop goes head-to-head with Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki, Botswana’s Nijel Amos and improving Cuban Yeimar Lopez in the 800m.
And Jamaica’s two-time 100m Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will be up against three-time world champion Allyson Felix of the United States in what promises to be a hotly contested women’s 200m.
