World champions Dafne Schippers and Mutaz Essa Barshim will be making their debut appearances at the 57th Ostrava Golden Spike, an IAAF World Challenge meeting, on 13 June, organisers have announced.
A strong men’s high jump clash has also been announced with Barshim, the 2017 world champion and World Athlete of the Year, taking on neutral athlete Danil Lysenko, who upset the Qatari in Birmingham last month to capture the world indoor crown.
“I am very much looking forward to my first visit in Ostrava,” Barshim said. “It will be one of my few competitions outside of the Diamond League. Of course I will be going for the meet record of 2.33m and some more!”
Schippers also is heading there for the first time.
“It’s great to be in Ostrava this year,” said Schippers, who successfully defended her world 200m title in London last year. “It is my first time and I always hear such positive stories about this amazing meet. I want to experience this myself now and perform very well there!”
Schippers will compete in her specialty in the Czech city, which later in the summer will host the IAAF Continental Cup.
Last year the meeting featured a Czech Republic vs Germany match in the men’s javelin throw. The
follow-up this year pits a Czech squad against a World select team. The Czech quartet is already set with 2017 world silver and bronze medallists Jakub Vadlejch and Petr Frydrych teaming with 2013 world champion Vitezslav Vesely and European finalist Jaroslav Jilek.
Meanwhile, the first two confirmations on the World select squad are the two top German throwers, world champion Johannes Vetter and Olympic champion Thomas Rohler.
“I gladly will return to Ostrava,” said Vetter, who has already thrown beyond 90 metres twice in 2018. “I’m looking forward to meeting our Czech rivals, we are one big family. The 94.64m meet record by meeting director Jan Zelezny is a top result and tough to achieve, but always one good throw could happen.”
Tom Walsh, the world champion in the shot put, and Luvo Manyonga, the world champion in the long jump, had previously been announced.