Hassan, Stefanidi and Barshim to feature in Florence meet
25 May 2021 - 17:48
The Peninsula
Doha: The men s high jump and women s pole vault promise some enthralling clashes in Florence, as the likes of Mutaz Essa Barshim, Gianmarco Tamberi, Katerina Stefanidi and Anzhelika Sidorova star at the third Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season.
Eyeing a fifth successive Diamond League title in 2021, Greek pole vault star Katerina Stefanidi will have her work cut out at the third Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season in Florence, as she faces up against world champion Anzhelika Sidorova.
Four-time Diamond Trophy winner Stefanidi has been imperious on the Diamond League circuit since 2016, but won bronze behind Sidorova at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019. Their head-to-head in Florence on June 10 will be the second time they clash in the space of just two weeks, with both women also set to jump in Friday s Doha Diamond League.
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With two months remaining until the postponed Olympic Games kick off, track and field athletes around the world from Gateshead, United Kingdom to New York City showed their fitness, upset the competition, revealed room for improvement, and earned a place on the starting line for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.
On Friday night, the Trials of Miles NYC Qualifier featured several races paced with the intent of helping athletes earn Olympic and U.S. Trials standards at Icahn Stadium in New York City. On Sunday, the Adidas Boost Boston Games hosted track and road races featuring match-ups with Olympic and world champions, and the Gateshead Diamond League meet served as an action-packed season opener for the elite circuit.
Locked out of competitions, India s track and field athletes losing ground
Neeraj Chopra in action at the 2018 Asian Games, where he won gold.
AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
On Tuesday this week, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra posted a short video clip of a practice session on his Instagram page. 86.26, 86.87, 87.25, 84.90 First time over 85 in training is the caption of the six-second clip. The throws made at the National Institute of Sport in Patiala are particularly promising since the Indian says he has always thrown further in competition. But he doesn t look like he s getting any of that any time soon.
While Chopra has no option for now but to be satisfied with his training throws in an empty field, the rest of the world s throwers are heading back to full competition mode. India s struggle with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that even with a little over two months to go to the Tokyo Olympics, the country s athletes are struggling to get crucial competition.