24th May 2018

Nine Brits in Eugene for most competitive Diamond League of season so far

Reece Prescod (Jonas Dodoo) and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (Dennis Shaver) both return to Diamond League action in Eugene as part of the largest British contingent yet for the most competitive leg of the series so far.

Prescod is fresh from a superb victory at the Shanghai leg where he ran within one hundredth of his personal best, clocking 10.04 seconds and beating Justin Gatlin, Su Bingtian and Andre De Grasse.

Mitchell-Blake meanwhile travels across the US from Boston where he set a new British record of 14.81 for the straight 150m and will go over the full 200m distance as part of a high-class field in Eugene.

Nine Brits in total are in action with Dina Asher-Smith (John Blackie) and Kyle Langford (Jon Bigg), 200m bronze and 800m silver medallist respectively from the Commonwealth Games, set to open their summer seasons.

Another Commonwealth bronze medallist from the Gold Coast Laura Weightman (Steve Cram) as well as world champions Andrew Pozzi (Benke Blomkvist) and CJ Ujah (Stuart McMillan) all have lanes, Holly Bradshaw (Scott Simpson) is part of a competitive pole vault field and Laura Muir (Andy Young) will ease herself into the summer season also.

Langford, whose late surge earned him Commonwealth silver last month, will be the first of the eight in action on Friday night in an 800m field including Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos as well as Adam Kszczot and Kipyegon Bett, who pipped the Brit to the world podium last summer.

Prescod provided the headline of the last Diamond League in Shanghai as impressive took victory in the 100m and will go head-to-head again with not only compatriot and 2017 Diamond League champion Ujah but also China’s Su Bingtian.

World silver medallist Christian Coleman will also have a part to play as one of three Americans in the field including Ronnie Baker and Isiah Young while the women’s 100m field, which includes Asher-Smith, is equally exciting.

All three of last year’s world medallists – Tori Bowie, Marie-Josee Ta Lou and Dafne Schippers – are set to start as is Olympic champion Elaine Thompson and world indoor champion Murielle Ahoure. Asher-Smith will compete in this meeting for the first time and won the world junior 100m title at Hayward Field in 2014.

Mitchell-Blake finished second in that 150m in Boston last weekend and before that was fifth in the 200m at the opening Diamond League leg in Doha. Coleman is entered into both the 100m and the 200m in Eugene while Mitchell-Blake will also face world champion Ramil Guliyev and the winner from Doha Noah Lyles.

World indoor champion Pozzi will be looking to kick his season back into gear in the 110m hurdles against another world-class field with global champion Omar McLeod and runner-up Sergey Shubenkov as well as Commonwealth gold medallist Ronald Levy for company.

Muir will ease herself back into competition in the 1500m having just finished her university exams and, joined by fellow Brit Weightman, they’ll be up against Olympic bronze and world silver medallist over the distance Jenny Simpson.

Bradshaw, in addition to Mitchell-Blake, has competed most recently out of the Brits in action. Bradshaw finished second at the Diamond League opener in Doha and then won in Germany at the weekend. A typically strong pole vault field she’ll face all bar one of the medallists from the 2016 Olympics and 2017 World Championships with Katerina Stefanidi, Sandi Morris, Eliza McCartney and Robeilys Peinado set to jump.