World champion Dafne Schippers will face a tough 200m test from in-form Jamaican Elaine Thompson at Oslo’s Diamond League meeting on Thursday when Kenyan Asbel Kiprop will go for a fifth Dream Mile title.
Schippers, the 2014 European double sprint champion, set the Beijing World championships alight last year with victory in a third-fastest time ever of 21.63sec. The Dutch sprinter clocked 11.09sec as she came in second to American English Gardner in Birmingham’s 100m on Sunday.
Thompson, who won the world 200m silver in Beijing last year, has been in top 100m form, timing 10.87sec to beat out Gardner at last week’s Rome meet.
While there will be no Genzebe Dibaba running in the women’s Dream Mile, the men’s line-up features four-time winner Kiprop.
Kiprop has all the credentials to continue his run in the Norwegian capital: triple World champion, 2008 Olympic champion and current world lead in the 1500m (3:29.33) and mile.
Kiprop was awarded the Olympic gold for the 1500m in 2008 after the original winner, Morocco-born Bahraini Rashid Ramzi, tested positive for doping, something the Kenyan said he uses as extra motivation. Kiprop’s biggest threats in the Dream Mile include current World No. 2 and silver medallist at last year’s World championships, fellow countryman, Elijah Motonei Manangoi, while Olympic 1500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria will be out to challenge the Kenyan domination.
The men’s 100m features up-and-coming Canadian Andre De Grasse, Ameer Webb of the USA and Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis. De Grasse triumphed in Birmingham as Webb paid the price for his exploits in Rome, where he won the 200m and came second to Justin Gatlin in the 100m.
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