Sha'Carri Richardson at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene (© Getty Images)
World champion Sha’Carri Richardson and world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman will contest the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic while global medallists Erriyon Knighton, Letsile Tebogo and Kenny Bednarek will clash in the men’s 200m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene on Saturday 25 May.
Richardson sped to victory over 100m at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, setting a PB of 10.65 to equal the championship record, and followed it by anchoring the USA to gold in the 4x100m.
The US sprinter will take on world indoor 60m champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia and African record-holder Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast.
Coleman, who claimed the Diamond Trophy over 100m last year by equalling the world lead of 9.83, will be joined in the men’s event by African record-holder Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya and world indoor 60m bronze medallist Ackeem Blake of Jamaica.
The men’s 200m in Eugene will also be highly competitive as Knighton, Tebogo and Bednarek take to the line.
Knighton – who has a lifetime best of 19.49 – took silver in that discipline at last year’s World Championships, earning his second global medal before even turning 20.
Botswana’s Tebogo is similarly prodigious. He won back-to-back world U20 titles over 100m in 2021 and 2022, then claimed world 100m silver and 200m bronze in Budapest last year, just weeks after turning 20. His PB of 19.50 is just 0.01 shy of Knighton’s.
Bednarek claimed Olympic silver in 2021 and followed it with world silver in 2022. Along with Tebogo, Bednarek is one of a small number of men who have broken 10 seconds for 100m, 20 seconds for 200m and 45 seconds for 400m.
