ATHLETICS – Bahrain's reigning Olympic champion and former world champion Winfred Yavi is set to compete in a star-studded women’s 3,000 metres tomorrow night at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in the US.
The meeting is the latest stop on this year’s Diamond League – international athletics’ premier one-day event series held around the world.
Yavi’s race is scheduled for an 11.45pm start, Bahrain time.
It will be only the second appearance in the discipline this outdoor season for the 26-year-old superstar.
She previously contested the steeplechase in May at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting in China, where she finished second in eight minutes 51.54 seconds behind Peruth Chemutai of Uganda.
Yavi last raced in June at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meeting in Rome, also a Diamond League stop, but in the women’s 5,000m, where she set a new national record in the distance while placing a respectable eighth.
Yavi will be running against 16 other competitors tomorrow night in Eugene.
The field also includes Chemutai and current world number one in the steeplechase Faith Cherotich from Kenya.
Yavi, whose personal best of 8:44.39 is the Asian and Bahrain record, is presently ranked second in the world with Chemutai third, while five others in the top 10 are also in the fray in the Prefontaine Classic.
They include world number four Marwa Bouzayani from Tunisia, number six Norah Jeruto from Kazakhstan, number seven Doris Lemngole from Kenya, number nine Gabrielle Jennings from the US, and world number 10 Gesa Felicitas Krause from Germany.
In the Diamond League, after a season of competing and earning points amongst the world’s best, the top-placed athletes qualify for the final, where they will battle for the prestigious Diamond Trophy in their respective events.
The Diamond Trophy is the most prestigious annual award in the sport.
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