NEW YORK – World champions LaShawn Merritt and Abeba Aregawi along with top sprinters Kerron Stewart, Lolo Jones and Tori Bowie, are the latest athletes to be confirmed for Saturday’s adidas Grand Prix.
Jamaica’s Stewart is the 2008 Olympic silver medalist at 100 meters, the distance that she will run here. She won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics as part of Jamaica’s 4×100 relay team, with which she won world titles in 2009 and 2013.
Also added to the women’s 100-meter field is Bowie, the American who is having a break-out year in the sprints. Bowie, 23, is the 2011 NCAA Champion indoors and outdoors in the long jump who stunned the sports world when she won last month’s Prefontaine Classic 200 meters in 22.18 in only her second race at the distance as a professional.
Then last week at the Rome Diamond League meeting, Bowie won the 100 meters in11:05, another personal best.
Jones, 31, is a two-time World Indoor Champion at the 60-meter hurdles. A five-time national champion, she finished fourth, just off the medal stand, in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2012 Olympics.
Merritt, 27, won two Olympic gold medals in 2008 (400m, 4x400m), and is a seven-time IAAF World Champion. The American had the fastest time in the world last year, 43.74, and finished the year ranked #1 in the world.
Aregawi will face former World champion Jenny Simpson in the 1500m, along with World 800m medallist Brenda Martinez, former World 1500m medallist Shannon Rowbury and Morgan Uceny. Mary Cain, previously announced for the 1500m, will now run a special women’s 800m.