PONCE, Puerto Rico — The American Track League will resume on Thursday (12) at the 2022 Puerto Rico International Athletics Classic, which is part of the 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour Silver series meeting. You can watch live streaming from the Francisco Montaner Stadium in Ponce on ESPN2 and the WatchESPN.com App.
Live broadcast of the meeting will start at 6:00 pm ET and fans are set to be served some quality performances from about 12 Olympic and World Championships medalists. See all the starting list and athlete information here.
Leading the list of superstars on the schedule are Jamaica’s sprint great Elaine Thompson-Herah, home favorite Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, as well as fellow Tokyo Olympic champions Athing Mu, Steven Gardiner, Hansle Parchment and Ryan Crouser.
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Thompson-Herah will continue her preparations for the 2022 World Athletics Championships later this summer with another appearance in the 100m.
The Tokyo 100m and 200m sprint double champion and five-time Olympic gold medalist has already clocked 10.89 seconds this season at the 2022 Mt. Sac Relays and she will start as the favorite to win in Ponce, on Thursday.
Among the leading challengers to Thompson-Herah at the midweek meeting is double 2021 NCAA champion Cambrea Sturgis, who is the second-fastest in the world this season with her personal best of 10.87 secs. The American was the world leader before Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clocked a blistering 10.67 secs at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, last weekend.
The loaded field also includes Trinidad and Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye, Jamaica’s Natalliah Whyte, plus USA’s Jenna Prandini, Kayla White, Morolake Akinosun and Tamari Davis.
Standout sprint hurdler Camacho-Quinn leads the field in the women’s 100m hurdles. The Tokyo champion leads the world with a sizzling time of 12.39 secs and she will be aiming to produce something special for the home fans.
Lining up against the Puerto Rican star is the world No.2 sprint hurdler Tonea Marshall of USA, who has clocked a 12.46 secs wind-legal season’s best and also posted a slightly wind-assisted 12.36 (+2.1 m/s) in Waco, Texas, last month.
Jamaica’s 2015 world champion Danielle Williams, US indoor record-holder Sharika Nelvis, and another American, Tia Jones, who recently won the Drake Relays 2022 title after Camacho-Quinn crashed out, will also enter the starting blocks to take on Camacho-Quinn.
The men’s 110m hurdles is also expected to be one of the featured events at the meeting on Thursday, with a pair of Jamaican Olympic champions going up against each other.
Hansle Parchment, the 2021 Tokyo champion, will line up against countryman and 2016 Rio Olympic gold medalist Omar McLeod, plus USA’s Devon Allen, who recently defeated McLeod at the Penn Relays 2022.
Elsewhere at the 2022 Puerto Rico International Athletics Classic this week, American two-time Olympic champion and world record-holder, Ryan Crouser is expected to dominate the men’s Shot Put competition, while fellow American Trayvon Bromell heads the men’s 100m field along with his training partner Marvin Bracy, multiple Olympic medalist Yohan Blake of Jamaica and his fellow countryman Ackeem Blake.
In the men’s 400m, 2012 Olympic one-lap champion Kirani James of Grenada will compete in his specialty, but Olympic champion Steven Gardiner from The Bahamas will step down in distance to race in the 300m.
Tokyo Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu will continue working on her speed this season when she steps down to the 400m.
