The 63rd Ostrava Golden Spike 2024 meeting in the Czech Republic is set for a thrilling display on Tuesday, 28 May, featuring Olympic sprint champions. Italy’s Marcell Jacobs and Canada’s Andre De Grasse, the gold medalists over 100m and 200m, respectively, will clash in the 100m, while Olympic 400m champion Steven Gardiner will contest the one-lap event. World record holder Mondo Duplantis competes in the pole vault.
In the men’s 100m dash, Jacobs, who recently posted 10.07 seconds for a season’s best in Rome, leads the Ostrava field and he will aim to dip under the 10 seconds barrier for the first time in 2024.
Canada’s De Grasse, who trains with Jacobs at the Tumbleweed Track Club in Jacksonville, Florida, is also aiming to go sub-10 seconds for the first time this season and improve on his current 10.11 best this year.
Read more: 2024 Prefontaine Classic Results – Eugene Diamond League
Other sprinters to watch in the men’s 100m include Great Britain’s European 2018 silver medalist Reece Prescod, who makes his season debut, and Jamaica’s Ryiem Forde, who posted a season-best of 10.12 seconds in Clermont, Florida in April
Meanwhile, De Grasse will also compete in his specialized 200m event against Jamaica’s Andrew Hudson and Britain’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.
Another sprint star to keep an eye on at the 2024 Golden Spike is Bahamas’ Steven Gardiner, who will feature in the men’s 400m. The 28-year-old Adidas-sponsored sprinter has already clocked 44.45 and 44.76 this season and is undefeated over 400m since the 2017 World Championships.
His closest challenge is expected to come from Belgium’s world indoor champion Alexander Doom, who clocked a lifetime best of 44.51 at the Marrakesh/Rabat Diamond Discipline meeting.
On the women’s side, the women’s sprints feature Poland’s Ewa Swoboda and Italy’s Zainab Dosso.
Swoboda, who was part of the Polish 4x100m relay team at the World Athletics Relays in The Bahamas earlier this month, is contesting her first 100m race in May for the first time since 2016 and she comes up against Dosso, who recently set a new Italian 100m record of 11.02 in Savona.
The start list also features Switzerland’s 2022 world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji and Gambia’s Gina Bass.
In the field events, all eyes will be on “Mondo Mania” as newly-minted world record holder Mondo Duplantis looks to continue his pole vault dominance.
The in-form Swede will be keen to back up his 6.24m world record performance from last month.
