12 June 2013

A number of British athletes will head to Oslo for the sixth round of the IAAF Diamond League on Thursday 13 June.

After coming within four centimetres of her personal best after jumping 6.91m in Rome last week, Shara Proctor (coach: Rana Reider) will headline the long jump field. The British record holder will go up against against Olympic silver medallist Yelena Sokolova, who also jumped 6.91m for a season’s best in the opening IAAF Diamond League in Doha.

Perri Shakes-Drayton (Chris Zah) will once again go head-to-head with Olympic bronze medallist and current world number one Zuzana Hejnova in the 400m hurdles. Hejnova set a world leading time of 53.70 in Eugene to finish in front of Shakes-Drayton, who will be looking to improve on her season’s best of 55.74.

After a defeat in the 100m by American Justin Gatlin in Rome, six-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt will step up to the 200m as he faces British Olympians Danny Talbot (Daniel Cossins) and James Ellington (Reider) as well as Dutch record holder Churandy Martina.

Also lining up in the Norwegian capital is Tiffany Porter (Reider) in the 100m hurdles, while Yamile Aldama faces strong opposition in the triple jump in the form of Olympic silver medallist Caterine Ibarguen and Olympic bronze medallist Olha Saladukha.

British hopes in the 400m will be pinned on Nigel Levine (Linford Christie) and Martyn Rooney (Reider) as they go up against Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos  and Youssef Ahmed Masrahi, who set a personal best of 44.72 in Doha earlier this year.  

Anyika Onuora (Reider) will run her first ever individual 400m in Oslo, and Joe Thomas (Arwyn Davies) and Gareth Warburton (Darrell Maynard) will line up in the 800m.

James Brewer (Craig Winrow), David Bishop (James Thie), Chris Warburton (Norman Poole) and Kris Gauson (Winrow) will lead the field in the men’s 1500m, while Claire Gibson (Derek Parker) runs in the women’s 1500m.

You can tune into the action from the IAAF Diamond League in Oslo on Thursday 12 June 19:00-21:00 BST on BBC3