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Richards gears up for final Diamond League run
T&T's sprinter Jereem Richards. Courtesy SporTT

Richards gears up for final Diamond League run

Go Back : Guardian : Sports Desk : 07.09.2022

T&T's Jereem Richards will line up against a tough field in the men's 200 metres at the two-day Wanda Diamond League's season finale at the Weltklasse Zurich in Switzerland, starting today.

The world indoor 400m champion will be in action in the final event on the second day, tomorrow, at the Letzigrund Stadium, aiming to earn a final piece of hardware this season before the awards and closing ceremony, thereafter.

The first day of Weltklasse Zurich action will see six Diamond League champions crowned on Sechselautenplatz before the remaining 26 titles are decided on the second day of competition. As well as Diamond trophies and top $30,000 prizes, there are also wildcard entries to the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 to be won.

Richards, the national 200m champion, enters the half-lap event with a season's and personal best time of 19.80 seconds.

He will face off against American trio, two-time world 200m champion Noah Lyles, who already owns four Diamond Trophies, Kenneth Bednarek, who took Olympic silver ahead of Lyles last year before winning the Diamond League title, and world bronze medallist Erriyon Knighton, Canadian pair Olympic champion Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown, Italian Eseosa Fostine Desalu and Dominican Republic's Alexander Ogando, who was part of the world mixed 4x400m champion.

Lyles, 25, enters as the favourite having put together one of the greatest ever 200m campaigns, winning all 11 of his races at the distance this year, heats and finals. He has broken 20 seconds in all of them, while his past five finals were all won in sub-19.7 times as reported on World Athletics.