Nugent, the second-fastest woman in the world this year over the 100m hurdles and Jamaica's sole finalist at the Paris Olympics Games, is set to face an exceptional field in what promises to be one of the most anticipated races of the meet.
Among her competitors are Olympic bronze medallist Jamine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico and compatriot Danielle Williams.
Nugent, 22, has been a standout athlete this year, capturing the spotlight after a dominant win at the national senior trials in a blistering personal best of 12.28 seconds. The mark is also a new stadium record and the ninth fastest time in history over the distance.
Her notable achievements include reaching the finals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she failed to finish after hitting the first hurdle.
Nugent looks forward to making her Diamond League debut.
"I'm incredibly grateful to finally have the opportunity to compete on the Diamond League circuit," Nugent said.
"It's a huge step as I transition into a full-time professional athlete. The Diamond League is where I see myself competing for the foreseeable future, so I’m ready to embrace everything that comes with it," she added.
Nugent is also slated to compete at the Silesia Diamond League in Poland this Sunday, August 25, and the Rome Golden Gala on Friday, August 30.
In a race where the top six athletes all ran under 12.5s, 2022 world champion Tobi Amusan clocked a season-s best 12.33 to hold off a fast-finishing Jasmine Camacho Quinn and former world record holder Kendra Harrison, who clocked 12.38 and 12.44, for second and third, respectively.
Williams, who was among the early leaders clocked 12.47 with Tapper close behind in 12.48, the same time as the USA’s Alaysha Johnson.
While it was unbridled joy for those three, it was heartbreak for another Jamaican Megan Tapper, as the Olympic medallist placed fourth and her time was not good enough to see her through to tomorrow’s final scheduled for 2:25pm Jamaica time.
Charlton and Tapper both ran from semi-final one, where they placed second and fourth respectively. Charlton, 27, secured the second automatic qualifying spot in 12.49s, behind American Kendra Harrison, who won in 12.33s.
Despite running her heart out, Tapper (12.55s) was out dipped by Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji (12.50s), who progressed to tomorrow’s final as one of the two fastest qualifiers on time ahead of the Jamaican.
The second semi-final was just an exciting with Ackera Nugent leading for most of the way but was pipped on the line by Nigeria’s World Record holder Tobi Amusan. Nugent stopped the clock in 12.60s, behind Amusan’s 12.56s.
The last of the three semi-finals saw Jamaica’s former World Champion Danielle Williams off to a blistering start, but she lost her composure close to the end and had to settle for third in a season’s best 12.50s. Fortunately, for her the time was good enough to progress to the final.
Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn produced a late burst to win in 21.41s, with American Nia Ali (12.49s), just bettering Williams on the line.
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Dexter Mitchell, the organizer for the meet set for April 4, 2020, at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium in Grenada, also confirmed the participation of world-record holder Kendra Harrison, Olympic and World champion Justin Gatlin, and 2019 long-jump world champion Tajay Gayle.
The impressive line-up also includes hometown hero Kirani James, Blessing Okagbare, Aaron Brown, Zharnel Hughes, and Asafa Powell for what Mitchell said would be the best meet yet.
“In its fourth year the Grenada Invitational will be the most competitive and exciting of our four meets,” he said of the meet that will also see the likes of 2011 World Champion Yohan Blake and Grenadian decathlete Lindon Victor in competition.
“In an Olympic year, we have been able to assemble a stellar cast of world-class athletes and with our World Athletes World Continental Tours Silver designation, the expectation is for delivery of a World Class event.”
In recent weeks, the Coronavirus has spread to 111 countries and has infected more than 100,000 people across the globe, killing more than 3000 of them. It is against this background that the Local Organising Committee of the relays has taken what they have described as a difficult decision.
“After extensive deliberations with local public health officials, our broadcast partners, sponsors and athletes representatives, it was determined that the paramount importance of the health of our citizens and the expected influx of travellers (athletes, etc) warranted us to err on the side of caution,” organisers said in a statement today.
“As such, in light of the fluidity and uncertainty related to (COVID-19), it has become necessary to postpone the 4th annual Grenada Invitational that was scheduled for April 4th, 2020.
“The improbability and flexibility of the situation changes from day to day and these uncertainties are sure to hinder in the delivery of a World Class event.”
Some of the world’s best track and field athletes were down to compete at the Grenada Invitational as they gear up for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan that is also under threat because of the spread the virus that has seen thousands of Japanese citizens being infected.
Schools in that country have been ordered closed and public gatherings have been banned until the end of April when the International Olympic Committee is expected to make a final decision on whether the Games will be held.
Similarly, the organisers of the Grenada Invitational said they will decide if and when the meet will be held this year.
“Grenada Invitational will, as the rest of the sporting world, monitor the global conditions and along with track and field’s governing body, World Athletics and our broadcast partner, a new date for the meet will be announced once the (COVID-19) is no longer a threat and normalcy in travel and other routine activities is returned,” the statement said.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, the 2016 double Olympic champion, 2011 World Champion Yohan Blake, and Olympic and World Champion Kirani James were to be among the headliners at the meet this year as the organizers had begun to assemble a world-class field of athletes for the meet.
Also confirmed were the likes of Briana Williams, Kendra Harrison, Asafa Powell, Justin Gatlin, and Tajay Gayle.
Glen Mills, Chairman of the meet’s organising committee, made the announcement at the Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston on Thursday. During the four previous years since the meet began in 2016, the Racers Grand Prix has seen the participation of several Olympic and World champions as well as world-record holders in editions that we of the highest quality, Mills said.
The meet has earned high praises from World Athletics and its president Lord Sebastian Coe, who was at the 2017 renewal in Kingston, the year when Usain Bolt retired from the sport. It has also been commended by a number of world-class athletes and coaches as well as managers and agents.
So it was no surprise that it was selected among the 10 Continental Tour Gold Series meets as World Athletics began to overhaul the sport to make it more appealing to old and new fans alike.
“I am proud to announce that the administrators of World Athletics have selected the Racers Grand Prix to be part of the Continental Tour Gold Series for the next 10 years,” Mills announced on Thursday.
The Gold level is the highest in the competition series, which is only one level below the Diamond League and Kingston, Jamaica is the only city in the western hemisphere chosen to host a gold series.
With 2020 being an Olympic year, Mills said that a number of the world’s leading athletes have already expressed their intention to compete at the meet.
“Presently, I have received the names of over 200 athletes from agents, managers and coaches who have expressed their interest. Most notable are multiple Olympic and World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Olympic champion Elaine Herah, World and Olympic champion and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk, World Champion Tajay Gayle, Commonwealth champion Akini Simbine, World Champions Yohan Blake and Noah Lyles, world-record holder Kendra Harrison, and world medalists Danielle Williams and Rushell Clayton,” Mills said.
“Promising athlete Christopher Taylor, Akeem Bloomfield and Demish Gaye are also some of the leading persons who have expressed interest.”
Mills said that because the championship points that will be awarded for the core events of the meet, he is expecting a lot more interest as the meet draws closer.
The Continental Series will replace the World Challenge events as the second tier of competition under the Diamond League, and the four events that have been controversially cut, either partially or completely, from the latter competition for next season will have senior status within the new format.
The four events - triple jump, discus, 200 metres and 3,000m steeplechase - will be part of the core events in the top, or Gold level of the Tour, which will also have Silver and Bronze levels.
All four events dropped from the Diamond League final, or in some cases, the Diamond League itself will retain a wild card to the Eugene World Athletics Championships for the winners.
Anderson, who won her first Jamaican national title in June, was first up and comfortably advanced to the semi-finals with 12.60 to win heat one.
There was also a major casualty in the first heat as defending world champion Nia Ali of the USA failed to advance after clipping the ninth hurdle and falling to the track.
Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico was next up, running 12.52 to win heat two ahead of Bahamian world indoor silver medallist Devynne Charlton (12.69).
Jamaican 2015 world champion Danielle Williams finished second in heat three with 12.87 to advance. Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan cruised to a new national record 12.40 to win the heat.
Costa Rica’s Andrea Carolina Vargas ran 13.12 for third in heat four to advance.
Tapper, bronze medallist at the Olympics last year, ran 12.73 to finish second behind American Alia Armstrong (12.48) in heat five and progress.
World leader and world record holder Kendra Harrison of the USA ran 12.60 to win heat six and advance.
Williams, the 2015 world champion and the 2019 bronze medalist, shocked a stacked field at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last week, winning her second title in 12.43s, her fastest time this year. In claiming victory, she defeated Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, former world record holder Kendra Harrison, who won silver and bronze, respectively.
Williams also defeated Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who set the world record of 12.12 at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon in 2022.
At Wednesday’s press conference ahead of Thursday’s Diamond League meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, Williams was asked whether she believes she can challenge Amusan’s world record, which raised eyebrows when she stormed to victory in her semi-final heat last year.
“From the moment I started getting competitive in the hurdles, many people told me that I have the potential to break the world record. I didn't necessarily believe it at the time. I just thought, you know, you guys are just talking,” said Williams, who has run a lifetime best of 12.32, the second fastest time ever run by a Jamaican woman.
“But the more I go, the more I believe that it is in range.”
Williams, who was third at Jamaica’s national championships in July, revealed she has actually had dreams of setting the world record.
“Funny story, 12.12, the time that Tobi ran to break the record last year, I actually had a dream a few years ago that the world record was going to be 12.12 seconds. I thought it was that was going to be me who's going to break it, but it wasn't,” she said.
“And so I still believe that it is within range. You know, we're all out here, the essence of track and field is running as fast as you can, and so I believe that I can run 12.1 seconds. It's just a lot of things that need to be tweaked to get there, but I think I could get there.”
In Zurich on Thursday, Williams will once again face Camacho-Quinn and Harrison in Zurich in another stacked field that also includes 2019 world champion Nia Ali, Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, Tia Jones and Alasyha Johnson.
