Burkina Faso’s Zango and Ugandan Kiplimo headline Ostrava athletics meeting

Africans headline Ostrava athletics meeting

JOHANNESBURG, May 14 (ANA) – Burkina Faso’s long jumper Hugues Fabrice Zango and Ugandan half marathon world champion Jacob Kiplimo will headline the Golden Spike, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on May 19.

Zango made triple jump history earlier this year when he became the first athlete to jump beyond 18 metres indoors with his 18.07m world indoor record in Aubiere. He started his outdoor season strongly, too, leaping a world-leading 17.40m in Montpellier on May 8.

In Ostrava he will again take on the USA’s two-time Olympic and four-time world champion Christian Taylor, who sits second on the world triple jump all-time list with his 18.21m leap from 2015.

Taylor, who set the Golden Spike meeting record of 17.57m in 2017, won at last year’s event, leaping 17.46m to beat Zango by just 4cm.

Kiplimo, meanwhile, will be racing on the track for the first time in 2021 and is aiming to secure the Olympic 10,000m qualification mark of 27:28.00. He last raced the distance on the track in 2018, with his Personal Best (PB) of 27:26.68 set when claiming world Under-20 bronze as a 15-year-old in 2016. At last year’s Golden Spike Kiplimo won the 5000m in a PB of 12:48.63.

Due to pandemic restrictions a full crowd is not possible, but a maximum 10 percent of spectator capacity has been approved, meaning around 1500 fans will be able to watch in person at the 60th edition of the event. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman