EDMONTON – Sprint star Andre De Grasse and IAAF World Championships silver medal-winning 800-metre runner Melissa Bishop headline a stellar lineup of Canadian and international athletes who will compete at the 2016 TrackTown Classic on Friday evening, July 15, meet organizers announced.
Long jumper Christabel Nettey, 400-metre hurdler Sarah Wells and 100- and 200-metre man Aaron Brown have also confirmed they will also compete at the one-day meet, part of the National Track League (NTL) circuit.
De Grasse, who last year won double gold in the 100- and 200-metres at the Pan American Games in Toronto, and took the bronze medal in the 100-metres at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, will run the 100 metres at the meet, held at Foote Field on the University of Alberta’s South Campus, beside the South Campus LRT stop.
Brown, who has achieved personal bests of 9.96 in the 100 metres and 20.00 in the 200 metres this season, is set to race against Americans Ameer Webb and Wallace Spearmon in the 200 metres.
Nettey, the Canadian record holder who finished fourth at the 2015 World Championships, will face tough competition in the long jump, taking on Americans Janay Deloach, the bronze medalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and Whitney Gipson.
Wells, a 2012 Olympian and silver medalist at the 2015 Pan American Games, will race against Medicine Hat’s Sage Watson in a strong 400-metre hurdles field that includes U.S. stars Leah Nugent and Autumne Franklin.
The women’s 100-metre hurdles figures to be a compelling contest, featuring Toronto-based competitors Phylicia George and Nikkita Holder, as well as Edmonton veteran Angela Whyte, the two-time Olympian.
The women’s 200 metres shapes up as a largely international affair, with Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas lining up against the likes of Simone Facey of Jamaica and U.S. sprinter Taylor Ellis-Watson. Miller won a silver medal in the women’s 400 metres at the 2015 IAAF World Championship in Athletics in Beijing, China. She’s looking to run a sub-22-second 200-metre race in the 200 in Edmonton.
Tickets are available through the TrackTown Classic website: www.tracktowncan.com, or through the TrackTown Canada mobile app. See the website also for the complete race schedule and roster of competing athletes. The meet goes from 5:40 to 8:25 p.m. on Friday, July 15.
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