Penns2022 | Penns replaces USA vs The World with galaxy of stars
Published:Wednesday | April 27, 2022 | 12:10 AMRaymond Graham/Gleaner Writer
FOR THE first time in 20 years, thousands of fans inside the Franklin Field Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will not get a chance to witness the very popular series of USA vs World Relays, which usually takes place on a Saturday afternoon at the weekend-long Carnival.
Despite the absence of these relays, fans will still get a chance to see several Olympians in action as the organisers have introduced ‘Olympic Development’ events. Jamaicans Natoya Goule and Omar McLeod will be among the galaxy of stars who will compete here.
Goule, a darling of Penn Relays fans as a high school and collegiate athlete, will line up in the rarely run women’s 600 metres. An Olympic Games finalist in the 800 metres in Tokyo last year, Goule will match strides with the United States’ Ajee Wilson and Athing Mu.
Wilson was the gold medallist in the 800 metres at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year in Belgrade, Serbia. Mu, who will be competing at the Penn Relays for the first time, won gold in Tokyo in the women’s 800 and was a member of the United States’ podium-topping mile relay team.
Veteran Allyson Felix, who was also a member of the United States’ 4x400 metres relay team in Tokyo, will contest the women’s 300 metres. The outstanding Sydney McLaughlin, who was in record-breaking form when she won the gold medal in the women’s 400m hurdles in Tokyo, will contest the women’s 100-metre hurdles.
McLeod, who won the high school boys’ 400-metre hurdles and who was also a member of Kingston College’s successful 4x100 metres relay team at Penn Relays in 2014, will make a welcome return to the Carnival.
McLeod, the 2016 Olympic Games 110-metre hurdles gold medallist and the fourth-ranked male in the event this season with 13.27 seconds, will go head to head with world leader, Devon Allen of the United States here. Allen, who recently signed to play professional football in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles, clocked a world-leading time of 13.12 seconds in Maryland on April 23, the same day the Jamaican, Hansle Parchment, the Tokyo Olympic champion, clocked 13.20 on his debut in Kingston at the Velocity Fest XI meet.