DAFNE SCHIPPERS and Allyson Felix, two of the golden girls from last month’s World Athletics Championships in Beijing, will be on Tyneside on Saturday competing in the Great North City Games.
Schippers, the Flying Dutchwoman who sped to a stunning 200m victory in the Chinese capital, will line up in the 100m in front of more than 25,000 spectators on the Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside.
Felix, the American who took her haul of World Championship gold medals to nine with her 400m success in Beijing, will compete in the 150m.
Securing two of the biggest stars of world athletics is a major coup for the organisers of this week’s events, which form the highlight of the North-East athletics calendar.
Mo Farah, who completed a triple gold championship double for Britain with his gold-medal winning runs in the 5,000m and 10,000m in Beijing, will defend the elite men’s title in the Morrisons Great North Run on Sunday morning.
Greg Rutherford, who completed a grand slam of major championship titles when he won the long jump in the Bird’s Nest Stadium, will join Schippers and Felix in a stellar cast in the Great North City Games.
North-Easterner Richard Kilty will lead the local charge on the banks of the River Tyne, as he wraps up his season by competing in the men’s 150m.
Felix goes in the women’s equivalent, and will line up alongside her team-mate, Candayce McGrone, as well as Briton Jodie Williams, who was part of the British 4x100m relay quartet that claimed the national record at the Worlds.
Schippers, who made her City Games debut in Manchester in May, will compete in the 100m along with Britons Asah Phillip and Desiree Henry, who ran the first and last legs for the British quartet in the record-breaking sprint relay.
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