Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt to run in London Diamond League

Usain Bolt

London, July 10 (IANS)

Six-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt will run at the Diamond League meet in London on July 24.

Also participating will be double Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah and women's heptathlon gold winner Jessica Ennis-Hill, world record holder and London Olympics 800 metres champion David Rudisha and more than a dozen World or Olympic champions. The two-day meet is part of London's Anniversary Games, reports Xinhua.

“The opening night of the Anniversary Games has attracted the strongest field ever assembled for a single night of athletics, providing Londoners with another 'I was there' moment. The chance to see a living legend like Bolt is very rare and we are delighted to be able to welcome him to the reopening of the stadium where he so thrilled us all at the 2012 Games,” London Mayor Boris Johnson said on Friday.

“It is a beginning of a new chapter for the stadium and there will be many more amazing nights to come. It is wonderful that we are starting in such style.”

Bolt, considered to be one of the greatest sportsmen of all time, last competed individually in Britain at the 2013 Anniversary Games where he won the 100m in 9.85 seconds. The 100m and 200m world record holder and winner of eight world titles is looking forward to returning to the scene of his spectacular Olympic triumphs.

“London is a special place where I love to compete and I am looking forward to the Anniversary Games on July 24. I have great memories of competing in the Olympic Stadium in the summer of 2012 and in the previous Grand Prix meets in London,” Bolt said.

The event takes place just four weeks before the World Athletics Championships in Beijing and will be the final time the original London 2012 track is used before a new surface is laid for the London 2017 World Championships.

British Athletics have secured the right to host athletics in the former Olympic Stadium for one month every year for the next 50 years from 2016.