Sparkling international action awaits SA stars at Rabat Diamond League

World indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso, sprint king Akani Simbine and a star-studded cast of SA athletes face their toughest competition so far this year at the Diamond League meet in Rabat on Sunday evening.

Form 400m runner Zakithi Nene and Wayde van Niekerk, now focusing on the 200m, take on Olympic champions, while Zeney Geldenhuys and Rogail Joseph face the second-fastest 400m hurdler of all time.

Even Olympic silver medallist javelin thrower Jo-Ané van Dyk has a tough assignment, going up against 2023 world championship medallists Flor Ruiz of Colombia and Australian Mackenzie Little as well as Tokyo Olympic runner-up Maria Andrejczyk of Poland.

Sekgodiso turns her focus to the international outdoor circuit against a field that includes Ethiopian rival Tsige Duguma, the Olympic silver medallist from 2024 who currently owns the 1min 56.64sec world lead she set in China early in May.

Sekgodiso, who ended eighth in the 800m final at the Paris Games, beat Duguma at the world indoor championships final in China in March.

Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda, the 2019 world champion, and Natoya Goule-Toppin of Jamaica have also been faster than the South African this year, having clocked 1:58.39 and 1:58.43, behind Duguma.

Sekgodiso, who went 1:58.80 at the national championships in April, has a 1:57.27 personal best which she has said she wants to knock to below 1:56.00 this year.

Van Niekerk and Benjamin Richardson renew their rivalry over 200m for the first time since the 2024 national championships, won by Richardson.

This time there’ll be extra pressure coming from Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana as well as American Erriyon Knighton, silver medallist at the 2023 world championships. Both have been under 19.50.

Courtney Lindsey, the seventh fastest man over 100m so far this year, is also in the field.

The 32-year-old Van Niekerk, who went 19.84 in 2017, registered a wind-assisted 20.03 on a straight 200m in the US last weekend. Richardson achieved his 19.99 best in Switzerland in 2024.

Zakithi Nene, the fourth-fastest in the world over 400m so far in 2025, takes on two tough Americans — Olympic champion Quincy Hall and Jacory Patterson, the only man to have been under 44sec in 2025 with the 43.98 he ran in early May.

Bayapo Ndori, a member of Botswana’s 4x400m relay team that won Olympic silver, and countryman Leungo Scotch, are also in action.

Simbine, the Olympic relay silver medallist who took the 60m bronze at the world indoor championships, is unbeaten over 100m in four international races so far this season, but in Rabat he goes head-to-head with American Olympic bronze medallist Fred Kerley, who denied him a spot on the Paris Olympic podium by one-hundredth of a second.

Simbine is the year’s quickest man to date with the 9.90 he posted in Gaborone in April, but No 2 on the world list, American Brandon Hicklin, who blasted 9.93 a month ago, is also in action.

Tebogo is lining up in that race as well — 70 minutes before the 200m — as is Simbine’s Olympic 4x100m teammate Shaun Maswanganyi, who is yet to show significant form this season. Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya is also in the mix. 

Simbine has already beaten Omanyala and Tebogo this season.

Geldenhuys and Joseph take on Dutch star Femke Bol, the 2023 400m hurdles world champion who took Olympic bronze in 2024.

The field also features Jamaican Rushell Clayton and American Cassandra Tate, both world championship bronze medallists from years gone by.

Tshepo Tshite, in action in a men’s 1,500m that includes Britain’s 2023 world champion Josh Kerr, set his 3:32.03 lifetime best in Cape Town in April, just one-tenth of a second off Johan Cronjé’s 3:31.93 national record.

• The meet will be broadcast live on SuperSport 208 from 8pm on Sunday.