Botswana’s 400m sprint queen Amantle Montsho is facing an uphill task of retaining her grip on the women’s 400m IAAF Diamond League title. Montsho has dominated the competition by winning the title for the three successive years; she is currently trailing her rival Novlene Williams-Mills in the overall Diamond Race standings.
Montsho is yet to win a race this year after obtaining second place, fifth place and third place in the first three 2014 Diamond League meet races respectively. This has affected her place in the standings, her current points tally is 3 points which puts her at second place . Her position threatens to derail her push for a record of fourth consecutive Diamond League title.
Williams-Mills is currently leading the standings with 12 points (9 points ahead of Montsho) to give herself a chance of winning the 400m category. The Jamaican track star has started the year on a high and her form suggests that she could be difficult to surpass this year despite her struggle in the competition in the past two years.
Montsho has four more races to salvage her hopes of overtaking Williams-Mills this year. The Botswana sprinter has to win her final four races to stand a chance of holding on to her crown. The next race is scheduled to take place at the Paris based Diamond League meet on July 5.