World 100‑metre champion Oblique Seville will return to the Novuna London Athletics Meet on Saturday, July 18, carrying the kind of form and expectation that tends to follow a man who has finally stepped out of Jamaica’s long sprinting shadow.
At 25, Seville owns a 9.77 personal best from his breakthrough win at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. That run made him the first Jamaican since Usain Bolt in 2015 to take the global 100‑metre title and moved him into a tie for tenth on the all‑time list. It also signalled that Jamaica’s next great sprinter had arrived, not as a rumour or a maybe, but as a fully realized force.
His path to that gold included a commanding performance in London during the 2025 Diamond League season, where he was the only athlete to dip under ten seconds, clocking 9.86 against a deep field. He later anchored Jamaica’s 4 x 100‑metre relay win over Great Britain, a reminder that his range extends beyond the straightaway.
Seville opened his 2026 campaign with a 9.96 at Kingston’s National Stadium on May 30, a tidy early-season marker that suggests he is trending in the right direction.
“To get the Diamond League win in London last year was very special to me and I can’t wait to get back out there and do it all again,” said the 2024 Olympic finalist. “London will always hold great memories for me, from the noise of the crowd to competing against the best athletes in the world. It also gave me the confidence I needed heading into the World Champs and inspired me to push even harder. This time around I start as world champion, a title which brings with it pressure but also privilege, and I want to enjoy every second.”
The Novuna London Athletics Meet, billed as the world’s biggest one‑day athletics event, is stop eleven on the 2026 Wanda Diamond League circuit. The series features 15 top-tier meetings across four continents and opened in Shanghai/Keqiao on May 16 after the Doha stop was shifted to June 19. The season will wrap with a two‑day final in Brussels on September 4 and 5.
