A preview to the historic inaugural head-to-head duel taking place in Minsk

Team Europe and Team USA are preparing for their historic inaugural head-to-head duel The Match, which will be held in Minsk on Monday and Tuesday (September 9-10) and will be the last major event before the IAAF World Championships in Doha at the end of this month.

Heading the European line-up will be 2017 world champions Pawel Fajdek, Ramil Guliyev, Mariya Lasitskene, Sandra Perkovic, Katerina Stefanidi and 2018 European champions Armand Duplantis, Paulina Guba, Michal Haratyk, Elvira Herman (pictured), Wojciech Nowicki, Paraskevi Papahristou, Thomas Röhler, Lea Sprunger, Justyna Swiety-Ersetic and Miltiadis Tentoglou.

The field line-up is particularly strong though the track line-up is without Karsten Warholm and the Ingebrigtsen brothers.

Host country Belarus has been guaranteed at least 10 places and their presence should ensure a big crowd in the 22,000 capacity Dinamo National Olympic Stadium in the Belarusian capital.

The major names on the USA squad include reigning Olympic champions Michelle Carter and Brianna McNeal as well as multiple global title winners Allyson Felix and Brittney Reese but it is hardly a full-strength American team

Britons feature heavily in the Europe team (see below panel) although the biggest UK names such as Zharnel Hughes, Dina Asher-Smith, Laura Muir, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Laura Weightman were unavailable – and Lynsey Sharp has pulled out after initially being selected.

The Match – which is a four-a-side contest in each of the individual events and features two teams apiece in the relays – will be the first ever outdoor meeting between the two teams.

The action begins at 7pm local time both days.

Click here for a timetable.

Team lists can be found here.

Britons in Minsk

Men
100m Ojie Edoburun, Adam Gemili
200m Richard Kilty
400m Rabah Yousif
800m Kyle Langford, Jamie Webb
1500m Charles Da’Vall Grice, Jake Wightman
3000m steeplechase Zak Seddon
110m hurdles Andi Pozzi
400m hurdles Chris McAlister
Triple jump Ben Williams
Hammer Nick Miller

Women
100m Imani Lansiquot
200m Beth Dobbin, Ashleigh Nelson
400m Laviai Nielsen, Jodie Williams
800m Alex Bell
1500m Eilish McColgan, Melissa Courtney
3000m Eilish McColgan
400m hurdles Meghan Beesley