Global gold medallists will battle at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne on Friday as the Wanda Diamond League kicks off.
World champions in different fields are among those heading to the Swiss city on the hunt for performances that will secure their spot in the Diamond League final back in Switzerland – at the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich – on 7-8 September.
The stacked fields feature 12 recently-crowned individual world champions, the same number of individual Olympic gold medallists from Tokyo and nine champions from last year’s Diamond League.
There is incredible quality wherever you look, including Jakob Ingebrigtsen – fresh from another European 1500m and 5000m double – against Timothy Cheruiyot, Abel Kipsang and Oliver Hoare in the shorter event, and Sifan Hassan against Ejgayehu Taye, Laura Muir and Konstanze Klosterhalfen in the 3000m.
The women’s 100m is close to a re-run of the recent world final, with all three medallists – Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah – challenging each other for the first time since Oregon as they seek points to qualify for the final.
It has been another phenomenal year for Fraser-Pryce, the 14-time global gold medallist, and it isn’t over yet. The 35-year-old won 100m gold and 200m silver in Oregon, and has dipped under 10.70 for the shorter distance a remarkable six times this season, topped by her 10.62 in Monaco earlier this month.
In Lausanne she returns to the scene of her 10.60 PB set last year, a time that puts her third on the world all-time list behind Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 10.49 world record and the 10.54 run by treble Tokyo Olympic champion Thompson-Herah in Eugene last year.
That Lausanne race was the last time Fraser-Pryce, Jackson and Thompson-Herah all clashed at a Diamond League meeting, with Fraser-Pryce winning ahead of Thompson-Herah (10.64) and Jackson (10.92).
Jackson, the world 200m winner with a best of 21.45 that makes her No.2 all-time for that distance, improved her 100m PB to 10.71 when finishing second behind Fraser-Pryce in Monaco to become the sixth-fastest ever women’s 100m runner.
Thompson-Herah has clocked 10.79 this season and Ivory Coast’s Ta Lou 10.72, while Swiss star Kambundji returns to the track fresh from her 200m triumph at the European Championships.
There’s another fierce match up in the men’s 200m. After going 1-2-3 in Monaco, USA’s Noah Lyles will line up alongside his compatriots Erriyon Knighton and Michael Norman looking to assert his dominance once again following his world title win on home soil in a PB of 19.31 – the fourth-fastest of all-time – and 19.46 win in Monaco. He has made no secret of the fact that Usain Bolt’s 19.19 world record is in his sights.
He has some top-class competition as he makes another attempt at that time, world bronze medallist Knighton having run 19.49 in April and Norman dropping down to the half lap event again after his world 400m title win in Oregon. World indoor 400m and Commonwealth 200m champion Jereem Richards joins them on the start line, along with world fourth-place finisher Joseph Fahnbulleh.
The world medallists clash in the 100m hurdles, Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan back in action after her world record and world title win in Oregon and her Commonwealth victory in Birmingham.
The 25-year-old, who ran 12.12 in the World Championships semifinals, will be hoping for another strong run as she works towards a defence of her Diamond League title in Zurich. But with a field as strong as that in Lausanne, success is not a foregone conclusion, as she takes on Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, world silver medallist Britany Anderson and former world record-holder Kendra Harrison, plus home star Ditaji Kambundji.
There’s another world and Olympic champion head-to-head in the 110m hurdles, where Oregon winner Grant Holloway – just 0.01 off the world record with his 12.81 PB in Eugene last year and with a best of 12.99 so far in 2022 – renews his rivalry with Jamaica’s Olympic gold medallist Hansle Parchment.
When it comes to finals, they have raced each other twice, with one win apiece – Parchment winning at the Olympics but then being unable to race this year’s world final due to injury, and Holloway winning their recent clash in Monaco.
Holloway’s compatriot Trey Cunningham, the world silver medallist, split the pair in Monaco and returns to the track in Lausanne, while Jamaica’s Rasheed Broadbell will hope to build on his recent Commonwealth Games victory and Jason Joseph will seek a strong run on home soil.
In the 400m, world medallists Marileidy Paulino and Sada Williams race Stephenie Ann McPherson, Candice McLeod and Natalia Kaczmarek.
Dutch star Hassan has raced sparingly this year, following a full-on 2021 in which she won Olympic titles in the 5000m and 10,000m as well as bronze in the 1500m. The 29-year-old still finished fourth and sixth in the 10,000m and 5000m respectively in Oregon and now prepares to run her second Diamond League race of the season in Lausanne.
Lining up alongside her in the 3000m – an event in which she holds the European record at 8:18.49 – will be Ethiopia’s world 5km record-holder and world indoor 3000m bronze medallist Taye, plus Britain’s European and Commonwealth 1500m champion Muir, Germany’s European 5000m champion Klosterhalfen, world 10,000m bronze medallist Margaret Kipkemboi, 2021 Diamond League winner Francine Niyonsaba, Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui, Fantu Worku and Jessica Hull.
The men’s 1500m also looks set to be a thriller, as Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen has been added to the field to take on Australia’s newly-crowned Commonwealth champion Hoare and four-time Diamond League champion Cheruiyot, who was second behind Hoare in Birmingham and won the 2019 world title as well as Olympic silver in Tokyo, plus Stewart McSweyn, Josh Kerr and Kipsang.
Another global gold medallist stars in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in the form of Morocco’s Olympic and world title winner Soufiane El Bakkali.
Courtesy of World Athletics
