Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis headlines a star-studded Diamond League meet in Oslo on Thursday that includes eight different champions from the Paris Olympics.
AFP Sport appears at 5 stand-out occasions on the sixth assembly of the 15-event Diamond League circuit the place athletes have collectively received greater than 15 particular person Olympic gold medals and over 20 world championship golds:
Ladies’s 100m
Julien Alfred made historical past on the Olympics final summer time when she received a primary ever medal for her tiny island homeland of Saint Lucia.
Her private better of 10.72sec is matched within the Oslo discipline by 36-year-old Ivorian veteran Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith.
However Alfred will possible come underneath extra stress from the British pair of Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita.
Males’s 5 000m
Oslo’s Bislett Stadium is called a venue the place world information are usually set. When a world-class discipline traces up for the 5 000m, they’ll be chasing what may very well be the 72nd world report set on the venue since Adriaan Paulen established the primary one again in 1924.
Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet missed it by simply over a second when he clocked 12:36.73 within the Norwegian capital final season.
This 12 months, each Gebrhiwet and his compatriots Yomif Kejelcha, who completed second final 12 months in 12:38.95, and Berihu Aregawi, with a private better of 12:40.45, are all lining up with one purpose in thoughts: breaking Joshua Cheptegei’s world report of 12:35.36.
Males’s 800m
If the race over 5km proves to be a mouth-watering conflict, additionally don’t rule out the 800m, the place meet organisers have introduced collectively what they are saying is the strongest line-up they’ve ever assembled.
Kenyan legend David Rudisha holds the stadium report of 1:42.04 from 2010.
However that may very well be underneath menace from compatriot and reigning Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati and France’s Gabriel Tual, respectively second, fifth and sixth quickest ever over the two-lap race.
Males’s pole vault
Duplantis stays head and shoulders above the remainder, having bettered his personal world report to six.27m in February on the again of a 2024 season when he not solely received Olympic gold but additionally broke the world report 3 times.
The US-born Swede has additionally registered the 11 highest jumps within the historical past of the game, bettering the world report one centimetre at a time from 6.17 to six.27.
He’s the undisputed king of the occasion and was additionally named Laureus World Sportsman of the Yr for 2024. Jamaican dash legend Usain Bolt is the one observe and discipline athlete to have beforehand received the award.
The world’s prime eight will compete in Oslo, three of them having cleared the 6m mark, notably Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, who received Olympic silver in Paris and has a private better of 6.01m and American Sam Kendricks (6.06).
Males’s 300m hurdles
Residence favorite Karsten Warholm headlines a glowing discipline within the 300m hurdles, an occasion that was granted official standing earlier this 12 months, however is but to have a ratified world report. The Norwegian clocked a better of 33.05sec in Xiamen this season.
Warholm, reigning world champion and world report holder within the 400m hurdles, might be up in opposition to Bislett debutant Rai Benjamin of the USA, the Olympic champion, and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos.
The trio’s private bests are the three quickest instances ever run within the 400m hurdles. Between them they personal the 19 quickest races within the occasion’s historical past and likewise received all medals at each the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Video games.
Now it’s time for crowing rights within the shortened race.
“I consider the introduction of the 300m hurdles may help herald new athletes now that the lengthy hurdles increase from one to 2 occasions,” stated Warholm.-AFP
