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Karsten Warholm breaks the world 400m hurdles record at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Oslo

Mohamed Katir wins the 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead

Stephenie-Ann McPherson in the 400m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead

It&rsquo;s all about keeping the faith.
Going into tonight&rsquo;s 1500m at the EBS Herculis meeting in Monaco, world champion Sifan Hassan announced that she had asked for a pace of 61-second laps, which would add up to a second or so under the current world record of 3:50.07.
The Dutchwoman has set world records twice previously in Monaco, most recently over the mile two years ago, and she was feeling confident after rediscovering her love for the metric mile with a victory over Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence last month.
Hassan even floated the idea of adding the 1500m back into her Olympic schedule, having previously declared that she would attempt the 5000m-10,000m double.
She locked in behind the pacemaker from the beginning, her ambition obvious. Only Kipyegon and Ethiopia&rsquo;s Freweyni Hailu dared to follow and the race was down to three when they reached the bell.
Hassan then turned the screws, but Kipyegon clung to her like a limpet down the back straight as the Dutchwoman stretched out her legs for the run home.
In the past three years races have inevitably gone Hassan&rsquo;s way in this situation, her unmatched mix of speed and endurance proving irresistible. But not this time.
As they entered the final straight Kipyegon kicked hard, dashing past her rival and sprinting down the straight to win in 3:51.07, a Kenyan record and the fourth fastest time in history. In the last 90 metres she put two-and-a-half seconds into Hassan, who finished in 3:53.60, with Hailu third in a personal best of 3:56.28. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6p4vrLh4KtM" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 Despite her recent losses to Hassan, Kipyegon said she remained confident that her day would come.
&ldquo;I knew Sifan was going for a fast race and my goal was to run a fast race here and I thank God that was,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I am really looking forward to Tokyo and I know it will be a very hard competition but I hope to go there and defend my title.&rdquo;
Kipyegon gave birth to her first child in 2018, returning in 2019 to finish second to Hassan at the World Championships in Doha, but has now found an even richer vein of form than that which carried her to the Olympic title in 2016 and the world title in 2017. &ldquo;I came back after giving birth and I feel like a role model for the young mothers out there and the young athletes,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I hope to show them that when you go for maternity leave, this does not mean the end of your career. You can come back strong and win races.&rdquo;
Fellow Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot was also a man on a mission tonight.
With his Olympic dreams hanging in the balance, the world 1500m champion dashed to the fastest time in the world for six years.
An out-of-sorts Cheruiyot was a shock fourth at the Kenyan Olympic trials last month, putting him in grave danger of missing selection. The situation has been complicated by the fact that second-placed Kamar Etiang has not completed the requisite number of anti-doping tests to qualify for the Olympic Games so his eligibility is in question.
That has left Cheruiyot in limbo just weeks before the Tokyo Games, but he thrust aside all that uncertainty to race with clear intent in Monaco.
In the fastest race of the year, he led at the bell and fought off all challenges, setting a personal best of 3:28.28 as four men dipped under 3:30. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e8b1dead7a0587741376b0.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
 Spanish surprise packet Mohamed Katir took almost five seconds from his personal best to finish second (3:28.76 national record) ahead of European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:29.25) and Australia&rsquo;s Stewart McSweyn, who set an Oceanian record of 3:29.51 in fourth.
Cheruiyot revealed afterwards that a hamstring injury and the death of a relative on the day of the Kenyan trial had affected his performance there but he still hoped to be selected for the Olympics.
&ldquo;Hopefully that will be the deciding performance to make the team for Tokyo,&rdquo; he said. 
<h2>Amos and Muir impress over two laps</h2>
On a night of high-quality middle distance running, Botswana&rsquo;s Olympic medallist Nijel Amos roared back to top form, recording the fastest time of the year to down a field full of Olympic contenders.
With his arms flailing, Amos used his awkward but effective running style to propel himself past Kenya&rsquo;s Emmanuel Kori (1:43.04) and Canada&rsquo;s Marco Arop (1:43.26).
Britain&rsquo;s Laura Muir also had the last laugh in a world-class 800m field, looming late to take the win in a big personal best of 1:56.73. Muir had never cracked 1:58 previously for the distance, but had the strength to haul in her training partner Jemma Reekie (1:56.96) and USA&rsquo;s Kate Grace (1:57.20) in the final metres as all three women set personal best times. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e8b26bad7a0587741376b6.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 Muir has decided to focus her energy on the 1500m in Tokyo but that will be no easy task as Kipyegon demonstrated.
Both 3000m steeplechase races were suffused with drama and unpredictability at the Stade Louis II.
The men&rsquo;s race descended into confusion when an official rang the bell a lap too early, but world silver medallist Lamecha Girma still managed to run a world-leading time of 8:07.75 to take the win from Abraham Kibiwot, just 0.06 behind.
In the women&rsquo;s race, 2015 world champion Hyvin Kiyeng made a break from the pack after two kilometres but misjudged the remaining laps and kicked too early. After crossing the line and hearing the bell for the actual final lap, the Kenyan tried to muster some energy to run another circuit. USA&rsquo;s 2017 world champion Emma Coburn positioned herself to challenge Kiyeng as they approached the water jump, but Coburn stumbled at the hurdle and fell into the water losing all momentum, leaving Kiyeng to take the victory in 9:03.82, with world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech second in 9:04.94 and Winfred Yavi third (9:05.45). Coburn regathered herself to cross the line in fourth place in 9:09.02. 
<h2>Baker blasts to 100m victory</h2>
There was unpredictability too in the men&rsquo;s 100m where the form book was upended as the ever-reliable Ronnie Baker claimed victory in 9.91, from African record-holder Akani Simbini (9.98) and Italian Marcell Jacobs (9.99).
World leader Trayvon Bromell, regarded by many as the man most likely to win the Olympic 100m crown in Tokyo next month, lacked his usual zip and could only finish fifth in 10.01. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a20TJdeZ30o" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 World 100m champion Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce used her early speed to take the lead on the bend in the women&rsquo;s 200m, but could not hold off the Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the straight.
Miller-Uibo, who has chosen to focus on the 200m for Tokyo, won in 22.23 from Marie-Josee Ta Lou (22.25) with Fraser-Pryce third (22.48).
New world 400m hurdles record-holder Karsten Warholm returned to the competition track for the first time since his heroics in his hometown Oslo last week, eager to challenge his new &ldquo;personal best&rdquo; of 46.70.
He made a typically aggressive start, making up the stagger by the second hurdle, but ultimately he could not match the pace he set last week, crossing the finish line in a meeting record of 47.08, still the fourth fastest time of his career and faster than all but five other men in history.
He was pleased to maintain such a consistently high level of performance. &ldquo;This was a good race so I&rsquo;m satisfied,&rdquo; he said.
Brazil&rsquo;s Alison Dos Santos continued to build his Olympic medal credentials with a strong second place in 47.51, just outside his personal best of 47.34, also set in Oslo. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e8b20aad7a0587741376b3.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
 In the field, US pole vaulter Katie Nageotte carried her fine form to Europe to clear 4.90m and claim an impressive victory over world champion Anzhelika Sidorova and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi, who both cleared 4.80m.
A tight high jump competition was decided by a jump-off after both neutral athlete Mikhail Akimenko and Canadian Django Lovett were tied with best clearances of 2.29m. Akimenko then claimed the victory by leaping 2.32m in the decider.
World triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas had a tough night at the office, fouling four of her six jumps, including two that looked like they would have challenged the world record (15.50m). She led after five rounds with a best leap of 15.12m but could not find the board in the all-important sixth round under the Final 3 format being trialled in the Diamond League this year.
Jamaica&rsquo;s Shanieka Ricketts took the win with 14.29m after she was the only one of the top three to register a legal jump in the final.
The men&rsquo;s long jump also finished with an anti-climax after Miltiadis Tentoglou was the only one to hit the board in the final round (8.24m).
The women&rsquo;s javelin was the only throwing event on the programme and saw a return to the winner&rsquo;s circle for the veteran world record-holder Barbora Spotakova, who threw a season&rsquo;s best of 63.08m in the sudden-death final round, the farthest mark ever achieved by a 40-year-old thrower.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics

Kipyegon cruises to Kenyan 1500m record in Monaco

Back in the stadium where she broke the mile world record in 2019 before her world title double in Doha, Sifan Hassan revealed that she had not ruled out targeting a treble in Tokyo.
The Dutch 28-year-old ran 4:12.33 for the mile at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco a couple of months before winning 1500m and 10,000m gold in an unprecedented performance at the World Athletics Championships.
At the Herculis EBS meeting on Friday (9) she will be hoping for another confidence-boosting run at the Stade Louis II stadium &ndash; this time in the 1500m &ndash; as she prepares for the Olympic Games, where she is entered for the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m.
Hassan had originally said that the 5000m and 10,000m would be her target in Tokyo, but running 3:53.63 to win the 1500m at the Golden Gala in Florence last month convinced her to keep her options open.
&ldquo;I had decided to do the 5000m and 10,000m, but when I ran 3:53 something inside of me &ndash; the love of 1500m &ndash; came back,&rdquo; explained Hassan, speaking at a press conference on the eve of the Herculis EBS. &ldquo;I want to keep everything until the last moment because I just want flexibility.
&ldquo;I say life is not about medals, it is not about gold, it is also about history. I made the decision to run the 1500m (in Doha) even though I didn&rsquo;t know if it was possible because nobody before had done it (the 1500m-10,000m double).&rdquo;
Hassan has already made history this year by running 29:06.82 to break the world 10,000m record at the FBK Games in Hengelo. That time took more than 10 seconds off the 29:17.45 Almaz Ayana had run to win Olympic gold in Rio but Letesenbet Gidey went even faster just two days later, running 29:01.03 on the same Hengelo track.
&ldquo;I just went fast in the last kilometre and I still managed to run a world record, 10 seconds off, and I was very happy,&rdquo; said Hassan. &ldquo;But I was also happy that it was broken after two days because I want the 10,000m to become exciting and for me it also gives me more motivation to work hard. I know the Games is not going to be easy.&rdquo; 
<h3>Warholm backs up after record run&nbsp;</h3>
Freshly-minted world record-holder* Karsten Warholm will race in Monaco for the first time since that historic 400m hurdles performance in Oslo exactly one week ago and said he was ready to perform despite all the excitement of the past week. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e74501c23a4d3b5cf34431.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="660" />
 &ldquo;I think it was just a huge relief (to run 46.70) because I have been thinking about this record for two or three years now. It&rsquo;s been a long journey and a lot of hard work," he said. &ldquo;There are a lot of fast guys now and it was very important to me that I was the first to get it from Kevin Young (who held the record for 29 years).
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a very special week, of course and it&rsquo;s extra-special because the world record is one thing but to do it at home in Oslo at the track where I train every day and also the first time having people back in the stadium in Norway, it was special to do that in front of family, friends and Norwegian fans. I am very happy, but at the same time I have been trying to cool down and get some energy back because I want to run fast in Monaco.
&ldquo;The good thing now is that I don&rsquo;t have to chase the world record any more. Now I can only chase a personal best. If expectations are high it&rsquo;s a result of me doing a good job and performing at a high level and I can live with that.&rdquo;
In his typical light-hearted style, Warholm compared the time spent waiting for the record to come with the arrival of a new baby.
&ldquo;I think this is something similar because you&rsquo;ve been waiting for this for a long time and then it happens and you get really tired afterwards,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s mental but also physical, but I have been able to land pretty well and it&rsquo;s part of my job to do good races so I really think I am ready to go again.&rdquo;
He was scheduled to race his closest challenger, American Rai Benjamin, in Monaco but Benjamin elected not to travel to Europe.&nbsp;
Warholm said he was disappointed to lose that opportunity but added that it would make their meeting in Tokyo &ldquo;even more exciting&rdquo;.&nbsp; 
<h3>Fraser-Pryce in the mood to run fast&nbsp;</h3>
Reigning world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has also arrived in Monaco in a good frame of mind having achieved one of her career goals by dipping under 10.70 at the Jamaican Olympic trials last month, where she set her personal best time of 10.63, the fastest time in the world this year.
&ldquo;I have never run 10.6 before, and what a time for that to happen," she said as she aims towards a fourth consecutive appearance on the Olympic 100m podium, and the opportunity to become the first woman to win three 100m gold medals.
But women&rsquo;s sprinting is currently at an all-time high globally and the challenge was underlined in her most recent race, where she finished second to fellow Jamaican and current Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.71) at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Hungary on Tuesday night. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e746099b5a9a7d5479a23c.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="704" />
 Fraser-Pryce said she had learned her lesson in that race and would &ldquo;use it as fuel&rdquo; for their next meeting.
She will run the 200m in Monaco, meeting Shaunae Miller-Uibo in a high-calibre race, and she hopes to improve on the 21.79 clocking she registered in Kingston two weeks ago, which is the second fastest time in the world this year.
The Jamaican female sprinters have shown exceptionally good form this year but the men have been less dominant internationally without their long-time leader, the world record-holder and triple Olympic 100m champion Usain Bolt.
Fraser-Pryce&rsquo;s advice to her countrymen is not to try to be like Bolt.
&ldquo;They don&rsquo;t need to think about filling Usain&rsquo;s shoes," she said. "Those are huge shoes to fill. They just have to focus on themselves and on showing what they have to offer to the sport.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s advice that the man seen as most likely to win the 100m in Tokyo, American Trayvon Bromell, has already taken on board.&nbsp;
He said his goal was not so much to win gold medals but to send &ldquo;a message of hope&rdquo; to children that they could succeed no matter what their circumstances.&nbsp;
With a personal best of 9.77 set this season and a win at the US Olympic Trials under his belt, &nbsp;Bromell is expecting another quick 100m race when he takes to the Stade Louis II track.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a beautiful line up, great athletes, I think we&rsquo;re going to see a lot of fast times,&rdquo; said the 2016 world indoor champion, who will face his fellow Americans Ronnie Baker and Fred Kerley &ndash; second and third behind him at the Trials &ndash; plus Canada&rsquo;s Andre De Grasse and South Africa&rsquo;s Akani Simbine. &ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s going to be a great meet all around.&rdquo; 
<h3>Rojas has 16 metres in her sights</h3>
Given her superb start to the season, it&rsquo;s no surprise to hear that Yulimar Rojas has some lofty goals and the next step on her journey as she aims for a 16-metre leap will come in Monaco.
Venezuela&rsquo;s two-time world triple jump champion jumped 15.43m in May for an outdoor PB which matches the mark she achieved in 2020 to break the world indoor record. That performance in Andujar was just seven centimetres shy of Inessa Kravets' world outdoor record, set two months before Rojas was born, and she is focused on taking things step by step as she works towards even longer leaps and the Olympic Games.
&ldquo;Monaco is always a fantastic meeting,&rdquo; said Rojas, speaking through an interpreter. &ldquo;My main objective here is to have fun and perform well. This year I have had a couple of big fouls which have given me added motivation. It makes me confident that something big is out there for me, I just have to wait for the perfect moment.&rdquo;
On having 16 metres in her sights, the 25-year-old added: &ldquo;I am someone who always thinks big. I believe working hard and dreaming big are key to achieving one&rsquo;s goals. I know 16 metres sounds unattainable, but I think it is doable for me. I will take it step by step, trust in the hard work we are doing in training and aim for it.&rdquo;
Having chosen to focus on training rather than competition so far this season, Kevin Mayer is another athlete who has gained confidence from the work he has been putting in. The world decathlon record-holder will test himself in the long jump in Monaco, as he lines up as part of a field also featuring world champion Tajay Gayle and world indoor champion Juan Miguel Echevarria.
&ldquo;I have changed a lot of things in the long jump, maybe this is the event in which I changed the most things, so I wanted to check on this one,&rdquo; explained Mayer, also speaking through an interpreter. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good rehearsal for me. I have been changing technique to avoid injuries in the high jump and long jump. I know I have made progress but I want to be sure, which is why I have come here to test myself in this event.&rdquo;
Nicole Jeffery and Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Back in the stadium where she broke the mile world record in 2019 before her world title double in Doha, Sifan Hassan revealed that she had not ruled out targeting a treble in Tokyo.

Hassan not ruling out Tokyo treble

There are so many potential highlights of Friday&rsquo;s (9) Herculis EBS meeting in Monaco, the next round of the Wanda Diamond League, that it&rsquo;s hard to know where to start in writing a preview.
The sprint and distance fields are equally stacked, as are the field events, with 10 reigning world champions, and many more Olympic and world medallists, preparing to shine in what will be the last competitive outing for many before the Tokyo Olympic Games.
In recent years, Monaco has gained a justified reputation for staging outstanding middle-distance events, with world records set in the women&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase (Beatrice Chepkoech in 2018) women&rsquo;s mile (Sifan Hassan in 2019) and men&rsquo;s 5000m (Joshua Cheptegei in 2020) in successive years and a host of other world-leading times.
This year&rsquo;s 1500m fields suggest that there are more fireworks on the way as world champion Hassan returns to one of her favourite hunting grounds to extend her growing rivalry with Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, while world champion Timothy Cheruiyot takes on European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and the rising Australian Stewart McSweyn, fresh from running the fastest mile in the world for the last seven years in Oslo.
Hassan has announced that she will take on the 5000m-10,000m double at the Tokyo Olympic Games, rather than the 1500m, so she will be determined to make her mark on the metric mile here to underline her superiority across her exceptional range.
The overall world No.1 ranked woman, Hassan is already a world record-breaker this year over 10,000m and triumphed when she and Kipyegon met in Florence over 1500m last month but had to run the fastest time of the year (3:53.63) to overcome the classy Kenyan.
The men&rsquo;s match-up is similarly enticing. Cheruiyot bounced back from the disappointment of a fourth-place finish at the Kenyan trials, which put his Olympic ambitions in doubt, to win the 1500m in Stockholm last weekend, while Ingebrigtsen overcame a world-class 5000m field, including Cheptegei, at his last outing in Florence. The young Norwegian withdrew with a minor illness from the mile in Oslo last week, where McSweyn was a commanding winner, but is expected to be back to his combative best in Monaco. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/0d19d966-fced-46f3-92e4-0f5405919089.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" /> Timothy Cheruiyot wins the 1500m ahead of&nbsp;Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Monaco&nbsp;(&copy; Philippe Fitte)
 The 800m and 3000m steeplechase line-ups are equally impressive.
The pick is probably the women&rsquo;s steeplechase where the top four women from the last world championships will meet. World champion Beatrice Chepkoech revisits the scene of her world record in need of some of that inspiration as her Kenyan compatriot Hyvin Kiyeng has dominated their meetings so far this season. But they won&rsquo;t have the race to themselves with 2017 world champion Emma Coburn, in-form German Gesa Krause and Bahrain&rsquo;s Winifred Yavi also on the start list.
The men&rsquo;s steeplechase includes five of the top eight from the last world championships, led by silver medallist Lamecha Girma.
The women&rsquo;s 800m features five of the top seven women this year, led by Rose Mary Almanza of Cuba and Jamaica&rsquo;s Natasha Goule, as well as reigning world champion Halimah Nakaayi, while the men&rsquo;s event will see the return of Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos taking on four men who have already bettered 1:44 this year, including Stockholm winner Ferguson Rotich, and US Olympic Trials winner Clayton Murphy, the world leader with 1:43.17.
Turning to the sprints, the women&rsquo;s 200m and men&rsquo;s 100m feature all-star casts.
The 200m showdown will see world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking on Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo,&nbsp;American Tamara Clark&nbsp;and the in-form Blessing Okagbare and Marie-Josee Ta Lou. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e59b43b5595e28a83b404c.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="699" /> Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead&nbsp;(&copy; Getty Images)
 The first three finishers from the US Olympic Trials &ndash; world leader Trayvon Bromell (9.77), Ronnie Baker and Fred Kerley &ndash; will feature in the 100m, taking on African record-holder Akani Simbine, fresh from his 9.84 clocking at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Hungary on Tuesday (6), and Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse.
The men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles has been denied the much-anticipated match between world record-holder Karsten Warholm (46.70) and the only other man under 47 seconds this year, American Rai Benjamin, as Benjamin decided not to travel to Europe for this race.
But Warholm, in his first race since setting that sensational world record in Oslo, will still be challenged by Brazil&rsquo;s Alison Dos Santos and Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands, who are both in career-best form.
The field offers a range of intriguing contests, not least the men&rsquo;s long jump where world champion Tajay Gayle takes on world leader Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece (8.60m), regular sparring partner Juan Miguel Echevarria and American Marquis Dendy.
Meanwhile, world triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas has been in a class of her own this year, having jumped 15.43m, and will look to extend her advantage in Monaco. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/1ae99f6e-4044-4e2d-8620-1aa679481d6d.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" /> Yulimar Rojas competes in Monaco (&copy; Philippe Fitte)
 The vertical jumps are also stacked with talent as world leader Katie Nageotte (4.95m) takes on world champion Anzhelika Sidorova, Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi and silver medallist Sandi Morris, and British record-holder Holly Bradshaw.
In the men&rsquo;s high jump, the year&rsquo;s two pace-setters will clash. World medallist Ilya Ivanyuk and Belarusian Maksim Nedasekau have both cleared 2.37m this season, Nedasekau just last night in Hungary.
The women&rsquo;s javelin offers a field worthy of the only throws event on the programme as world leader Maria Andrejczyk of Poland (71.40m) meets the world champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, world No.2 Christin Hussong and multiple world and Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova. &nbsp;&nbsp;
Zurich&rsquo;s reputation for offering the Olympics on one night could be matched in Monaco this year.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics

There are so many potential highlights of Friday’s (9) Herculis EBS meeting in Monaco, the next round of the Wanda Diamond League, that it’s hard to know where to start in writing a preview.

Top-quality clashes abound in Monaco

Two-time world champion Mutaz Barshim, world record-holder Mondo Duplantis and&nbsp;double European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen&nbsp;will be among the athletes in Athletissima action when the Wanda Diamond League makes its 10th stop of the season in Lausanne on 26 August.
Qatar&rsquo;s Barshim will highlight the men&rsquo;s high jump, which is being held for the first time in the city centre as the &ldquo;City Event&rdquo; the day before the main programme. There he will be joined by the Swiss record-holder, Loic Gasch.
Duplantis has promised to make the Lausanne meeting a priority following the Tokyo Olympics. The Swedish 21-year-old has fond memories of his last appearance, in 2020, when he jumped 6.07m to win an enthralling duel against the USA&rsquo;s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks (6.02m) during a competition organised in the city centre. This year the competition will once again take place in the stadium, where Duplantis will no doubt be keen to tackle, at the very least, the stadium record held by Piotr Lisek (6.01m).
Ingebrigtsen is set to highlight the 3000m, which could well see Mohammed Mourhit's European record of 7:26.62 fall. Ingebrigtsen already holds the continental records in the 1500m and 5000m, having broken Mourhit&rsquo;s mark in the longer event in Florence. In Lausanne, the Norwegian will have the support of his brother Filip and pace-setting Wavelight technology, which will be used for the first time at Athletissima.
The women's high jump will provide another opportunity for progression for the new star of Swiss athletics, Salome Lang, who recently broke the Swiss record with a jump of 1.97m to qualify for Tokyo. The Swiss record-holder in the 110m hurdles, Jason Joseph, has also confirmed his participation in Lausanne.
Organisers for World Athletics

Mutaz Barshim, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Mondo Duplantis will be among the athletes in Athletissima action when the Wanda Diamond League makes its 10th stop of the season in Lausanne on 26 August.

Barshim, Duplantis, Ingebrigtsen and Lang in Lausanne

Mutaz Barshim, Mondo Duplantis and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be among the athletes in Athletissima action when the Wanda Diamond League makes its 10th stop of the season in Lausanne on 26 August.

World leader Trayvon Bromell heads the 100m line-up while Malaika Mihambo will continue her Wanda Diamond League tour when the series moves on to the Muller British Grand Prix in Gateshead on 13 July.
The USA&rsquo;s 2016 world indoor 60m champion Bromell ran 9.77 in June for the fastest 100m in the world so far this year and followed that with a win at the US Olympic Trials. He will test himself again in Gateshead, as he takes on Canada&rsquo;s multiple global gold medallist Andre De Grasse and US Olympic Trials third-placer Fred Kerley, plus British athletes Adam Gemili, CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes and Reece Prescod.
&ldquo;I am really enjoying my season so far and looking forward to racing 100m at the Muller British Grand Prix,&rdquo; said Bromell, who is set to return to Diamond League action for the first time since 2016 when he competes in Monaco on 9 July. That will be his first race outside of the USA since 2019 and there he will also face De Grasse and Kerley, among others.
&ldquo;I remember running in northern England at a street athletics event in Manchester five years ago and the support was great from the fans so I am hoping there will be similar atmosphere in Gateshead.&rdquo;
After Diamond League competition in Florence, Oslo and Stockholm, Germany&rsquo;s world champion Mihambo will turn her attention to Gateshead where she will be joined in the long jump by Britain&rsquo;s world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who continues her comeback after injury, plus British long jumpers Jazmin Sawyers and Abigail Irozuru.
The seventh meeting in the Diamond League series will also feature the already-announced Dina Asher-Smith in the 200m, Sifan Hassan in the mile, Keni Harrison in the 100m hurdles, Johannes Vetter in the javelin and Katerina Stefanidi in the pole vault.
Organisers for World Athletics

World leader Trayvon Bromell heads the 100m line-up while Malaika Mihambo will continue her Wanda Diamond League tour when the series moves on to the Muller British Grand Prix in Gateshead on 13 July.

Bromell, De Grasse, Mihambo and Johnson-Thompson set for Gateshead

Three days after improving the Bislett Games pole vault record to 6.01m and attempting a world record in Oslo, Mondo Duplantis emulated that performance in front of a home Bauhaus-Galan crowd in Stockholm on Sunday (4).
A flawless series at the Wanda Diamond League meeting saw him clear each of his heights up to a meeting record of 6.02m on his first attempt before he went on to again try 6.19m three times.
As in Oslo, he was unable to add a centimetre to the world record of 6.18m he set indoors in Glasgow in February 2020, but it is not a height which looks far away.
Embracing the cheers as he was welcomed to Stockholm&rsquo;s Olympic Stadium, the 21-year-old cleared his opening height of 5.62m with ease before passing at 5.72m and then achieving 5.82m, 5.92m and 6.02m also on his first tries.
In hot conditions, with the temperature at 29 degrees at the start of the meeting, the USA&rsquo;s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks finished second and France&rsquo;s former world record-holder and seven-time Diamond Trophy winner Renaud Lavillenie third as they both cleared 5.92m.
&ldquo;Today was special,&rdquo; said Duplantis, whose next competition will be the Olympic Games in Tokyo. &ldquo;I hadn&rsquo;t felt that kind of pressure on me in quite a long time. I haven&rsquo;t been able to really jump in front of a full Swedish crowd since I became the world record-holder so having my family here, the whole home crowd rooting for me &shy;&ndash; I can&rsquo;t lose in front of them, so that&rsquo;s another level of it.
&ldquo;I wish I could have given the world record a couple more better attempts but I felt really good jumping today.&rdquo; 
<h3>No barriers for Bol and Dos Santos&nbsp;</h3>
It has been quite a week for the 400m hurdles and the races in Stockholm did not disappoint.
Femke Bol was another athlete to have made the trip to Sweden via Norway and after setting her 11th Dutch record of the year in Oslo when winning in 53.33, the 21-year-old was not far off improving that time by a whole second as she crossed the finish line in 52.37.
Following her performance on Thursday, the European indoor champion had talked about the impact of top competition and what she might be capable of in a race where she was being pushed. Stockholm saw the result of that scenario as the USA&rsquo;s 2015 world silver medallist Shamier Little fought Bol for the line, missing out on victory by just 0.02. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e1f69eef0e4489f204e273.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 The performances move the pair to fourth and fifth respectively on a world all-time list topped by Sydney McLaughlin, who broke the world record with 51.90 just the weekend before at the US Olympic Trials. Little finished fourth in that race to miss out on the team for Tokyo but returned to action in Stockholm to take 0.36 off her previous best set in 2017. Finishing third was Anna Ryzhykova, breaking the Ukranian record with 52.96.
&ldquo;I knew I was running against a really strong field and my coach and I said to each other &lsquo;okay, I&rsquo;m going to show that I can also do it under this pressure and when we push each other&rsquo;,&rdquo; said Bol, who was just three hundredths of a second off the European record. &ldquo;Shamier was coming so close and I don&rsquo;t think I have ever pushed as much in the last few metres. I am extremely happy and also that I did a good dip to win it.
&ldquo;When I run these times I am in the mix against the real good girls and I didn&rsquo;t expect it, to be honest. I hoped I could do 52.9 maybe this year and I felt I was getting close to that and now I have run one second faster. It&rsquo;s not yet making sense in my head!&rdquo;
The men&rsquo;s race took place a short while later and Brazil&rsquo;s Alison dos Santos, who was in the lane next to Karsten Warholm during his world record in Oslo and followed him over the finish line in a South American record of 47.38, also went even quicker this time. Shaving another 0.04 off that mark, he again beat Turkey&rsquo;s Olympic bronze medallist Yasmani Copello, who was third in Oslo and ran 48.19 in Stockholm. There was disappointment for Commonwealth champion Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands as he clattered the barrier when coming off the final bend and did well to stay on his feet but then fell when he clashed a hurdle on the home straight.
&ldquo;I have trained so hard for this competition, for the Diamond League in Monaco and for the Olympic Games,&rdquo; said Dos Santos. &ldquo;I am feeling confident and I am very excited for the Olympic Games.&rdquo; 
<h3>Mahuchikh leaps world lead&nbsp;</h3>
Another athlete who is rounding into top form as Tokyo approaches is Ukraine&rsquo;s world silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who cleared 2.06m over the winter for the highest indoor mark in the world for nine years. She was just three centimetres off that in Stockholm, and a single centimetre off her outdoor best she set to secure world silver in Doha, as she cleared a world-leading 2.03m before three attempts at a would-have-been PB and equal meeting record of 2.07m.
In an exciting competition, Australia&rsquo;s Nicola McDermott improved her Oceania record by a centimetre to 2.01m, while her fellow Australian Eleanor Patterson was third with a clearance of 1.96m. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e1f754ef0e4489f204e276.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 A close men&rsquo;s long jump contest was won by Jamaica&rsquo;s world champion Tajay Gayle as he saved his best leap for last &ndash; recording a wind-assisted 8.55m (2.3m/s) as the competition came down to the &lsquo;final three&rsquo;.
Cuba&rsquo;s world indoor champion Juan Miguel Echevarria took an early lead with 8.29m (1.5m/s) from his first attempt, but he was unable to respond to Gayle&rsquo;s final leap and finished second with a last jump of 8.19m. Receiving strong home support, Sweden&rsquo;s European indoor silver medallist Thobias Montler opened with a leap of 8.20m, just two centimetres off his outdoor best, then improved to 8.23m in the second round and fouled his final attempt to finish third.
The wind was swirling the other way for the winning jump in the women&rsquo;s competition, with Serbia&rsquo;s world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic leaping 6.88m into a headwind of -2.4m/s in the final round. That secured her the win ahead of Germany&rsquo;s world champion Malaika Mihambo, who jumped 6.77m (-0.2m/s) in that &lsquo;final three&rsquo; round after an earlier wind-assisted 7.02m (2.6m/s).
Like his fellow Swedish athlete Duplantis, world discus champion Daniel Stahl had also been in Oslo on the night that Warholm set his world record and before the competition in Stockholm he had not ruled out trying to make his own bit of history in front of local fans. Although he was unable to do that, and improve on his world lead of 70.55m set last month, he did claim another win with a throw of 68.23m from the final round, which followed his 68.64m in round four.
European U23 champion Kristjan Ceh placed second with 64.74m, after 66.62m in round one, while Lithuania&rsquo;s 2017 world champion Andrius Gudzius finished third with 63.43m after 66.97m in round three. 
<h3>More meeting records fall&nbsp;</h3>
Kenya&rsquo;s 2015 world champion Hyvin Kiyeng followed her win at the Kenya Olympic Games Trials with a dominant performance to win the 3000m steeplechase, breaking the meeting record with 9:04.34 ahead of Germany&rsquo;s two-time world medallist Gesa Felicitas Krause, who ran 9:09.13. Kenya&rsquo;s world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech, second behind Kiyeng in the trials, finished third in 9:10.52.
Another meeting record fell in the women&rsquo;s 800m as a brilliant battle saw Cuba&rsquo;s Rose Mary Almanza, who ran a PB of 1:56.42 in Ordizia last month, further improve to 1:56.28 to hold off Jamaican champion Natoya Goule, who came close to her best with 1:56.44. US Olympic Trials disappointment fuelled Kate Grace to a 1:57.60 PB to win in Oslo and she also went faster in Stockholm, running 1:57.36 in third as 19-year-old Keely Hodgkinson took more than a second off her PB with 1:57.51 to finish fourth.
The men&rsquo;s 1500m saw Kenya&rsquo;s world champion Timothy Cheruiyot pick up from where he left off after his world-leading time of 3:30.48 to win at the Doha Diamond League. The 25-year-old had finished fourth at the Kenyan trials but returned to winning ways to claim his third victory in as many years in Stockholm, running 3:32.30. Spain&rsquo;s Ignacio Fontes was second in a PB of 3:33.27 and Kenya&rsquo;s Ronald Kwemoi third in 3:33.53. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60e1f7fe167a0f9c5df8898c.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 A well-judged run from Kenya&rsquo;s world bronze medallist Ferguson Rotich in the men&rsquo;s 800m secured him victory in 1:43.84 as Canada&rsquo;s Marco Arop managed to hold on for a PB of 1:44.00 in second. British champion Elliot Giles, who ran 1:43.63 indoors in February, ran an outdoor best of 1:44.05 in third.
Jamaica&rsquo;s Olympic 400m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson has been focusing on the shorter sprints this season and with her Olympic 100m and 200m places confirmed, she impressed again in the half-lap event, winning in 22.10 (-0.4m/s). Multiple world medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast was second in 22.36 and Namibia&rsquo;s Beatrice Masilingi third in a national record of 22.65.
After a challenging few years on and off the track, Grenada&rsquo;s 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James claimed his first Diamond League win since 2016, clocking 44.63 to win the 400m ahead of Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s two-time world indoor 400m medallist Deon Lendore with 44.73. Liemarvin Bonevacia of the Netherlands was third in 44.80.
&ldquo;Since this is my last race before the Games, I wanted to do something a bit more special but given the circumstances with travel, all in all I am happy,&rdquo; said James, who had finished fourth at the Doha Diamond League meeting in May.
&ldquo;I have been through a lot, on a professional level and on a personal level,&rdquo; he added, reflecting on the past few years. &ldquo;On a professional level, I had this thing called Graves' disease which is a thyroid issue, and in 2019 I lost my mother, so I went back home to be with family. It has been trying but all in all, I thank god, I am still here.&rdquo;
The men&rsquo;s 100m was won by US Olympic Trials runner-up Ronnie Baker in 10.03 (0.8m/s) as he pipped Italy&rsquo;s European indoor 60m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs by 0.02. British champion Chijindu Ujah was third in 10.10.
New Zealand&rsquo;s multiple global gold shot put medallist Valerie Adams enjoyed a winning return to the Diamond League stage, recording 19.26m in the third round for the furthest throw of the competition before winning the &lsquo;final three&rsquo; with 18.65m.
Before Stockholm, the five-time Diamond Trophy winner&rsquo;s last event in the series had been the Monaco Herculis in 2018 and she backed up her 19.26m throw with 19.20m in the first round to beat Portugal&rsquo;s European indoor champion Auriol Dongmo with 18.37m, after an earlier 19.05m. The USA&rsquo;s Maggie Ewen was third with 18.25m, and she also threw 19.04m in the first round.
The non-Diamond League women&rsquo;s pole vault was won by authorised neutral athlete Polina Knoroz who cleared 4.71m, as British record-holder Holly Bradshaw was one of four athletes to clear 4.61m and finished second.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Mondo Duplantis delights the home Bauhaus-Galan crowd, while the 400m hurdles remains in the spotlight with top performances from Femke Bol and Alison dos Santos

Duplantis soars over meeting record in Stockholm

Just three days after Karsten Warholm&rsquo;s world 400m hurdles record on home soil at the Oslo Bislett Games, Sweden's Mondo Duplantis will have the chance to emulate the feat when he lines up as part of another strong pole vault field at the Bauhaus-Galan in Stockholm on Sunday (4).
It will be two Wanda Diamond League meetings in four days for Duplantis and a number of other stars as they continue on their road to Tokyo, via Sweden.
In Oslo, world record-holder Duplantis broke the meeting record with his seventh winning six metre-plus clearance of the year, including indoor performances, as he beat the USA&rsquo;s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and France&rsquo;s former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie. That was their 21st three-way clash and the trio meet again in Stockholm, joined by Poland's world bronze medallist Piotr Lisek, US Olympic Trials winner Chris Nilsen, Asian champion Ernest Obiena and Sweden&rsquo;s 2019 European indoor bronze medallist Melker Svard Jacobsson.
After his first-time clearance of 6.01m in Oslo, which came as part of a perfect scorecard up to that point, Duplantis had three attempts at 6.19m, which would have added one centimetre to his own world record set indoors in Glasgow in February 2020. &ldquo;I really think I can get that record soon,&rdquo; he said afterwards. &ldquo;It will come this season.&rdquo;
The home support and iconic Olympic Stadium venue could well make the difference this time, with 5000 spectators permitted to attend.
&ldquo;Tomorrow is special, in many ways,&rdquo; said Duplantis at the pre-event press conference. &ldquo;If we go out there and we get good conditions, in front of a home crowd, I hope to go out there and try to do something special in front of everybody.&rdquo;
World discus champion Daniel Stahl joins Duplantis in being a home star looking for a big performance on home soil. Fresh from their matching 65.72m final round throws in Oslo and their battle in Kuortane, where Stahl threw a world-leading&nbsp;70.55m and European U23 champion Kristjan Ceh broke his Slovenian record with his first 70 metre-plus throw of 70.35m, another top clash is in store, with Sweden's Simon Pettersson also among those in action.
With talk of world records, having been competing in Oslo on the night of Warholm's record run, did that motivate Stahl even further to see what he might be able to do on home soil and is Jurgen Schult's long-standing world record of 74.08m a target?
"If it is going to be great conditions tomorrow, there are a lot of possibilities," Stahl replied. "I&rsquo;m going to try to do it. But 74 metres is not the easiest to do every day, it is not like ordering a pizza! But I am going to try to do it and I think all of the guys tomorrow will throw pretty far because it is a great field, with the conditions and a lot of Viking screaming, so it&rsquo;s going to be fun."
Another field events star with experience of Stockholm who will also be keen to put on a show will be Cuba&rsquo;s world indoor long jump champion Juan Miguel Echevarria, whose marginally wind-assisted 8.83m leap in 2018 forced organisers to have to extend the long jump pit.
This time he will compete against Jamaica&rsquo;s world champion Tajay Gayle, whose national record mark of 8.69m is one centimetre further than Echevarria&rsquo;s wind-legal best. Gayle has jumped 8.27m this season, while Echevarria&rsquo;s best so far this year is 8.38m. European indoor silver medallist Thobias Montler competes on home soil, with the field also featuring South Africa&rsquo;s world bronze medallist Ruswahl Samaai.
Among those adding to the quality in the field events is New Zealand&rsquo;s shot put great Valerie Adams, as the two-time Olympic, four-time world and five-time Diamond Trophy winner returns to Diamond League competition for the first time since 2018. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/c1d43477-536f-46a3-b64f-8b21c4cc8b7e.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="657" />
 In February the 36-year-old threw 19.65m for her longest throw for five years and what she described at the time as a &ldquo;post-two-babies PB&rdquo; following the birth of her daughter in 2017 and son in 2019. Stockholm is the next step on her journey to her fifth Olympic Games in Tokyo.
"Ultimately, I am in the best shape that I have ever been after having children, and this year it was the furthest throw I have ever thrown since having two children," said Adams. "So to be still competitive at this tender age of 36, amongst my peers who are 10 years younger than me and more, is quite exciting because I am still up for the challenge, but also the love and passion for the sport is still there and still at the top of my radar."
Portugal&rsquo;s European indoor champion Auriol Dongmo has thrown 19.75m this season and the pair will be joined by Sweden's Fanny Roos, who at the pre-event press conference recalled being aged 12 and watching Adams compete in Stockholm for the first time, plus Maggie Ewen and Chase Ealey, who will be looking to prove a point after finishing fourth and fifth respectively at the US Olympic Trials to miss out on Tokyo.
The women&rsquo;s high jump features Ukraine&rsquo;s Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Australia&rsquo;s Oceania record-holder Nicola McDermott, who have both cleared 2.00m this season, while the women&rsquo;s long jump includes many of the athletes to have competed in Oslo, including winner Malaika Mihambo, Germany&rsquo;s world champion, and Serbia&rsquo;s runner-up Ivana Spanovic.
<h3> Cheruiyot looks to bounce back&nbsp;</h3>
After a strong start to the season at the Doha Diamond League where he set the world 1500m lead of 3:30.48, world champion Timothy Cheruiyot could only finish fourth at the Kenya Olympic Games Trials. He will be looking to bounce back from that as he returns to Stockholm after his wins there the past two years and takes on a field featuring Qatar&rsquo;s Adam Ali Musab, who ran 3:32.41 earlier in the year in Doha, plus Kenya&rsquo;s world indoor 3000m bronze medallist Bethwell Birgen and Spain&rsquo;s Ignacio Fontes. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/9eb99aa1-dd6d-43e1-b99e-9acc6068aaa1.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="702" />
 Kate Grace was also competing after Olympic Trials disappointment in Oslo and that fuel helped drive her to victory in a PB of 1:57.60. Cuba&rsquo;s Rose Mary Almanza ran a PB of 1:56.42 in Ordizia last month for a performance which places her second on the world rankings, while Catriona Bisset broke the Oceania record with 1:58.09 in Chorzow before finishing fourth in Oslo. Natoya Goule won the Jamaican title in 1:57.84 and British teenager Keely Hodgkinson ran 1:58.89 in Ostrava in May and races for the first time since her British title win in Manchester.
In the men&rsquo;s 800m, Kenya&rsquo;s world bronze medallist Ferguson Rotich lines up alongside world silver medallist Amel Tuka, Britain&rsquo;s Jamie Webb and Elliot Giles and Sweden&rsquo;s Andreas Kramer, while the women&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase includes 2015 world champion Hyvin Kiyeng and world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech, who finished top two in Kenya&rsquo;s Olympic trials, plus Germany&rsquo;s two-time world medallist Gesa Felicitas Krause.
<h3> Spotlight on 400m hurdles&nbsp;</h3>
With the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s world 400m hurdles records having fallen within the same week, athletes will have the opportunity to ride on that wave of excitement as both events are held in Stockholm.
In the women&rsquo;s event, 2015 world silver medallist Shamier Little, who has run 53.12 this season, races for the first time since her fourth-place finish in a US Olympic Trials race which was won by Sydney McLaughlin in a world record and which saw Little miss out on a place for the Olympics. European indoor champion Femke Bol set her 11th Dutch record of the year when winning in Oslo in 53.33 and she continues her Diamond League tour after also winning in Florence. Jamaica&rsquo;s Janieve Russell and Switzerland&rsquo;s Lea Sprunger ar among those joining them.
"I am really happy about my season&nbsp;so far," said Bol. "I am getting a PB in almost every race and that is not normal for me, so I am really happy about that.
"Tokyo is coming closer. I have three competitions close to each other &ndash; I had Oslo and now Stockholm and then Hungary &ndash; so it is nice to put them together, do a race and then two days later another one to see what you can change. So I am really excited about Tokyo." 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60de0a920007bff3714b4803.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
 The men&rsquo;s event features Brazil&rsquo;s Alison dos Santos, who was in the lane next to Karsten Warholm during his world record in Oslo and followed him over the finish line in a South American record of 47.38. Yasmani Copello was third there and is also back in action along with Commonwealth champion Kyron McMaster.
Olympic and world 400m medallist Shericka Jackson became the first Jamaican woman to go both sub-50 seconds for 400m and sub-11 seconds for 100m with her performance in the shorter event at the Jamaican Championships and in Stockholm she races the 200m, an event in which she improved her PB to 21.82 when finishing behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce&rsquo;s 21.79 in Kingston. Multiple world medallist Marie-Jos&eacute;e Ta Lou also steps up to the 200m after winning the 100m in Oslo.
London 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James ran in his first Diamond League since 2018 in Doha, where he finished fourth, and will be looking to build on that as he lines up alongside Commonwealth champion Isaac Makwala and Vernon Norwood in the 400m.
The men&rsquo;s 100m features two 9.85 men in the USA&rsquo;s Ronnie Baker and Marvin Bracy and they are joined by their compatriot Isiah Young, Italy&rsquo;s Lamont Marcell Jacobs and Britain&rsquo;s Chijindu Ujah.
The meeting also features a number of non-Diamond League events, with Holly Bradshaw, who improved her British record to 4.90m to win the national title recently, among those in action in the women&rsquo;s pole vault.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Mondo Duplantis, Juan Miguel Echevarria, Valerie Adams, Femke Bol and Timothy Cheruiyot are among the athletes competing as the Wanda Diamond League series moves on to the Bauhaus-Galan.

Stars ready to put on a pre-Tokyo show in Stockholm

Karsten Warholm might have had Rai Benjamin&rsquo;s recent run at the US Olympic Trials in mind as he took to the track in Oslo, but at the forefront of his thinking was the hard work he had put in to get to that point, and an intention to enjoy every moment.
Just 46.70 seconds after the gun went at the iconic Bislett Stadion on Thursday evening, the two-time world champion had produced quite the moment to savour.
The home crowd of 5000 went wild as the Norwegian star broke the world 400m hurdles record, taking 0.08 off the mark set by Kevin Young at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, three and a half years before Warholm was even born. As fans cheered their congratulations, Young too joined in on the action and spoke with his world record successor a short while after the all-time list had been rewritten.
&ldquo;He was happy for me, and I think he knew that it was time,&rdquo; Warholm said, with the magnitude of his performance beginning to sink in. &ldquo;But what can you say? It&rsquo;s a record that is older than me. I don&rsquo;t think this record will stand as long as his record, but it&rsquo;s just amazing.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60df4600ed4847cdba33e5b8.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="634" />
 Young&rsquo;s record had been under threat for a while and when the USA&rsquo;s world silver medallist Benjamin ran 46.83 in Eugene five days earlier, it appeared to be a matter of who would break it first. But there was no pressure felt by Warholm as he prepared for his 400m hurdles season debut. Sitting with his coach Leif Olav Alnes the day before the Bislett Games, Warholm seemed relaxed and ready.
&ldquo;We could be sitting here being all serious and just scared of tomorrow but instead we are trying to have fun,&rdquo; explained the 25-year-old. &ldquo;We are just going out there and having fun, and of course trying to be at our best level, but we shouldn&rsquo;t let the pressure get in our way.
&ldquo;That is something that Leif has taught me, that you should never let the pressure get in the way for you to be the best version of yourself.&rdquo; 
<h3>With great wisdom</h3>
Not only do Warholm and Alnes have a strong athlete-coach relationship, they are also great friends and the conversation on the eve of his world record was full of laughs and stories.
&ldquo;I think we communicate really well,&rdquo; said Alnes. &ldquo;There is not a thing in the world I am afraid to ask him or tell him &ndash; this is so comforting. We know that we want the best. He is looking after me &ndash; I am the old guy, he tells me there are no cars coming so now you can cross the street. The app world, smart phones, all those types of things. I think we are very strong together.
&ldquo;So many times people have said I am a young soul in an old body and it is vice versa for you,&rdquo; Alnes added, looking at Warholm. &ldquo;I feel extremely privileged to work with him. When I met him, he was 20. I was amazed &ndash; how can so much wisdom get into the head of a 20-year-old? I am very, very impressed.&rdquo; 
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 The feeling is clearly mutual. Their relationship, and the start of a new chapter on Warholm&rsquo;s journey to making 400m hurdles history, began in 2015, when Warholm &ndash; the 2013 world U18 octathlon champion and 2015 European U20 decathlon silver medallist &ndash; decided to switch his focus from multi events to the single one-lap discipline.
&ldquo;I figured what I liked even more than being a multi evener was to win and I wanted to go to the Olympics,&rdquo; said Warholm, reflecting on that moment. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s how we got into the 400m hurdles. It was Leif&rsquo;s suggestion in the first place and I just tagged along because in the same way I loved doing all events, I also loved doing the 400m hurdles.&rdquo;
Given his success in the event, it is easy to understand why. In 2016, the first year in which the 400m hurdles was his focus, Warholm started off by clocking 49.62 to break the Norwegian record. As the year went on he made the European final, became an Olympic semifinalist and revised his PB to 48.49.
The following year he became the world champion, clocking 48.35 in the London rain to get gold. Was it a bit of a whirlwind, achieving so much in such a short amount of time? &ldquo;Yes but no,&rdquo; Warholm replied. &ldquo;Leif was the first to say that I would be able to win the World Championships and I actually believed him.&rdquo;
Alnes joked: &ldquo;They said it should take five years, but there was something on the paper so we thought it said 0.5 years. There must have been something wrong with the printer!&rdquo;
That was just the start. After improving his best to 47.64 in 2018 when winning European gold, Warholm retained his world title in Doha in 2019 and, running 46.92 in Zurich, he moved to second on the world all-time list. There he stayed &ndash; having improved that mark to 46.87 in Stockholm in August 2020 &ndash; until Benjamin pushed him down a place the weekend before Warholm lined up in Oslo, just a few weeks out from the Olympic Games in Tokyo. 
<h3>Rivalries and Olympic aims&nbsp;</h3>
Warholm may have some lofty ambitions but he doesn&rsquo;t allow himself to become overwhelmed by them. Just as the performances by his rivals motivate, rather than intimidate, him.
&ldquo;I think the things that motivate you can also create some fear,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And I refuse to make my living and what I am working and striving towards become my fear.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Your competitors push you, of course, but I have been sticking to our plan and focusing on Tokyo, and I am still going to focus on Tokyo but it is very nice for the confidence to break the world record. The 400m hurdles for both men and women, it&rsquo;s a big event right now and I&rsquo;m really happy to be able to be a part of it. We are here to entertain and these duels and head-to-heads, they are going to be something for everybody to remember.
"It might take another world record to win the Olympics. There are such a lot of great guys out there at the moment who will all be aiming to do it and win gold. I am happy that there is such great competition."
He also believes he has more to give.
&ldquo;I felt like it was the perfect moment,&rdquo; he explained, reflecting on his world record. &ldquo;I had my home crowd here and it is the biggest happening in Norway since the start of the pandemic. Everything was set for me to do big things but at the same time, I think I was able to keep focused on the things that I knew that I had to do. You don&rsquo;t think about the world record as you are going around, it&rsquo;s the gun shot and then you just go and do the thing that you have been working really hard for. I had the best training winter of my whole life and I have taken big steps and now I am here to push it even further.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60df47f1ed4847cdba33e5bb.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 The race feedback from coach will help to identify how he might do that. Asked whether he felt emotional seeing Warholm&rsquo;s world record performance, Alnes replied: &ldquo;I was happy. I am at work, so I am doing my nerd thing. I film it, so I can analyse it. I can go back and see it without cutting angles or whatever, so I can get precise measurements and that&rsquo;s my passion. I am always looking for errors that can be fixed but I won&rsquo;t tell him today. Today is all joy, some ice cream maybe, and then tomorrow we have to get greedy again.&rdquo;
Given what was unfolding in front of the camera lens, did he manage to capture the whole thing &ndash; there was no wobble?
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very calm, but it wobbled afterwards,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In London (2017 World Championships) I lost the last two hurdles because Amalie (Warholm&rsquo;s training partner and Norwegian record-holder Amalie Iuel) was screaming. This time I said &lsquo;you don&rsquo;t dare to do that before he has finished!&rsquo;. But I like it when people show emotions. I am very happy, but I am just controlling it.&rdquo;
There was no hiding Warholm&rsquo;s understandable emotion as he crossed the finish line and saw 46.70 on the clock, letting out a roar before sinking down to his knees.
&ldquo;I'm going to enjoy this moment,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;To be able to do it in front of my home crowd, it's something for the books. I'm going to remember this forever. One day I'm going to sit in my chair, being old and eating soup, and I'm going to think about this moment where I was young and strong and able to do these kinds of things. I'm very happy and humbled to be able to create this history.
&ldquo;I also want to thank my coach,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;It's very special. I think just by his presence you can tell that this is a guy that is very good to have on your team.&rdquo;
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Karsten Warholm might have had Rai Benjamin’s recent run at the US Olympic Trials in mind as he took to the track in Oslo, but at the forefront of his thinking was the hard work he had put in to get to that point, and an intention to enjoy every moment.

How no fear and having fun helped Warholm to his world record in Oslo

Just five days after being pushed down a place on the world 400m hurdles all-time list, Norwegian star Karsten Warholm responded in sensational style to smash Kevin Young&rsquo;s long-standing world record, clocking 46.70* at the Oslo Bislett Games, this season&rsquo;s fourth Wanda Diamond League meeting, on Thursday (1).
Speaking at the pre-event press conference, two-time world champion&nbsp;Warholm&nbsp;had highlighted the impact of top-class rivalries. &ldquo;Your competitors are what really push you towards bigger things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If it was only me running quick times, I wouldn&rsquo;t need to push it any further, but with people there running fast times, I need to take a step up as well.&rdquo;
He certainly did that when racing in front of a home crowd of 5000 at the Bislett Stadion.
Although he didn&rsquo;t have huge pressure from the athletes alongside him on the track, the 46.83 run by Rai Benjamin at the US Olympic Trials just a few days before was fresh in the memory. That mark had replaced Warholm&rsquo;s previous best of 46.87 set in Stockholm last August as No.2 all-time behind Young&rsquo;s 46.78 world record run at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. But in Oslo, Warholm shaved 0.08 off that mark. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60de232d05332ad92ff4ced9.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
 On a warm and cloudy evening, which welcomed fans for the biggest gathering of people in Norway since the start of the pandemic, Warholm was greeted with a wall of cheers and chants of &lsquo;Karsten, Karsten&rsquo;. Lining up in his lucky lane seven with Brazil&rsquo;s Alison dos Santos to his left and France&rsquo;s Ludvy Vaillant on his right, Warholm blasted from the blocks. He had clearly closed the stagger by the first barrier and was well ahead going into the final bend. Clearing the final hurdle &ndash; the one which he so slightly clipped in the final stages of his 46.87 in Stockholm &ndash; there were no other barriers in his way as he roared over the finish line with his arms spread wide to a time of 46.70 on the clock.
Dos Santos was second, finishing fast to improve his South American record to 47.38, and Turkey&rsquo;s Yasmani Copello was third in 48.86.
"It's very special to be the first to beat Kevin Young's world record," said Warholm, who is coached by Leif Olav Alnes. "It has been really tough sitting at home and doing hard work and knowing that people are taking a shot at that world record for a long time, and seeing how Rai ran at the Trials. All respect to my competitors but it's very special and nice for me to be able to be the first to break that world record. It was important to me.
"It is very special to do it here in Bislett in front of a great crowd including my friends and family. This is my first 400m hurdles of the season, so I really think there is more in the tank."
After witnessing Warholm's performance, Young said: "The phones are ringing! What an amazing race. I enjoyed it and for now I have the Olympic record.&rdquo;
On Tokyo and Warholm's potential head-to-head with Benjamin, Young added: &ldquo;To win, either Rai or Karsten will have to have the race of a lifetime.&rdquo;
Fans will not have long to wait until the next instalment in what is proving to be a top rivalry, as Warholm and Benjamin will be going head-to-head at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco on 9 July.
With Sydney McLaughlin having clocked 51.90 at the US Olympic Trials on Sunday, it means both the women's and men's world records have been broken within the same week.
<h3>Duplantis attempts 6.19m&nbsp;</h3>
That wasn&rsquo;t the only world record action of the evening as over in the pole vault Sweden&rsquo;s Mondo Duplantis had three attempts at improving his own global mark to 6.19m.
It wasn&rsquo;t to be on this occasion but a clearance of that height does not look far away and the 21-year-old achieved yet another six metre-plus performance, clearing 6.01m to break the meeting record. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60de1529cd29382979254aff.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 Duplantis has competed in a range of weather conditions so far this season and the world silver medallist &ndash; who cleared his 6.18m world record indoors in Glasgow in February 2020 &ndash; made the most of the warm temperatures, crowd support and world-class competition in Oslo. Meeting the USA&rsquo;s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and France&rsquo;s former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie in a three-way clash for the 21st time, Duplantis notched one more win on to his tally, taking it to six consecutive wins in this three-way contest.
Opening with a first-time clearance of 5.61m, Duplantis went on to clear 5.81m, 5.91m and 6.01m on his first attempts before his three tries at 6.19m.
Kendricks finished second as he soared over 5.91m on his third attempt, while Lavillenie was third with a best of 5.81m.
&ldquo;I felt really good out there. We could really feel the energy in the stadium,&rdquo; said Duplantis. &ldquo;Sometimes you just have that feeling and tonight I knew I could get six metres but of course, it is never easy.
&ldquo;I really think I can get that record soon. It will come this season.&rdquo;&nbsp; 
<h3>Kejelcha shows his speed&nbsp;</h3>
Back on the track, two-time world indoor 3000m champion Yomif Kejelcha stormed to seventh on the world all-time list for the distance outdoors, clocking 7:26.25 to also move to third on the Ethiopian all-time rankings behind only Haile Gebrselassie &ndash; whose meeting record he broke &ndash; and Kenenisa Bekele. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60de0a590007bff3714b4800.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 Running with Wavelight technology, Kejelcha followed the lights and pacemaker Vincent Kibet through 1000m in 2:32.04 before taking over to pass 2000m in 5:02.37. From there the pace picked up and he left the lights, as well as Kenya&rsquo;s Jacob Krop, behind at the bell. Striding away along the backstraight he went on to win by almost four seconds, with Krop second in 7:30.07 and Nicholas Kimeli third in 7:31.33 as the top eight all ran PBs. They included Bahrain&rsquo;s Birhanu Balew with 7:33.05 for fourth and home favourite Filip Ingebrigtsen who ran 7:34.00 to finish fifth.
The men&rsquo;s mile was titled the Svein Arne Hansen Dream Mile, in tribute to the event&rsquo;s long-time meeting director and president of European Athletics, who died last year. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe shared a video message in memory, as a moment of silence was held for the man who helped to make the meeting the great success it is today.
The race was run fittingly, with Australia&rsquo;s Stewart McSweyn breaking Craig Mottram's 3:48.98 Oceania record with a world-leading 3:48.37 as the top six all set PBs. McSweyn adds this latest mark to the Australian records he holds for 1500m (3:30.51) and 3000m (7:28.02).
Behind him in Oslo, Marcin Lewandowski finished second in a Polish record of 3:49.11 and Australia&rsquo;s Jye Edwards was third in 3:49.27. Norway&rsquo;s double European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen had withdrawn on the eve of the race due to a sore throat.
An exciting women&rsquo;s 5000m saw Kenya&rsquo;s two-time world champion Hellen Obiri bounce back after defeats at the Kenyan Olympic Trials and the Doha Diamond League, running 14:26.38 to beat Ethiopia&rsquo;s Fantu Worku, who ran a PB of 14:26.80, and Kenya&rsquo;s Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi with 14:28.24. Eilish McColgan broke Paula Radcliffe&rsquo;s 17-year-old British record, running 14:28.55 to finish fourth. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60de1605cd29382979254b02.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
 After finishing seventh in the US Olympic Trials,&nbsp;Kate Grace ran the 800m race of her life, clocking a big PB of 1:57.60 to beat Uganda's world champion&nbsp;Halimah Nakaayi, runner-up in&nbsp;1:58.70, and Switzerland's Lore Hoffmann as the first five all dipped under two minutes. 
<h3>Another national record for Bol</h3>
European indoor 400m champion Femke Bol achieved an impressive 11th Dutch record of the year, also breaking the European U23 record with 53.33 to secure 400m hurdles victory ahead of Ukraine&rsquo;s European silver medallist Anna Ryzhykova with a 54.15 PB and Viktoriya Tkachuk with 54.62.
The 21-year-old Bol has taken her 400m hurdles best from 55.32 in 2019 to 53.79 in 2020, and her time in Oslo means she has improved that mark by a further 0.46 this year.
"It's crazy!" said a delighted Bol. "Today I was really enjoying the big crowd and I thought, execute the race as best as possible and to get a new national record is really insane."
Racing into a -1.0m/s headwind, Canada&rsquo;s Olympic and world medallist Andre De Grasse dominated the men&rsquo;s 200m in 20.09 from his compatriot Aaron Brown, who ran 20.38. In the women's 100m, Ivory Coast&rsquo;s three-time world medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou dipped below 11 seconds with a legal wind for the first time this season, clocking 10.91 (-0.3m/s) to pip Britain&rsquo;s Daryll Neita with 11.06 and Switzerland&rsquo;s Ajla Del Ponte with 11.16.
After a top contest at the Kuortane Games in Finland the weekend before, Daniel Stahl and Kristjan Ceh again went head-to-head in the discus but this time their final-round performances exactly matched. With the competition following the &lsquo;final three&rsquo; format, both athletes achieved 65.72m in the last round, with Sweden's world champion Stahl having also thrown 68.65m in round five and Ceh recording 66.68m in round four.
Germany&rsquo;s world champion Malaika Mihambo leapt 6.83m (-0.3m/s) in the final round of the women&rsquo;s long jump to win after recording 6.86m in round two, with world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic securing second after her last leap of 6.61m. She also jumped 6.66m in the first round. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60de1bf611389e0037f5e68e.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 Algeria&rsquo;s Yasser Triki leapt 17.23m (-0.5m/s) to claim the men&rsquo;s triple jump win, achieving that in the &lsquo;final three&rsquo; round and backing it up with 17.24m from the first round. Cuba&rsquo;s Andy Diaz finished second with his sole leap of 16.78m (0.3m/s) from his first attempt after he pulled up in the final round, while Portugal&rsquo;s Tiago Pereira fouled the final round but jumped 16.64m (-0.5m/s) on his third attempt.
Germany&rsquo;s European champion Christin Hussong won the women&rsquo;s javelin, throwing 62.62m in round three and then winning the final round with 60.95m, which beat world leader Maria Andrejczyk&rsquo;s 60.35m and Kelsey-Lee Barber&rsquo;s 59.30m. Andrejczyk had earlier thrown 62.67m and Barber 60.86m, both in the fifth round.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
*Subject to the usual ratification procedure

Just five days after being pushed down a place on the world 400m hurdles all-time list, Norwegian star Karsten Warholm responded in sensational style to smash Kevin Young’s long-standing world record, clocking 46.70* at the Oslo Bislett Games.

Warholm breaks world 400m hurdles record with 46.70 in Oslo

There&rsquo;s nothing quite like being bumped down the world all-time list to fire up an athlete.
Perhaps that&rsquo;s just the impetus Karsten Warholm needed ahead of the Oslo Bislett Games on Thursday (1) when he will make his 2021 Wanda Diamond League debut.
The two-time world champion has come close to the world 400m hurdles record of 46.78 on several occasions over the past two years. He has twice broken 47 seconds and owns five other performances within half a second of Kevin Young&rsquo;s long-standing mark.
But last weekend Warholm slipped from second to third on the world all-time list after USA&rsquo;s Rai Benjamin clocked 46.83 to win the US Olympic Trials in Eugene.
On Thursday when Warholm races in front of his home crowd, he will want to at least reclaim his No.2 spot on the world all-time list. His bigger target, though, will be to break Young&rsquo;s record once and for all.
In his one indoor race this year, he clocked a world-leading 300m flat PB of 32.47. And in his only outdoor appearance to date, he broke his own 300m hurdles world best with 33.26 &ndash; half a second faster than his previous best for the distance.
If the 25-year-old goes out at world record pace in Oslo, there&rsquo;s little chance his opponents will pose much of a threat. But Brazil&rsquo;s Alison Dos Santos, Ireland&rsquo;s Thomas Barr, 2016 European champion Yasmani Copello and Estonia&rsquo;s Rasmus Magi will all be looking to sharpen their season&rsquo;s bests as they count down the final few weeks ahead of the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
"It is always special to be running at the Bislett Games," said Warholm at the pre-event press conference. "I did the 300m hurdles a month ago and that was a nice start for me and now I'm really looking forward to doing my favourite event &ndash; I think it's going to be really good. I feel very prepared, inspired and motivated."
After Oslo, Warholm is set to go <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/news/monaco-herculis-2021-benjamin-warholm-thomas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">head-to-head with Benjamin at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco</a>, and talking about the standard in the event, he added: "This is why I am in it &ndash; I am in it to perform, to be up against the big guys and give them a hard time. Either I win or I lose, but I will always give it my all. This is the fun part now because if the medals were handed out before the competition there wouldn't be anything interesting about it. We need to have these duels and these head-to-heads.
"Tomorrow is also going to be a very fun race with a lot of good athletes and exciting talent so it's going to be a tough fight as well. It's not an easy start for me!"
After her surprise defeat over 3000m in Doha last month, two-time world champion Hellen Obiri hopes to return to winning ways in Oslo over 5000m. She gained revenge on world U20 champion Beatrice Chebet, the winner in Doha, at the recent Kenyan Trials where Obiri finished three places ahead of her younger rival in the 5000m. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/26a62c8c-95d4-40d7-9c91-e34b3fa80096.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
 But the Kenyan duo will have to be at their best again on Thursday as they&rsquo;ll take on world silver medallist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, Ethiopian duo Tsehay Gemechu and Fantu Worku, and European silver medallist Eilish McColgan. 
<h2>Clash of the pole vault titans</h2>
Let it never be said that the world&rsquo;s best pole vaulters avoid competition; the Bislett Games will be the 21st time that Mondo Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie have had a three-way clash.
Duplantis, the world record-holder, has won their past five encounters, but two-time world champion Kendricks has the overall edge, the US vaulter coming out on top 11 times to date. Lavillenie, meanwhile, has won just two of those 20 contests so far, but someone as consistent and as experienced as the Frenchman can never be written off.
Duplantis heads to Oslo off the back of a world-leading 6.10m vault in Hengelo, which was followed by a 6.00m clearance in horrid conditions in Karlstad. Whatever the weather in Oslo &ndash; and fortunately the forecast for Thursday is very good &ndash; Duplantis has shown he can pretty much jump 6.00m on any given day. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/28ea9d31-9501-4fe3-9891-c1672932d0e7.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 Kendricks has finished in the top two of all of his competitions so far this year and has a season&rsquo;s best of 5.86m. Lavillenie, however, recently vaulted 5.92m in Chorzow &ndash; his best outdoor clearance for three years.
"I don't think we have all competed together (outdoors) since 2019, so it is really good to be back together," said Kendricks. "I think we're all champing at the bit to try to jump high for you guys, so hopefully tomorrow is the day."
World discus champion Daniel Stahl has won seven of his past eight competitions, but this looks set to be his toughest test of the year so far.
The Swede will face Kristjan Ceh, the Slovenian who set a national record of 70.35m to finish a close second to Stahl in Kuortane last week; Fedrick Dacres, the Jamaican who finished second to Stahl at the 2019 World Championships; Andrius Gudzius, the Lithuanian who preceded Stahl as world champion; and Simon Pettersson, the fellow Swede who handed Stahl his most recent defeat.
Polish javelin thrower Maria Andrejczyk produced one of the early shocks of the outdoor season when she went to No.2 on the world all-time list with 71.40m in Split in May. Like Stahl, Andrejczyk faces a strong line-up in Oslo.
Germany&rsquo;s Christin Hussong finished second to Andrejczyk in Split, but has been undefeated in her seven competitions since then, also improving her PB to 69.19m. World champion Kelsey-Lee Barber, world record-holder Barbora Spotakova and 2016 European champion Tatsiana Khaladovich are also in the field.
In the jumps, world champion Malaika Mihambo takes on world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic and European indoor champion Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk in the women&rsquo;s long jump. Cuban duo Jordan Diaz and Andy Diaz line up against Algeria&rsquo;s Yasser Mohamaed Triki and Germany&rsquo;s Max Hess in the men&rsquo;s triple jump. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/1a189a41-e633-4831-bee8-1f80f90a6b90.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
<h2> Nakaayi, Bol and Kejelcha among the other track headliners</h2>
Uganda&rsquo;s Halimah Nakaayi looks to be rounding into the form that carried her to a surprise world 800m title in Doha two years ago. She lines up for her specialist distance in Oslo and will take on Australia&rsquo;s Catriona Bisset, who recently broke the Oceanian record with 1:58.09, as well as Germany&rsquo;s Katharina Trost and Norwegian record-holder Hedda Hynne.
World 10,000m silver medallist Yomif Kejelcha steps down in distance to the 3000m &ndash; the event in which he is a two-time world indoor champion. The Ethiopian will face Kenya&rsquo;s Nicholas Kimeli, Michael Kibet, Bethwell Birgen and Bahrain&rsquo;s Birhanu Balew.
The Svein Arne Hansen Dream Mile, which has been named in honour of the former Bislett Games meeting director and European Athletics President who died last year, will feature recent Kenyan Trials winner Charles Simotwo, world bronze medallist Marcin Lewandowski and Australian record-holder Stewart McSweyn. Jakob Ingebrigtsen had been set to compete, but he withdrew on Wednesday after picking up a sore throat.
Femke Bol will start as the strong favourite in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles. Ukrainian pair Viktoriya Tkachuk and Anna Ryzhykova are also in good form, though.
World Indoor Tour winner Javianne Oliver will make her first competitive appearance since finishing second in the 100m at the US Trials, booking her spot on her nation&rsquo;s team for the Tokyo Olympics. Once again racing over 100m, the 10.96 sprinter will face 2017 world silver medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou, European indoor champion Ajla del Ponte, and Olympic long jump champion Tianna Bartoletta, who has returned to sub-11-second form this year.
Canada&rsquo;s world and Olympic silver medallist Andre De Grasse, a winner in Oslo over 100m in 2016 and 2017, will be looking for his first 200m victory in the Norwegian capital. Joining him on the start line are Aaron Brown, winner of the sprint double at the recent Canadian Trials, and Botswana&rsquo;s Isaac Makwala.
"The last time I was here was in 2017 and I ran the 100m, of course in different circumstances," said&nbsp;De Grasse. "There was a great crowd and I had a good race. It feels good to be back here again."
Having clocked&nbsp;19.89 &ndash; his third-quickest ever time &ndash; to finish second at the Doha Diamond League at the end of May, he added: "I usually don&rsquo;t start off the season that quick so for me to run my third-fastest time in the 200m, that feels really good. It&rsquo;s just knowing that my training is going really well and that my preparation for Tokyo is coming on good."
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

There’s nothing quite like being bumped down the world all-time list to fire up an athlete.

Highly motivated Warholm ready for his first big race of the year in Oslo

Rai Benjamin vs Karsten Warholm in the 400m hurdles and Gabby Thomas taking on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Blessing Okagbare over 200m are among the world-class clashes set for the Meeting Herculis EBS &ndash; part of the&nbsp;Wanda Diamond League&nbsp;&ndash; in Monaco on 9 July.
The USA&rsquo;s Benjamin and Norway&rsquo;s Warholm have not raced each other since the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, where Warholm won their battle to retain his title. Now world silver medallist Benjamin is the second-fastest 400m hurdler of all time, having missed Kevin Young&rsquo;s world record by just 0.05 with 46.83 at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene on Saturday (26), while Warholm is getting ready to make his season debut in the discipline at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Oslo on Thursday (1), having broken the world 300m hurdles best with 33.26 in the same city earlier this month.
Warholm ran 46.87 in Stockholm last August, a mark which places him third on that world 400m hurdles all-time list behind Young and Benjamin, with a highly-anticipated head-to-head in store just three weeks out from the Olympic Games.
They will be joined in Monaco by Commonwealth champion Kyron McMaster and world finalist Alison Dos Santos, who sit second and third on this season&rsquo;s world rankings with their respective times of 47.50 and 47.57, plus 2019 European U23 champion Wilfried Happio. 
<h3>Stars set for superb 200m</h3>
Thomas joined Benjamin in becoming the world all-time No.2 in her event at the US Olympic Trials as she clocked 21.61 for 200m - a time only Florence Griffith-Joyner has ever bettered. Now for the first time she will line up alongside Jamaica&rsquo;s multiple global gold medallist Fraser-Pryce, who ran a PB of 21.79 to complete a sprint double at the recent Jamaican Championships, just three weeks after she too moved to second on the all-time list behind Griffith-Joyner with 10.63 for 100m.
Adding to the quality is Olympic 400m champion&nbsp; Miller-Uibo, who has a best of 21.74 from 2019, and 2013 world bronze medallist Okagbare, who ran her PB of 22.04 in 2018 and clocked a wind-assisted 10.63 for 100m earlier this month.
Also in the sprint spotlight in Monaco will be Trayvon Bromell, Fred Kerley, Akani Simbine, Andre De Grasse, Ronnie Baker, Lamont Marcell Jacobs, Jimmy Vicaut and Filippo Tortu, who are all listed for the men&rsquo;s 100m.
Having made a successful comeback after injury, Bromell leads the world rankings with the 9.77 PB he set in Florida earlier this month and he won the US title in 9.80, beating Baker (9.85 PB) and Kerley (9.86 PB), who will join him on the US team for Tokyo.&nbsp;
Jacobs has run 9.95 this year, while Simbine and De Grasse have both clocked 9.99.
Other athletes previously announced for the meeting include Sifan Hassan and Faith Kipyegon in the women's 1500m, Timothy Cheruiyot in the men's 1500m and Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump, with the <a href="https://monaco.diamondleague.com/en/programme-resultats-monaco-en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">entry lists now published</a>.
World Athletics

Rai Benjamin vs Karsten Warholm in the 400m hurdles and Gabby Thomas taking on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Blessing Okagbare over 200m are among the world-class clashes set for the Meeting Herculis EBS.

World-class clashes confirmed for Monaco

When the Oslo Bislett Games found itself without a title sponsor after its 2016 season, meeting director Steinar Hoen was faced with a critical decision. Should he seek out another title sponsor to replace Exxon Mobil, a partner of the previous 29 years, or should he steer one of the world&rsquo;s premiere one-day meetings &ndash; and Norway&rsquo;s biggest annual sporting event &ndash; into an entirely different direction?
Choosing to usher in a new era, Hoen went with the latter, forging a path that would turn the Norwegian capital&rsquo;s historic Wanda Diamond League fixture into the most environmentally sustainable track and field meet on the planet.
Sure, the competition in that sphere wasn&rsquo;t especially fierce half a decade ago, but that didn&rsquo;t keep Hoen and his team from cobbling together an operating example that has rapidly become an important model for others, both inside and outside of athletics, to emulate as organisations across all industries, sport included, seek ways to decrease their CO2 emissions to help combat climate change.
Over the course of just three editions (2017-2019), the Oslo meeting has managed to reduce its carbon emissions by nearly 40 percent and its travel costs by a third. And that&rsquo;s just the start of what has resulted from an operating decision that Hoen insists was simply &ldquo;a no-brainer&rdquo;. 
<h2>Joining the clean energy transition</h2>
The end of the Exxon Mobil sponsorship after the 2016 edition, Hoen said, &ldquo;forced us to think differently, and often in that kind of situation you can make a real change.&rdquo;
That change involved a meaningful shift towards operating the meeting in a more environmentally sustainable way to best contribute to the global fight against climate change - and to seek sponsors whose motivations aligned with that mission. Hoen believed that such shifts were inevitable as the global transition to clean energy continues to gather pace. He simply decided to act sooner rather than later, a decision that also gave him a first mover advantage.
&ldquo;In my view the change would have come anyway,&rdquo; Hoen said. &ldquo;We are now in the fourth industrial revolution. It is going to be digital and green. So this change would have come anyway because it simply will be cheaper to use renewable energy in the years to come. Fossil fuel's time is limited, renewables are getting cheaper. Financially it is smart to think and work this way, so it really was a no-brainer.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/ae5a781c-00b0-465d-bd7a-cd8cb8fe14ed.png" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
<h2>Reputational damage</h2>
As a fierce advocate for environmental sustainability, Hoen wasn&rsquo;t sorry to see his meeting and Exxon Mobil, one of the world&rsquo;s largest oil companies, part ways. As the public&rsquo;s attitudes towards fossil fuels began to shift, Hoen says, the partnership led to reputational challenges that began to impact how other sponsors viewed their relationship with the Bislett Games.
"It started becoming difficult to get other partners to promote the meet,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I started to feel already in 2014 and 2015 that the name Exxon Mobil Bislett Games was not a good name. Because I had other sponsors, and they used to go out and advertise the meet in their internal and external media, saying they were a proud sponsor of Exxon Mobil Bislett Games. But they stopped that. They didn't want to associate with the name Exxon Mobil. This started before (Exxon Mobil) dropped out. That was a very interesting story.&rdquo;
Indeed, by 2014, activists protesting Exxon&rsquo;s oil drilling in the Arctic Circle and North Sea became as common outside of the stadium as the autograph collectors that converge on each Diamond League stop. That year, 14 Greenpeace activists were arrested after raising a large banner outside of the stadium with a crane to protest the oil giant&rsquo;s explorations in the Arctic. 
<h2>Going without a title sponsor</h2>
But Hoen also knew it would be impossible to find a title sponsor to fill the financial hole Exxon Mobil&rsquo;s departure left, a sizable financial stake that took nearly three decades to build.
&ldquo;We simply didn&rsquo;t even try because we saw it as extremely unlikely. So we decided that we could go one hundred and eighty degrees and dropped everything we did before. My plan was to not have a title sponsor and just call it Oslo Bislett Games, then go out to about eight to ten companies that we needed to be the most sustainable track and field meeting in the world. We needed a recycling company, we needed a clean energy company, we needed a car company that already had electric cars, and we needed a certification company that would certify that we were actually doing what I said we would do.&rdquo;
With what he calls the &ldquo;reputational catastrophe&rdquo; of being linked to Exxon Mobil now gone, those companies were quick to come on board, including Storebrand, a large national insurance company who five years earlier had terminated all of its sponsorship arrangements with football clubs and sporting events because it only wanted to partner with organisations that had purposeful sustainability strategies.
All the new sponsors, Hoen said, &ldquo;wanted to be associated with something like us - the sustainable version.&rdquo;
That was in the second half of 2016. Since then, Hoen says, &ldquo;it's been kind of a miracle. We are totally sold out (sponsor-wise). Now we can go out and pinpoint exactly who we want.&rdquo;
Hoen bought his first electric car, a Tesla, in 2014, which he had to park 200 metres away from his office at Bislett Stadium when he had meetings with Exxon Mobil representatives. Now, that would no longer be necessary. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/314dca13-560c-4388-94d8-7e5f49f01d18.png" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
<h2>Reducing the carbon footprint</h2>
So, for the benefit of those who have never been to the Bislett Games, how does this all this look?
The most obvious examples are related to travel, one of the biggest contributors to a sporting event&rsquo;s carbon emissions.
From the moment athletes, their support staff and others involved with the meeting arrive in the Norwegian capital&rsquo;s Gardermoen Airport, their travel is emission free. Instead of traveling by car, they take a train from the airport to the city&rsquo;s central rail station, located just a three-minute walk from the meeting hotel. In the days leading into the meeting, electric vehicles shuttle them to training venues. Recalling the 2017 edition, the first under the new regime, Hoen said, "for many of the athletes, that was the first time they rode in an electric car." The municipality has since added electric trams and buses to its public transport fleet, which reduces the spectators&rsquo; carbon footprint.
Additionally, Oslo and Stockholm organisers have agreed to schedule their meetings within the same week to further reduce their emissions. Athletes competing at both meetings travel by train, a sponsorship the national rail service welcomed with open arms.
"They were delighted to have the biggest stars in Norway and Sweden on board. They had Karsten Warholm on board. And it didn't cost them anything. They just added another wagon."
Travel restrictions in place at the moment due to the Covid-19 pandemic have halted the train connection for this year&rsquo;s meetings, but are still in place and will resume in 2022. Working with other Diamond League organisers, including Zurich, who have had their own sustainability strategy in place since 2009, and World Athletics, Hoen hopes to increase similar travel arrangements across the series.
The Bislett Alliance also operates Bislett Stadium which has given them the ability to completely overhaul how the facility is powered. They have installed solar panels and state-of-the-art back-up battery packs and improved the efficiency of its waste management system to reduce waste and cost.
The result?
A 39 percent reduction in the meeting&rsquo;s CO2 emissions since the 2016 edition, and 35 percent savings in their travel costs over the same period. In 2018 the meeting obtained ISO 20121 certification for its sustainability efforts, a first in Norway, and has been recertified annually since. With the &ldquo;big things&rdquo; such as travel-related carbon out of the way, Hoen and his team will now focus on smaller pieces to further reduce their footprint.
Since the meeting&rsquo;s transition, Hoen said he&rsquo;s talked about his meeting&rsquo;s sustainability journey hundreds of times, and the requests for more presentations keep coming in.
&ldquo;What I wanted to teach is that if you do this, it's smart - environmentally, economically and reputationally.&rdquo;
Bob Ramsak for World Athletics

When the Oslo Bislett Games found itself without a title sponsor after its 2016 season, meeting director Steinar Hoen was faced with a critical decision. Should he seek out another title sponsor to replace Exxon Mobil, a partner of the previous 29 years, or should he steer one of the world’s premiere one-day meetings – and Norway’s biggest annual sporting event – into an entirely different direction?

Calendar 2021
Date	Meeting	Venue	Country	Info
23 MAY 2021	Müller Grand Prix Gateshead	International Stadium, Gateshead	GBR	Result
28 MAY 2021	Diamond League Meeting	Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium, Doha	QAT	Result
10 JUN 2021	Golden Gala Pietro Mennea	Stadio Luigi Ridolfi, Firenze	ITA	Result
01 JUL 2021	Bislett Games	Bislett Stadion, Oslo	NOR	Result
04 JUL 2021	Bauhaus-Galan	Olympiastadion, Stockholm	SWE	Result
09 JUL 2021	Herculis	Stade Louis II, Monaco	MON	Result
13 JUL 2021	Müller British GP	International Stadium, Gateshead	GBR	Result
21 AUG 2021	Prefontaine Classic	Hayward Field, Eugene, OR	USA
26 AUG 2021	Athletissima	Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne	SUI
28 AUG 2021	Meeting de Paris	Stade Charléty, Paris	FRA
03 SEP 2021	Allianz Memorial Van Damme	Boudewijnstadion, Bruxelles	BEL
08–09 SEP 2021	Weltklasse	Letzigrund, Zürich	SUI

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