News20 Jun 2013


Adams, Fraser-Pryce and Vlasic to star in Paris – IAAF Diamond League

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Valerie Adams sets a meeting record at the Paris Diamond League (© Errol Anderson)

Three more headline acts have been announced for the 2013 Meeting Areva, the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Paris, to join the previously announced stars Usain Bolt, Renaud Lavillenie and Christophe Lemaitre on 6 July.

In one of the first events of the evening, the stadium will be focused on the Shot Put circle where Valerie Adams will be the favourite. Olympic champion in London, the New Zealander has not tasted defeat in 2013 after winning in Sydney and Auckland in March, then in Eugene in May. She has already broken 20 metres three times this year, and leads the world lists with her 20.37m season’s best.

Adams holds the meeting record in Paris with 20.78m, a performance set during her last visit to the Stade de France in 2011. With the right conditions, she may be able to improve on that mark.

The same applies to Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who will have the 100m meeting record of 10.88 in her sights. The double Olympic 100m champion from Jamaica will be making her Meeting Areva debut.

Fraser-Pryce, who owns the fastest time in the world so far this year with her 10.93 clocking in Shanghai, will be up against Murielle Ahoure, Ivet Lalova and Myriam Soumare. Ivory Coast record-holder Ahoure defeated Olympic 200m champion Allyson Felix in Rome, but was then handed a surprise defeat of her own in Oslo the following week as Lalova triumphed in 11.04.

The High Jump will bring together four of the best jumpers in the world as Olympic champion Anna Chicherova takes on two-time World champion Blanka Vlasic, Olympic silver medallist Brigetta Barrett and European bronze medallist Emma Green-Tregaro. And as is the case in the 100m and Shot, the meeting record of 2.02m could be under threat.

Chicherova currently leads the 2013 world lists with her 2.02m jump in Beijing. The Russian shared the victory at the Diamond League in Rome, but was beaten in Oslo by compatriot Svetlana Shkolina, the Olympic bronze medallist.

Vlasic, World champion in 2009, has returned to form after an injury-hit year in 2012. She won in New York with 1.94m then improved to 1.95m in Rome. The Croatian knows how it feels to win in Paris too, having won here in 2007 and 2010, both times jumping a meeting record of 2.02m.

Sweden’s Green-Tregaro recently jumped 1.95m in Oslo. The last time she cleared a higher height outdoors was back in 2010. Barrett, meanwhile, has a season’s best of 1.99m – the third-best jump of her career and just four centimetres shy of her 2.03m lifetime best.

Organisers for the IAAF

IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 10 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
New York, USA – 25 May
Eugene, USA – 1 Jun
Rome, ITA – 6 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 13 Jun
Birmingham, GBR – 30 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 4 Jul
Paris, FRA – 6 Jul
Monaco, MON – 19 Jul
London, GBR – 26-27 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 22 Aug
Zürich, SUI – 29 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 6 Sep