Femke Bol in Silesia (© Janek Skarzynski / Diamond League AG)
World record-holders Femke Bol and Mondo Duplantis have been announced for the Wanda Diamond League meetings in Silesia and Stockholm, respectively, as they continue to work towards their Diamond League title defences.
Dutch star Bol – who has also previously been named for the Stockholm meeting – has the chance to claim a fourth consecutive Diamond League 400m hurdles crown at the final in Brussels in September, and the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Chorzow, Poland, on 25 August will form part of her preparations.
She will hope to line up there as an Olympic champion, with the Chorzow meeting taking place a couple of weeks after the Games in Paris.
The world indoor 400m record-holder has experienced success in Chorzow before, having set a meeting record of 49.75 in the 400m flat in 2022.
Duplantis could also win a fourth straight Diamond League title in the pole vault in Brussels and his campaign towards the final will include a stop at his home meeting – the BAUHAUS-Galan in Stockholm, Sweden – on 2 June.
Duplantis started his season in style when he set the eighth world record of his career with a 6.24m clearance at the Diamond League season opener in Xiamen last month.
He will be hoping for a similar performance in front of home fans in Stockholm, as he builds towards the defence of his Olympic title in Paris in August. He will have something of a dress rehearsal at the Meeting de Paris just five days after the competition in Stockholm, as he has also been announced for that Diamond League meeting at the Stade Charlety.
Among his competition at the BAUHAUS-Galan will be world medallists Chris Nilsen and John Ernest Obiena, plus two-time world champion Sam Kendricks.
Also recently announced for the BAUHAUS-Galan are Fred Kerley and Letsile Tebogo in the 100m and Alison dos Santos and Kyron McMaster in the 400m hurdles.
Kerley has had a solid start to his season with top three finishes in Xiamen and Suzhou, and he will want to get more points in Stockholm as he bids for a third Diamond League Trophy later this year. The stadium record of 9.84 is sure to be a target as 2022 world champion Kerley and double world medallist Tebogo clash at the Olympiastadion.
Dos Santos, the 2022 world champion who claimed the Diamond League title that same year, and McMaster, the two-time Diamond League Trophy winner and world silver medallist, will go head-to-head twice in one week as they are also due to compete at the Oslo Bislett Games on 30 May, where they will be joined by home star Karsten Warholm.
That Diamond League meeting in Oslo, Norway, is also set to feature Kerley – with Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs among his rivals there – plus 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James and world silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith in the 400m, and Joshua Cheptegei, Jacob Kiplimo, Yomif Kejelcha, Berihu Aregawi, Hagos Gebrhiwet and Telahun Haile Bekele in the 5000m.
