Mondo Duplantis in action in Zurich (© Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
World record-holders Mondo Duplantis and Yaroslava Mahuchikh will be among the stars looking to light up the Sechseläutenplatz on day one of the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich on Wednesday (27).
The winners of six of the 32 Diamond disciplines will be decided on the first day of Weltklasse Zürich action, while the rest will be contested on Thursday (28) in the Swiss city’s Letzigrund stadium.
There is plenty to fight for, with prize money ranging between US$30,000 and US$50,000 plus wild card entries to the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 up for grabs for winners.
Duplantis’s place in Tokyo is already secured but Zurich offers the Swedish pole vault star the chance to head there on a high. The Olympic and world champion is on the hunt for his fifth consecutive Diamond Trophy, in a year in which he has improved the world record three times – most recently to 6.29m at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Budapest. That followed his 6.28m clearance on home soil at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.
Emmanouil Karalis is also in the form of his life and will want to make a statement as he prepares to fight for another global medal in Tokyo. He improved his national record to 6.08m at the Greek Championships. The whole Paris Olympic podium is reunited as Sam Kendricks is also in action, as is world bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall.
The women's pole vault will kick off the session, as it has been moved from Thursday's programme due to the forecast for stormy weather. USA’s two-time world champion Katie Moon has the chance to regain a Diamond League title she won in 2023 but she will challenged by home favourite Angelica Moser and Sandi Morris.
Ukraine’s Mahuchikh has won the past three women’s high jump Diamond League titles, but she will face some strong opposition as she strives for a fourth.
The Olympic and world champion improved the world record to 2.10m last year and she leads this season’s top list with the 2.02m clearance she achieved in Doha in May. That’s a single centimetre higher than Australia’s two-time world indoor champion Nicola Olyslagers, who achieved her season’s best in Perth in April and matched the mark in Stockholm.
The pair do not shy away from competition – Zurich will be their eighth clash this year and they are closely matched in their head-to-head record, which stands at 4-3 in Olyslagers’ favour.
But it won’t just be a two-way battle. Australia’s Eleanor Patterson, who joined Olyslagers and Mahuchikh on the podium at the Paris Olympic and Budapest World Championships podiums, and who beat Mahuchikh to the 2022 world title, will also be in action, along with Mahuchikh’s compatriot Yuliia Levchenko.
Chase Jackson heads into the final with the four farthest winning shot put marks of the season to her name, topped by the US record of 20.95m she set in Idaho in June. She has won three Diamond League clashes this year but will be up against the athlete who beat her in two other meetings, Jessica Schilder, who sits second on this season’s top list on 20.69m.
Adding further strength to the field is two-time world indoor champion Sarah Mitton and 2021 Diamond League champion Maggie Ewen.
The men’s shot put will star a clash between four of the top five at last year’s Olympics, plus another multiple global medallist in Tom Walsh.
Having missed out on a place for the World Championships, Joe Kovacs will be looking to rebound by winning a fourth Diamond League title. The two-time world champion threw a then world lead of 22.48m to win in Eugene and that remains the second-best mark of the season, behind the 22.82m achieved by Italy’s defending Diamond League champion Leonardo Fabbri when winning his national title.
Kovacs, Walsh and Fabbri will take on Olympic bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell and fourth-place finisher Payton Otterdahl, who won in Rabat and Silesia.
Greek two-time Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou will want to regain a Diamond League title he claimed in 2022. The world leader will face another former winner in home favourite Simon Ehammer, the 2024 world indoor heptathlon champion who clinched the Diamond League long jump crown in 2023, plus Italy’s world indoor champion Mattia Furlani. Liam Adcock, Wayne Pinnock and Carey McLeod add further quality.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
