Mondo Duplantis in Stockholm (© Thomas Windestam / Diamond League AG)
Just three days after the latest instalment of the Wanda Diamond League in Oslo, the world’s best athletes will head to Stockholm’s Bauhaus Galan for the next fixture in the series on Sunday (15).
Seven individual gold medallists from the Paris 2024 Olympics – four of whom were in action in Oslo on Thursday – headline the action in the Swedish city. And, as was the case in Oslo, the three-way clash between the Olympic medallists in the men’s 400m hurdles has top billing.
Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin and Alison dos Santos have, between them, won the past six global titles in the 400m hurdles and produced the 18 fastest times in history, elevating the discipline to new heights. Sunday’s race will be the first time the trio has clashed in the 400m hurdles since the Paris Olympics, where they occupied the top three spots.
They also filled the top three spots in the 300m hurdles in Oslo on Thursday when Warholm set a world best of 32.67 to finish ahead of Benjamin and Dos Santos.
Warholm, the world record-holder and three-time world champion, also heads to Stockholm as the world leader in the 400m hurdles following his 47.28 run at the Diamond League meeting in Keqiao last month.
Benjamin, the gold medallist in Paris, had been leading in Oslo up until the final barrier but clipped the hurdle and lost some momentum, still finishing in a US record of 33.22.
Dos Santos, the 2022 world champion, set the meeting record of 46.80 in Stockholm three years ago and is undefeated in the 400m hurdles this year, having won in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia.
The rematch theme will also be strong in the men’s 800m as it contains four of the top six finishers from the Paris final and five of the top six finishers from Oslo on Thursday.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the winner of both races, will start as the favourite following his season’s best of 1:42.78 in the Norwegian capital. Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, who was third in both Paris and Oslo, has fond memories of Stockholm, having won here last year in 1:43.23. European champion Gabriel Tual, two-time Commonwealth champion Wyclife Kinyamal, and US duo Josh Hoey and Bryce Hoppel – winners of the past two world indoor titles – are also in the loaded field.
In the women’s event, world indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso faces world champion Mary Moraa, alongside Audrey Werro, who recently set a Swiss record of 1:57.25, and Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell.
The home crowd will have high expectations for Mondo Duplantis, who has won the pole vault at this meeting for the past five years. The multiple world and Olympic champion won in Oslo on Thursday with a world-leading 6.15m – just one centimetre shy of the Stockholm meeting record he set in 2022.
The world record-holder will be up against the likes of Emmanouil Karalis, Sam Kendricks, Kurtis Marschall, Ernest John Obiena and Menno Vloon.
Julien Alfred is another Stockholm-bound Olympic champion who won in Oslo earlier this week. The sprinter from St Lucia laid down a marker of 10.89 in Oslo in what was her first 100m of the year, so she’ll look to improve on that on Sunday when she takes on Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith and Dina Asher-Smith, the athletes who finished second and third in Oslo.
Three other Olympic champions are in action in the field events.
Olympic long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall makes her 2025 Diamond League debut in a loaded field that also includes world champion Ivana Spanovic, two-time world champion Malaika Mihambo, world indoor champion Claire Bryant, European indoor champion Larissa Iapichino, world indoor silver medallist Annik Kalin and Olympic bronze medallist Jasmine Moore.
All three Olympic medallists will clash in the women’s high jump as Yaroslava Mahuchikh takes on world indoor champion Nicola Olyslagers and 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson.
Olympic discus champion Roje Stona will contest just the second Diamond League meeting of his career. The Jamaican – who opened his season with a 67.19m third-place finish in Hengelo earlier this week – will take on 2022 world champion Kristjan Ceh, who last month threw beyond 72 metres in three different cities within the space of a week.
Two-time world champion Daniel Stahl and Olympic bronze medallist Matt Denny add further quality to the field.
Bol returns
World champion Femke Bol will return to the scene of her first ever Diamond League win. The Dutch 400m hurdler first won here back in 2020 and has gone on to rack up a string of 37 consecutive victories in invitational races, 25 of which have been in the Diamond League.
She has won in Stockholm four times to date and holds the meeting record of 52.27, set in 2022. So far this year, she has won in Rabat (52.46) and Hengelo (52.51) and she’ll no doubt be keen to finish well inside 53 seconds again on Sunday.
She’ll face 2016 Olympic champion Dalilah Muhammad, Panama’s Gianna Woodruff and world-leading heptathlete Anna Hall.
Following their thrilling finish in Oslo, USA’s Isabella Whittaker and Norway’s Henriette Jaeger clash again in the 400m flat. Whittaker came from behind to win on that occasion as both women set outdoor PBs, 49.58 to 49.62. World indoor champion Amber Anning, Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke and Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands – who were third, fourth and fifth respectively in Oslo – are also entered.
Ackera Nugent, the fastest woman in the world last year, is part of a 100m hurdles field that also includes former world record-holder Kendra Harrison, two-time world indoor champion Devynne Charlton and USA’s Grace Stark.
Having won the 200m in Oslo ahead of Canada’s Andre de Grasse and Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, Cuba’s Reynier Mena will try to achieve the feat again in Stockholm.
Elsewhere, Kuma Girma – who clocked a PB of 12:46.41 in Oslo – takes on Andreas Almgren in the men’s 5000m. The women’s pole vault, meanwhile, features Sandi Morris, Angelica Moser and Tina Sutej.
