Global medallists ready for rematches in Rome

Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Gianmarco Tamberi and Athing Mu are among the 10 individual Olympic gold medallists from Tokyo who will aim to reign supreme when the Wanda Diamond League returns to Rome on Thursday (9).

As the fifth meeting in this season’s Diamond League, the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea takes place just five weeks out from the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

Two of those reigning Olympic champions go head-to-head in the women’s 200m. Jamaican sprint star Thompson-Herah completed a sprint treble in Tokyo, winning the 100m and 200m as well as the 4x100m, while Miller-Uibo claimed the 400m crown. Now they meet as part of a stacked field for the half-lap event, lining up alongside US sprint legend Allyson Felix, Britain’s world champion Dina Asher-Smith, Jamaica’s Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson, world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji, Ivory Coast’s multiple world medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou, Britain’s Beth Dobbin and Italy’s Dalia Kaddari.

The 2019 Diamond League 100m champion Asher-Smith set the 200m meeting record last year, clocking 22.06 in Florence.

Thompson-Herah ran a couple of 200m races in Kingston in May but has focused on the 100m in international competition so far this season, clocking 10.79 at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene at the end of last month and 10.83 to win in Rabat. Miller-Uibo, meanwhile, races her first half-lap of the season after clocking 49.91 for 400m in April and then finishing third in Doha. When it comes to head-to-heads, Miller-Uibo leads their 200m outdoor final career clashes 5-1, but Thompson-Herah's one win came on the biggest stage – at the Olympics in Tokyo. 

"I’m not 100% but I think I am a true fighter," Thompson-Herah explained at the pre-event press conference. "I opened my season at Mt SAC and I got a rotator cuff. You need your arms to run and every time I race I have discomfort, but I have to race, I need to see where I am at.

"Every season speaks for itself," she added. "Even though last year was spectacular, and I’d love to repeat that this year, I am in no rush - my biggest aim is to taste that World Championships gold that I don’t have."

Could a meeting record – and the event's first sub-22-second women's 200m – be on the cards?

"You never know," said Miller-Uibo. "This is a great line up of girls and I think we’re all going to push ourselves to run a pretty decent time and put on a great performance. We’ll try to surprise the crowd tomorrow."

USA’s Mu is also just getting her season started and after a win in Texas in April, she races her first international 800m of the year in Rome. Such is the standard, four of the entrants have PBs under 1:57 and eight have broken the two-minute barrier this season.

Olympic champion Mu had been due to renew her rivalry with Tokyo silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson at last month's Diamond League in Eugene but explained how she wouldn’t be racing there as she was “still getting back into my rhythm of things” after contracting Covid. So the US athlete’s race in Rome, which comes the day after her 20th birthday and is her first Diamond League outside of the US, will be eagerly anticipated, particularly as Hodgkinson recorded a world-leading 1:57.72 when winning in Eugene.

"I’m excited to be here," said Mu, speaking at the pre-event press conference on her birthday. "I feel like this is the beginning to my professional career, so to say. To experience it here in Rome for the first time, it’s going to be something I remember for the rest of my career as the first overseas Diamond League that I have competed in."

On how fast she might be able to run, Mu added: "I just came back from being sick so just coming out here is me seeing where I am at physically and getting ready for championship season. I don’t really have a specific time in mind but hopefully it’s fast and under two minutes."

And that world record of 1:53.28 remains an overall aim. "Who doesn’t want to have a world record under their belt?" she said. "I think as time goes, and we keep competing with super great athletes like Keely Hodgkinson and we test one another, I think it will definitely come with time. The talent that we have in the 800m this past year and the coming years is really great and I think we’ll continue to push each other."

Among her opposition this time is Uganda’s world champion Halimah Nakaayi, Jamaica’s Natoya Goule, Cuba’s Rose Mary Almanza, Renelle Lamote of France, Australia’s Catriona Bisset and Britain’s Olympic fourth-place finisher Jemma Reekie.

In the 1500m, Reekie’s fellow Briton and training partner Laura Muir – who secured Olympic silver behind Faith Kipyegon in Tokyo – will look to build on her victory in Birmingham before an 11th place finish in a Eugene race won by Kipyegon in a blazing 3:52.59. Ethiopia’s world indoor bronze medallist Hirut Meshesha is fresh from a PB run of 3:57.30 to win in Rabat and she again lines up alongside her compatriot Axumawit Embaye, the world indoor silver medallist, who was third in Rabat in 3:58.80.

Ethiopia’s Olympic silver medallist Lamecha Girma commands the spotlight again in the men’s 3000m steeplechase. After his national record of 7:58.68 – a mark that puts him 12th on the world all-time list – in Ostrava, he raced in Rabat and was second to the man who beat him to the Olympic title in Tokyo, local favourite Soufiane El Bakkali. Italy’s Ahmed Abdelwahe was third in Ostrava and after setting his PB at the last edition of the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Florence last year, he’ll be looking for another strong run on home soil. They race Ethiopia’s Olympic fourth-place finisher Getnet Wale and Kenya’s two-time world and 2016 Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto.

An Olympic champion, world champion and world record-holder clash in the men’s 5000m as Ethiopia’s 10,000m gold medallist in Tokyo Selemon Barega goes up against his compatriots Muktar Edris, the two-time world 5000m gold medallist, and world leader Berihu Aregawi, who set the world 5km record of 12:49 in Barcelona at the end of last year and clocked 12:50.05 when winning in Eugene. But it won’t just be a three-way race, with further strength from Ethiopia’s two-time world indoor 3000m champion Yomif Kejelcha, Canada’s Olympic silver medallist Mohammed Ahmed and Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa, who recently claimed a 10,000m win in London in 27:16.18.

Femke Bol has picked up from where she left off last season, the Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist and European record-holder proving she’s still a formidable force with a 36.86 world 300m hurdles best last week in Ostrava. She went on to win the 400m hurdles in a meeting record of 53.94 at a wet FBK Games in Hengelo and later explained how she hopes to run faster in better conditions in Rome.

Ukraine’s Anna Ryzhykova was second in 55.62 in Hengelo, while USA’s 2015 world silver medallist Shamier Little was also in action, and they all clash again in Rome.

An Olympic champion headlines the women’s 100m hurdles and Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn will be looking to continue her fine form, fresh from wins in Eugene and Ostrava. The world leader, who set the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meeting record of 12.38 when the event was held in Florence last year, will again have to overcome a tough field in order to triumph. She lines up alongside USA’s world champion Nia Ali, Jamaica’s Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper and 2015 world champion Danielle Williams, European indoor champion Nadine Visser of the Netherlands and Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska.

The men’s 100m sees Olympic silver medallist Fred Kerley return to Rome for the first time since his 400m win in 2018 and the versatile sprinter will be looking to build on the 9.92 season’s best he set in Nairobi last month. He is one of five sub-10-second men in the field, joined by his US compatriots Marvin Bracy, Kyree King, Michael Rodgers and Isiah Young, but fans will have to wait another day to see Italy’s Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs in action as he withdrew from the race due to injury.

Meanwhile, Grenada’s multiple Olympic medallist Kirani James is back in Italy for the first time since 2009, when he became the 200m and 400m World U18 Champion in Bressanone. This time in the one-lap event he faces USA’s Michael Cherry and Vernon Norwood, plus Isaac Makwala of Botswana.

In the non-Diamond League 200m, Jacobs’ gold medal-winning Olympic 4x100m teammates Fausto Desalu, Lorenzo Patta and Filippo Tortu, who anchored Italy to victory in Tokyo, go up against USA’s Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek and Trinidad and Tobago’s world indoor 400m champion Jereem Richards.

Tamberi looks to hit the heights on home soil

The high jump head-to-head between the joint Olympic champions may no longer be happening following the withdrawal of Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim from the competition, but Gianmarco Tamberi will still be looking to put on a show for his home fans.

Sporting a return of his trademark half beard, the Italian got back into the rhythm of things in Ostrava by clearing 2.30m and had been looking to use that competition as a warm up for Rome, where he seeks his first Golden Gala Pietro Mennea win following second place in 2020, third places in 2021 in Florence and in 2016, and fourth place in 2019.

"This is my penultimate competition before the World Championships and one of the most important competitions of the year for me, because we are in Rome," said Tamberi. "I always care a lot about competing here and performing well here.

"I always perform well but I have never won. I hope this will be the time because I really want it. I feel that I want to jump high here in front of my crowd."

His rivals for success include Ukraine’s Andriy Protsenko, USA’s two-time double NCAA champion JuVaughn Harrison, Australia’s Commonwealth champion Brandon Starc, Switzerland’s Loic Gasch, Canada’s Django Lovett and Israel’s world U20 champion Yonathan Kapitolnik.

The men’s discus, women’s long jump and women’s pole vault also all feature the respective reigning Olympic champions but in the discus it’s the Olympic fifth-place finisher who starts as the favourite. Slovenia’s 23-year-old Kristjan Ceh continued his unbeaten season by throwing 69.68m in Rabat on Sunday and that came after his monster 71.27m in Birmingham – a world-leading national and Diamond League record that moved the European U23 champion to 10th on the world all-time list. That saw him win ahead of all three of the Tokyo medallists – Sweden’s Olympic and world champion Daniel Stahl, his compatriot Simon Pettersson and Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger – and they will all clash again in Rome.

Germany’s Malaika Mihambo also started her season in fine style in Birmingham, leaping a world-leading 7.09m. She too is unbeaten this year and jumped 6.65m in Hengelo on Monday. But like Ceh in the discus, Mihambo also faces some strong opposition in Rome. Sweden’s Khaddi Sagnia jumped a PB of 6.96m to win in Eugene, while Serbia’s Milica Gardasevic improved to 6.81m in Silesia and they take on Ukraine’s world silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, USA’s Quanesha Burks and Italy’s European U20 champion Larissa Iapichino.

USA’s two-time world indoor champion Sandi Morris leads the way when it comes to this season’s pole vault performances, having cleared a world-leading 4.73m to win in Birmingham. She’ll seek further success on the Diamond League stage in Rome, where she will battle with USA’s Olympic champion Katie Nageotte, Britain’s Olympic bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw, 2016 Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi of Greece, Slovenia’s world indoor bronze medallist Tina Sutej and Italian champion Elisa Molinarolo.

Nick Ponzio and Leonardo Fabbri will also be keen to impress in front of home fans in the men’s shot put, an event in which their competition includes USA’s two-time world champion Joe Kovacs, who has finished in the top two in each of his five contests so far this season, as well as Brazil’s world indoor champion Darlan Romani. Achieving the first 22.00m-plus throw at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea will be among the aims.

Another Olympic champion is in action in the 3000m race walk, held to celebrate Massimo Stano who drops down in distance after his 20km race walk victory in Tokyo and subsequent wins over that distance and 35km in Alberobello and Dudince respectively this year.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics