Jakob Ingebrigtsen on his way to a 1500m win in Lausanne (© Getty Images)
Lausanne’s Stade Olympique de la Pontaise will be suitably adorned with nine newly-established Olympic champions on Thursday night (August 22) – a day after a 10th, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, has competed in a city centre pole vault competition.
Games gold medallists on show for a sell-out 13,000 crowd at Athletissima – the 11th Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season – will include three from the United States in surprise 1500m winner Cole Hocker, 400m runner Quincy Hall and 110m hurdler Grant Holloway.
Also in action will be Botswana’s 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, double Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, Ukraine’s high jump winner Yaroslava Mahuchikh and shot put champion Yemisi Ogunleye of Germany.
The 1500m will involve Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who missed out on a medal at that distance in Paris but responded by winning the 5000m title. Meanwhile Kenya’s 20-year-old 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi will contest a non-scoring race over two laps of the track.
Duplantis, who set his ninth world pole vault record in clearing 6.25m at the Olympics, will compete tomorrow at the Place de la Navigation in Ouchy against a field including Olympic silver and bronze medallists, respectively Sam Kendricks of the United States and Emmanouil Karalis of Greece.
While Duplantis takes nothing for granted, and described his victory at this year’s World Indoor Championships in Glasgow as the hardest-earned of his career, he seems to be operating at another level from his rivals right now.
Elsewhere, however, those who topped the rostrum in the French capital will be coming under intense pressure.
Hocker, who lowered his personal best by almost three seconds to upstage what was billed as another showdown between Ingebrigtsen and world champion Josh Kerr, will be running with a notional target on his back as he makes a rare Diamond League appearance.
While Kerr will not be in attendance, the 23-year-old Norwegian, who finished fourth in the 1500m, will be very keen indeed to re-assert his top dog status in an event where he lowered his European record to 3:26.73 – just 0.73 off the 1998 world record of Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj – at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July.
Kenya’s 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot and Hocker’s US teammate Hobbs Kessler, who finished fifth in the Paris final in a personal best of 3:29.45, are also in the field, along with Ingebrigtsen’s fellow Norwegian Narve Gilje Nordas.
There are also scores to settle in the men’s 400m, where the three podium finishers from Paris will clash: USA’s gold medallist Quincy Hall, Britain’s runner-up Matthew Hudson-Smith and Zambia’s bronze medallist Muzala Samukonga.
Tebogo, 21, who moved to fifth on the world all-time list as he clocked 19.46 in the Olympic final, will be challenged by 100m bronze medallist Fred Kerley of the United States and the fourth and fifth-placed finishers in Paris, Erriyon Knighton of the United States and Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic.
Tentoglou is another who will need to be on top form to resist the challenge of those who finished behind him in Paris – respective silver and bronze medallists Wayne Pinnock of Jamaica and Italy’s Mattia Furlani, as well as home hope Simon Ehammer, the sometime decathlete who missed the Olympic podium by one place.
Holloway, who added the only title he lacked in Paris, faces the silver and bronze medallists, respectively US compatriot Daniel Roberts and Jamaica’s Commonwealth champion Rasheed Broadbell, as well as Italy’s European champion Lorenzo Simonelli.
Mahuchikh, who surpassed the 1987 world record of 2.09m earlier this season when she cleared 2.10m, will have serious competition once again from the women who shared the podium with her in Paris – Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers, who earned a second successive Olympic silver, and joint bronze medallists Eleanor Patterson, Olyslagers’ compatriot, and fellow Ukrainian Iryna Gerashchenko.
Ogunleye, who surprised everyone – including herself – as she produced a final-round personal best of 20.00m to take Olympic gold in Paris, will face the New Zealander who thought she had earned a shock win herself with her fifth-round effort of 19.86m, Maddi Wesche. Also in the hunt for honours will be two-time world champion Chase Jackson, who failed to reach the Olympic final, and world indoor champion Sarah Mitton of Canada, who finished 12th in Paris.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi, whose 800m winning time in Paris of 1:41.19 moved him to third on the world all-time list, will be joined in Lausanne by four of the five men who followed him home: silver medallist and world champion Marco Arop of Canada, whose time of 1:41.20 puts him fourth on the world all-time list, Bryce Hoppel, whose clocking of 1:41.67 earned him fourth place and a US record, fifth-placed Mohamed Attaoui of Spain and sixth-placed Gabriel Tual, France’s European champion.
The 100m hurdles will feature Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, the Olympic champion in 2021, France’s Olympic silver medallist Cyrena Sama-Mayela, Jamaica’s two-time world champion Danielle Williams and home hope Ditaji Kambundji, the European silver medallist.
Femke Bol of the Netherlands – who left Paris with gold in the mixed 4x400m, silver in the women’s 4x400m and bronze in the 400m hurdles – will contest the latter event against a field that includes Jamaica’s Rushell Clayton, fifth in the Olympic final, and her compatriot Shiann Salmon, who finished one place behind her.
India’s world champion Neeraj Chopra is in a hugely strong men’s javelin field that also includes European champion Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia and Grenada’s two-time world champion Anderson Peters.
Home hopes will be high for Mujinga Kambundji, who was sixth in the Olympic 100m final, as she faces the Briton who finished fourth, Daryll Neita, the Ivory Coast’s Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith and Britain’s European 100m champion Dina Asher-Smith.
The women's 800m will see Kenya’s world champion Mary Moraa take on Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Bell and her fellow Briton Jemma Reekie, the world indoor silver medallist, along with Uganda’s 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi.
The women’s 3000m will feature world road mile champion Diribe Welteji, world indoor 1500m champion Freweyni Hailu, and fellow Ethiopians Ejgayehu Taye and Medina Eisa.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
