Star clashes fill every moment in Monaco

Every elite field at the Meeting International d’Athlétisme Herculis EBS features a reigning Olympic, world or world indoor champion as the sport’s leading lights return to Monaco for the 10th Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season on Friday (10).

In many cases, those global gold medallists will go head-to-head – Julien Alfred and Gabby Thomas in the 200m, Masai Russell and Ditaji Kambundji in the 100m hurdles, Katie Moon and Nina Kennedy in the pole vault, Thea LaFond and Leyanis Pérez in the triple jump, and Oblique Seville, Letsile Tebogo and Jordan Anthony in the 100m are just some of the top-class clashes on offer.

Faith Kipyegon and Jessica Hull are back at the scene of their respective world mile and 2000m records, while another world record-holder headlines the pole vault as Mondo Duplantis returns to familiar territory to defend his Herculis crown.

Two Olympic champions come together in the 200m as USA’s Thomas takes on Saint Lucia’s Alfred. Thomas, the Olympic 200m champion, opens her Diamond League season one month on from running 21.70 – the third-fastest time of her career – in Texas, while Olympic 100m champion Alfred seeks her third Diamond League win of the season following her 100m and 200m victories in Oslo and Rome. But they will have to contend with world leader Adaejah Hodge, the 20-year-old who ran 21.68 last month and finished third in the 100m on her Diamond League debut in Eugene on Saturday.

The men’s 100m is similarly stacked as Jamaica’s world champion Seville faces Botswana’s Olympic 200m champion Tebogo, USA’s world indoor 60m champion Anthony and Italy’s Marcell Jacobs. Seville, who holds the world lead of 9.82, and Tebogo will both be looking to rebound after finishing second in the 100m and the 200m, respectively, in Eugene, while Jacobs will want to show similar form to that which took him to a wind-assisted 9.67 (4.1m/s) – the third-fastest men's 100m in all conditions – at the start of this month.

The top hurdlers do not shy away from racing each other and this time USA’s Russell will renew her rivalry with Switzerland’s Kambundji in a battle between the Olympic and world champion. Russell has been edging closer to the world 100m hurdles record, her 12.14 at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen missing the global mark by just 0.02. Russell is unbeaten in the discipline this year, her most recent performance being her 12.24 in Eugene on Saturday, while Kambundji is on the hunt for her first win of the outdoor season. Looking to challenge them are Nadine Visser, Pia Skrzyszowska and Alaysha Johnson.

Botswana’s Collen Kebinatshipi and Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino set Diamond League 400m records in Paris and they both star in Monaco. World champion Kebinatshipi will want to maintain his Diamond League 400m win streak after victories in Xiamen, Paris and Eugene. Zakithi Nene has also dipped under 44 seconds this season – when finishing runner-up to Kebinatshipi in Paris – and will want to challenge again, along with Matt Hudson-Smith and Jacory Patterson.

Olympic champion Paulino is also unbeaten in the Diamond League 400m so far this year after wins in Doha and Paris. She will want to keep it that way when she takes on the likes of Nickisha Pryce, who won the Diamond League in Shanghai, plus Lurdes Gloria Manuel and Roxana Gómez.

Kipyegon and Wanyonyi return

Kenya’s Kipyegon and Australia’s Hull have created history at the Louis II Stadium and after setting their world records in 2023 and 2024, respectively, they step up to renew their rivalry over 3000m.

Kipyegon, the multiple global gold medallist who opened her track season with a 5000m win in Shanghai, continues her comeback following a hamstring injury. The mile in Eugene on Saturday was her first race since Shanghai and she finished third, two places ahead of Olympic and world 1500m medallist Hull. Forming part of a strong field, they will face world indoor 3000m champion Nadia Battocletti, two-time world indoor gold medallist Freweyni Hailu and world cross-country champion Agnes Ngetich in her first track race of the season, plus French Olympic triathlon champion Cassandre Beaugrand.

Another Olympic triathlon champion goes in the men’s 5000m as Great Britain’s Alex Yee lines up alongside France’s world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier and Isaac Kimeli who earned world 5000m silver ahead of Gressier in Tokyo.

The men’s 1000m is also a clash of global medallists. Kenya’s world and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the 800m in Monaco last year, breaking a meeting record that had been set by Algeria’s world and Olympic medallist Djamel Sedjati the year before, and the pair compete again – this time over the slightly longer distance – in a race also starring world leader Mohamed Attaoui, 2022 world 1500m champion Jake Wightman, Ben Pattison, Bryce Hoppel and Gabriel Tual.

New Zealand’s world champion Geordie Beamish seeks his first Diamond League win of the year as he goes in a 3000m steeplechase rematch against world bronze medallist Edmund Serem, Olympic bronze medallist Abraham Kibiwot and Simon Koech, who broke eight minutes in Rabat.

Fierce field fights at every turn

For the first time, the Herculis will feature both a men’s and women’s pole vault contest, giving Sweden’s world record-holder Mondo Duplantis – now a Monaco resident – the chance to build on the meeting record of 6.05m he set last year. The men’s competition is not a Diamond League discipline this year but it still features a strong field as world and Olympic champion Duplantis faces multiple world medallist Kurtis Marschall, who beat him in Stockholm.

The women’s event is another that pits world champion against Olympic champion as USA’s Katie Moon faces Australia’s Nina Kennedy – both with a best of 4.80m so far this year – as well as Imogen Ayris and in-form twin sisters Hana and Amanda Moll.

Dominica’s Olympic champion Thea LaFond produced the best women’s triple jump performance in the world for almost four years in Zagreb recently as she soared a national record of 15.25m to win by almost half a metre ahead of Cuba’s world champion Leyanis Pérez Hernández. They clash again in a quality contest that also features Davisleydi Velazco, who jumped 15.13m last month, and world indoor bronze medallist Saly Sarr.

Italy’s world champion Mattia Furlani is set to make his return after the injury he sustained during the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen and he is not easing himself back in gently as he goes up against all five men who sit ahead of him on this season’s top list: world leader Simon Ehammer, who jumped 8.51m during the decathlon at Götzis, plus two-time Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou, world indoor champion Gerson Baldé, world indoor bronze medallist Bozhidar Sarâboyukov and 19-year-old Jorge Hodelín who set a world U20 record of 8.46m last month.

Since throwing 71.74m in Xiamen to move to second on the world javelin all-time list, China’s 18-year-old Yan Ziyi has clinched two more Diamond League meeting wins in Oslo and Paris and is the athlete to beat in Monaco. Looking to challenge her are Japan’s Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi and Sigrid Borge, who sits second on the season top list with her 65.00m throw for the runner-up spot in Xiamen.

In the high jump, Ukraine’s Oleh Doroshchuk, who recently jumped an outdoor PB of 2.33m, faces Jan Štefela, Kimani Jack and Sarvesh Anil Kushare, who have also surpassed 2.30m this year, plus multiple global champion Mutaz Barshim.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics