Previews09 Jun 2025


Fierce clashes and record attempts on the cards for Oslo

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Karsten Warholm, Alison dos Santos and Rai Benjamin in Monaco (© Chiara Montesano / Diamond League AG)

A clash between Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin and Alison dos Santos in the 300m hurdles, a world record attempt in the men’s 5000m, a 100m season opener for Julien Alfred and a pole vault contest starring world record-holder Mondo Duplantis are among the highlights set for the Bislett Games, a Wanda Diamond League meeting, in Oslo on Thursday (12).

The programme, which includes an additional afternoon of action on Wednesday (11), features nine Olympic champions from the Paris 2024 Games – Benjamin, Alfred and Duplantis joined in Norway’s capital by Ethan Katzberg, Haruka Kitaguchi, Thea LaFond, Markus Rooth, Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Winfred Yavi.

The three fastest men’s 400m hurdlers in history will race each other twice within three days when they compete in Oslo and the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm on Sunday (15). First up is the 300m hurdles in Oslo and it will be the first time that Warholm, Benjamin and Dos Santos have all clashed in the discipline, following its introduction as an official event earlier this year.

As well as being the world 400m hurdles record-holder and a three-time world champion, home favourite Warholm holds the world best for the 300m hurdles having improved his own global mark to 33.05 at the Diamond League season opener in Xiamen in April.

USA’s Benjamin claimed the Olympic 400m hurdles title ahead of Warholm and Dos Santos in Paris last year, while Brazil’s Dos Santos claimed the 2022 world title. Between them, the trio own the 18 fastest performances of all time in the 400m hurdles.

“It will be a fantastic weekend with 300m hurdles in Oslo on Thursday and then 400m hurdles in Stockholm on Sunday, both with the three fastest of all time,” said Benjamin.

“This is the first time I will compete in these two historic competitions, which makes it even more interesting. What more could you want?”

Fast times are also expected in the 5000m – a race that has been billed as a world record attempt. Last year Hagos Gebrhiwet came close to achieving the 72nd world record to be set at the Bislett Stadium as he clocked 12:36.73, just 1.37 seconds shy of Joshua Cheptegei’s global mark of 12:35.36 from 2020. 

Now he returns to try again, joined by his compatriot Yomif Kejelcha who ran 12.38.95 last year – making it the first time that two men had ever broken 12:40 in the same race. Further strengthening the field are Kenya’s Jacob Krop and Nicholas Kipkorir, Ethiopia’s Kuma Girma and Biniam Mehary, Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo and Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu.

The world record is always under threat whenever Duplantis competes. The Swedish pole vault star has improved the global mark 11 times in his career so far, most recently with a 6.27m clearance in Clermont-Ferrand in February, and he will be looking to build on the outdoor world lead of 6.11m he achieved in Shanghai/Keqiao at the start of May. The two-time Olympic and world champion competes along with five other six-metre-plus vaulters: his fellow Paris Olympic medallists Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis, plus Ernest John Obiena, Renaud Lavillenie and Sondre Guttormsen.

A record could also fall in the 800m, as three of the six fastest runners in history take to the start line. Kenya’s Olympic champion Wanyonyi, Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati and Gabriel Tual of France have all dipped under 1:42 and could target David Rudisha’s stadium record of 1:42.04 set in 2010.

The mile features Kenya’s 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, who ran 3:29.75 but was narrowly beaten in the 1500m in Rome, plus the in-form Robert Farken and Samuel Pihlstrom, Oliver Hoare, Niels Laros and world bronze medallist Narve Gilje Nordas.

Saint Lucia’s Olympic champion Alfred makes her 100m season debut in Oslo. Unbeaten so far this year, she faces world indoor medallists Zaynab Dosso and Patrizia van der Weken, plus Dina Asher-Smith and Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith.

Poland’s world and Olympic medallist Natalia Bukowiecka leads the 400m field and she takes on Rhasidat Adeleke, Sada Williams, Lieke Klaver and Henriette Jæger, while Andre De Grasse and Aaron Brown clash with Kyree King, Joseph Fahnbulleh and Reynier Mena in the 200m.

Kenya’s Olympic bronze medallist Faith Cherotich and Bahrain’s Olympic champion Winfred Yavi have posted the two fastest 3000m steeplechase times in the world so far this year and they both line up in Oslo, joined by 2022 world champion Norah Jeruto. USA’s multiple Olympic and world gold medallist Dalilah Muhammad leads the entries for the 400m hurdles, which will also feature her compatriot Anna Hall, fresh from a 7032-point heptathlon in Götzis.

The women’s triple jump features all six medallists from the Paris Olympics and Nanjing World Indoor Championships in LaFond, Shanieka Ricketts, Jasmine Moore, Leyanis Perez Hernandez, Liadagmis Povea and Ana Peleteiro-Compaore. In the men’s event, Tokyo Olympic gold and Paris silver medallist Pedro Pichardo takes on world champion Hugues Fabrice Zango and world silver medallist Lazaro Martinez, while the top two at the Paris Olympics – Japan’s champion Kitaguchi and South Africa’s silver medallist Jo-Ane du Plessis – renew their rivalry in the javelin.

As part of a series of combined events clashes, Olympic decathlon champion Rooth will compete against his Norwegian compatriot Sander Skotheim, who recently set a national record to win in Götzis, as well as Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer.

The full Paris Olympic podium of Katzberg, Bence Halasz and Mykhaylo Kokhan will compete against Poland’s Pawel Fajdek and Wojciech Nowicki in the hammer during the extra evening of action on Wednesday.