World record-holders Kipyegon and Duplantis among stars in Silesia

Records will be under threat and rivalries will be renewed across a star-studded schedule when the Wanda Diamond League season resumes with the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia, Poland, on Saturday (16).

Mondo Duplantis and Faith Kipyegon are among the 13 world record-holders who will want to make a statement when they stop in Silesia on the road to Tokyo, where they will defend their titles at the World Championships in September.

Swedish pole vault superstar Duplantis returns to the scene of his 10th world record, just four days after setting his 13th. The 25-year-old cleared 6.26m in Silesia last year, three weeks after claiming his second Olympic title and setting another of his world records in Paris. He improved the world record to 6.29m in Budapest on Tuesday, managing that mark on his second attempt.

The whole Paris Olympic podium is reunited as Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis also compete, the latter fresh from a runner-up finish to Duplantis in Budapest – a performance that followed his national record of 6.08m at the Greek Championships.

Adding further strength to the field are Ernest John Obiena and Kurtis Marschall, who joined winner Duplantis on the podium at the 2023 World Championships, plus former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie.

Kenya’s Kipyegon contests the 3000m, six weeks on from improving her own world 1500m record in Eugene. The three-time Olympic and four-time world gold medallist also holds the mile world record and is a former world record-holder in the 5000m. She has only raced the 3000m twice before and her PB of 8:23.55 was set in 2014, but anything is possible when Kipyegon steps on the track.

“I'm just going there to lower my personal best. That world record is tough,” she said recently, referencing the 8:06.11 set by Wang Junxia in 1993.

“We are here to try. I say, ‘dare to try’. It's always good to dare to try than not to try, so I'm going to Silesia to just lower my personal best and see if I will dare to try and if the world record is possible.”

She will be paced by another world record-holder – Australia’s Jessica Hull, the Olympic silver medallist who ran 5:19.70 for 2000m in Monaco last year. Two other world record-breakers – double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet (5000m and 10,000m) and Gudaf Tsegay (1500m short track) – will meet in the 1500m, Chebet making her international 1500m debut. They will be joined by Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell, Birke Haylom and Nikki Hiltz.

Keely Hodgkinson is set to race for the first time since winning the Olympic 800m title in Paris as she continues her comeback after injury. The men’s 1500m features six men who have dipped under 3:30 this season, including Timothy Cheruiyot, world indoor champion Josh Hoey and Cameron Myers. They take on Olympic bronze medallist Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler.

Sprint showdowns

The meeting concludes with the women’s 100m, starring world leader Melissa Jefferson-Wooden who ran 10.65 to win one of her two US titles at the start of this month. The Olympic and world relay champion is unbeaten in the 100m this year and will want to maintain that momentum when she races the likes of world champion Sha'Carri Richardson, Tina and Tia Clayton, Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith and home star Ewa Swoboda.

Olympic gold and silver medallists Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson reignite their rivalry in the men’s 100m, as part of a field that features eight sub-9.90 sprinters. Among them are Diamond League leader Akani Simbine, Kenny Bednarek, Trayvon Bromell and Christian Coleman.

The women’s 200m includes Jamaica’s two-time world champion Shericka Jackson against Rome and Paris Diamond League runner-up Amy Hunt, Brittany Brown and Favour Ofili. The women's 400m features all the medallists from both the Paris Olympics and Budapest World Championships in Marileidy Paulino, home favourite Natalia Bukowiecka, Sada Williams and Salwa Eid Naser.

Another stacked field will take on the 100m hurdles, in a programme that has heats before the final. USA’s Olympic champion Masai Russell faces Jamaica’s world champion Danielle Williams, world record-holders Tobi Amusan and Devynne Charlton, and home star Pia Skrzyszowska.

The fastest 110m hurdler in the world this year – Cordell Tinch – stars in a clash with three-time world champion Grant Holloway and Poland’s Jakub Szymanski.

The world champions also feature in both the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles. Norway’s world record-holder Karsten Warholm takes on Abderrahman Samba in the men’s event and Dutch star Femke Bol headlines the women’s event, looking to extend her six-race win streak in the event this year.

Global medallists collide

The action kicks off on Friday, when the women’s high jump, pole vault and shot put will take place in Katowice Market Square.

The women’s high jump features a clash between perennial global medallists Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson. Mahuchikh set a world record of 2.10m last year and has cleared a world-leading 2.02m this season – one centimetre higher than Olyslagers so far in 2025.

The pole vault features world leader Amanda Moll and world indoor champion Marie-Julie Bonnin, while the shot put stars Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye and Jessica Schilder, who has thrown 20.47m this year.

Fresh from his world-leading 83.18m to win in Budapest, world and Olympic medallist Bence Halasz renews his rivalry with Olympic and world champion Ethan Katzberg in the hammer on Saturday. The Olympic and world champion stars in the women’s event, too, as Camryn Rogers goes up against 2022 world champion and world leader Brooke Andersen.

In the men’s shot put, world leader Leonardo Fabbri faces Joe Kovacs, Payton Otterdahl and Tom Walsh.

Olympic champion Hamish Kerr takes on Shelby McEwen, Oleh Doroshchuk and world champion Gianmarco Tamberi in the high jump, while the long jump features multiple global medallists Malaika Mihambo and Jasmine Moore against world indoor champion Claire Bryant and Larissa Iapichino.

Two-time world champion Anderson Peters, 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott and 2015 world gold medallist Julius Yego will clash in the javelin.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics