US hurdler Grant Holloway (© Getty Images)
The World Athletics Championships may be over, but the Wanda Diamond League is back in full swing and heads to Xiamen on Saturday (2) for the newest stop on the premier one-day meeting circuit.
Twenty medallists – including eight champions – from the recent World Championships will be in action in the Chinese city, with the men’s 110m hurdles and 800m boasting the full set of podium finishers from the Hungarian capital.
Grant Holloway will be racing for the first time since becoming a three-time world 110m hurdles champion. After winning the 2022 world title, he was beaten in two of his six post-championships races, so he’ll be keen not to let that happen again. But with Olympic champion and world silver medallist Hansle Parchment and world bronze medallist Daniel Roberts in the line-up, Holloway won’t have an easy time.
World finalists Freddie Crittenden and Wilhem Belocian are also in the field, as is sub-13-second performer Cordell Tinch.
The men’s two-lap event is similarly loaded.
World 800m champion Marco Arop of Canada will line up against the two men he shared a podium with last week: Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Britain’s Ben Pattison.
Marco Arop wins the 800m at the Wanda Diamond League in Lausanne (© AFP / Getty Images)
It was such an open race in Budapest, had it been run eight times, there probably would have been a different winner each time. Saturday’s race will be a chance to put that theory to the test.
World leader Wycliffe Kinyamal and savvy French racer Benjamin Robert will be sure to make the race more interesting.
Outstanding in their field
All four of the field events in Xiamen will feature the world champions.
USA’s Laulaga Tausaga, the surprise discus gold medallist in Budapest, will take on the woman she succeeded as world champion, China’s Feng Bin, who is sure to get great support from the home crowd. Multiple global champion Sandra Perkovic finished outside of the medals in Budapest so will be out for redemption here.
World long jump champion Ivana Vuleta takes on fellow world finalists Ese Brume and Martha Koala, as well as two women who narrowly missed out on making the final in Budapest: USA’s Quanesha Burks and Australia’s Brooke Buschkuehl.
In Budapest, Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh finally won the outdoor global title that had so far eluded her. After her gold medal was secured, she went on to attempt 2.07m. The competition in Xiamen may be another opportunity to see how high she can go, and she’ll no doubt be pushed by 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh, winner of the high jump in Hengelo (© Dan Vernon)
Burkina Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango will compete for the first time since winning the world triple jump title. Andy Diaz, who was unable to compete in Budapest while he awaits his transfer of allegiance from Cuba to Italy, will be able to test his form against the newly minted world champion.
Soufiane El Bakkali won his third successive global steeplechase title in Budapest, the Moroccan looking every bit as superior as he has done for the past few years. Kenya’s world bronze medallist Abraham Kibiwott and Japanese record-holder Ryuji Miura look to be El Bakkali’s toughest opponents in Xiamen.
Marileidy Paulino, yet another gold medallist from Budapest, will contest the women’s 400m in Xiamen, taking on world bronze medallist Sada Williams of Barbados and world finalists Candice McLeod and Talitha Diggs.
Kerly-Jacobs clash
Most of the early season 100m clashes between 2022 world champion Fred Kerley and Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs failed to materialise as both men dealt with niggling injuries.
As fate would have it, neither man made the 100m final in Budapest. But in many ways, that would only serve to fire up the two global gold medallists, and they’ll have a chance of redemption in Xiamen. Not that victory is guaranteed for either of them.
They’ll take on 2022 world silver medallist Marvin Bracy-Williams, 2019 world champion Christian Coleman, and rising Jamaican trio Rohan Watson, Kishane Thompson and Ackeem Blake.
The 400m silver and bronze medallists from Budapest – Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith and USA’s Quincy Hall – will clash again over one lap of the track. Jamaica’s Rusheen McDonald, who has clocked 44.03 this year but missed out on an individual spot in Budapest, will be keen to test his form against that duo, as will 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James.
The three Jamaican women who reached the 400m hurdles final in Budapest – bronze medallist Rushell Clayton, two-time Commonwealth champion Janieve Russell, and Andrenette Knight – will race each other again in Xiamen.
Beatrice Chebet wins the 5000m at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Nairobi (© Sila Kiplagat)
World cross-country champion Beatrice Chebet leads a talented 3000m field that also includes Ethiopia’s triple world U20 medallist Melknat Wudu and Kenyan duo Margaret Akidor and Caroline Nyaga.
Elsewhere, Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir – who set a PB of 3:57.90 to finish fifth in the 1500m final in Budapest – takes on three other women who’ve broken 3:58 for the metric mile this year: Australia’s Lindsen Hall, and Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu and Worknesh Mesele.
