Some of the biggest names in Czech athletics are looking forward to competing at the Golden Spike in Ostrava on 8 September when the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting will host its 59th edition.

Victories by javelin aces Barbora Spotakova and Jakub Vadlejch highlighted the opening meeting of the Czech Athletics Federation's 'Back on the Track' series which kicked off in the central Bohemian city of Kladno on Monday (1).

Ruth Jebet threatened her own world record in the 3000m steeplechase at the Weltklasse Zurich on Thursday (24), the first of two 2017 IAAF Diamond League finals.

Ryan Crouser cruised to his tenth straight victory in the shot put to highlight the field events action at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athletisme, the tenth stop of the 2017 IAAF Diamond League, in Rabat on Sunday (16).

It wasn’t the longest throw of her career, nor was it the most crucial. But when Barbora Spotakova launched her sixth round effort out to 68.26m at the London IAAF Diamond League meeting last Sunday the sense of satisfaction was written across her beaming face for all to see.

Revenge was sweet indeed for Barbora Spotakova at the Müller Anniversary Games in London this afternoon as the 36-year-old javelin world record-holder re-asserted her supremacy over the young pretender who has emerged from Croatia to challenge for her crown.

With the full set of Olympic medallists taking on the world champion, European champion and Diamond Race winner, it’s easy to see why organisers of the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene are saying it’s the best women’s javelin field in Prefontaine Classic history.

Two-time defending champion Barbora Spotakova is aiming for a third gold medal in the women’s javelin at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and if Tirunesh Dibaba, Valerie Adams and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce all fall short earlier in the athletics programme then the Czech thrower could become the first woman ever to get three individual athletics gold medals in the same event.

Barbora Spotakova showed she is well on track to take her third successive Olympic javelin title later this summer when throwing a 66.87m to win the Czech Championships in Tabor on Sunday (19).

Mutaz Essa Barshim and Barbora Spotakova went to the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 as the bookmaker’s favourites for their events but failed to get a medal of any hue, however the pair got partial compensation at the 2015 IAAF Diamond League final in Zurich on Thursday.

Caterine Ibarguen, newly established as the Pan American champion, extended her winning run to 28 competitions at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Stockholm with another demoralising performance – that is, if you were one of her opponents.

Stockholm’s staging of the last IAAF Diamond League meeting before the IAAF World Championships get underway in Beijing just over three weeks from now offers some of the favourites to succeed in the Chinese capital a final opportunity to lay down their markers.