All it took was one throw.
Valarie Allman&rsquo;s opening effort of 68.98m was enough to crown the 26-year-old US thrower as the women&rsquo;s discus champion at the Tokyo Olympics.
What&rsquo;s more, Allman&rsquo;s victory on Monday night gave the United States its first athletics gold medal of the Games.
Not a bad night&rsquo;s work for a dancer-turned-discus thrower who now can call herself Olympic champion.
&ldquo;It sounds really amazing,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to lie.&rdquo;
She&rsquo;s the third US woman to win gold in the discus and first since Stephanie Brown Trafton in 2008.
&ldquo;I am so honoured that this has been a first gold medal (for the US) in Tokyo,&rdquo; Allman said. "I couldn't be any happier or more proud. I&rsquo;m still waiting for my feet to touch the ground.&rdquo;
Kristin Pudenz of Germany took the silver medal in the rain-affected competition with a personal best throw of 66.86m, while world champion Yaime Perez of Cuba earned bronze with 65.72m.
Pudenz said she never anticipated winning a medal.
&ldquo;Definitely not,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was hoping for top eight, maybe a personal best and then see what happens, but a silver medal &ndash; I never expected that."
Croatia&rsquo;s two-time defending champion Sandra Perkovic, who had been aiming to become the first woman to win three Olympic golds in an individual athletics event, finished fourth with 65.01m.
The final was suspended for 57 minutes due to heavy rain. Just before that, Liliana Ca of Portugal slipped and tumbled on the slippery throwing circle, with her discus falling to the ground. When the final resumed, Ca and two others were allowed to retake their second-round throws.
Allman, who trained as a dancer as a young girl but switched to the discus as a 15-year-old high schooler, came to Tokyo as a leading medal contender after winning the event at the US Olympic Trials in June with a throw of 70.01m. She was the only finalist to have thrown beyond the 70-metre mark this year.
On Monday, Allman built off that confidence and sent a message to her rivals with her very first throw.
&ldquo;The throw felt like a really good opener,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;My coach and I, we always talk about being able to set the tone right at the start of the competition. To come out with a solid mark like that felt really good.&rdquo;
Allman failed on her second and third attempts but recorded 66.87m on her fifth throw, which became the third-longest throw of the evening.
&ldquo;No one can ever predict a rain delay and it&rsquo;s hard to get back in the groove,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I wish I could have stayed in that groove and try to build on that mark but to win a gold medal, it feels absolutely amazing.&rdquo;
Pudenz improved from third to second in the standings with her 66.86m effort in round five but no one ever got close to Allman&rsquo;s top mark.
Perkovic said she lost focus in the rain delay and ruined her chances by sailing what she thought would be a 68m-69m throw into the cage.
&ldquo;After that I completely collapsed,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It was all my mistakes.&rdquo;
As a young girl, Allman spent a year traveling across the US as part of a dance programme put on by choreographers for the television show &lsquo;So You Think You Can Dance&rsquo;.
Then, as a high school student in Longmont, Colorado, she was invited to an annual spaghetti dinner by the school&rsquo;s throwing athletes. But, in order to attend, she had to try throwing. She agreed and found out that she had a talent for discus. From there, her athletics career took off.
Allman finds a symmetry between dance and discus throwing.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a balletic movement to it,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a combination of grace, strength, balance, having an awareness of your body and being able to move it with force. That&rsquo;s mainly what discus throwing is.&rdquo;
Steve Wilson for World Athletics
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3">WOMEN'S DISCUS MEDALLISTS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Valerie Allman 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">68.98m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Kristin Pudenz 🇩🇪 GER</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">66.86m PB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Yaime Perez 🇨🇺 CUB</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">65.72m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391/results/women/discus-throw/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;

One big throw for Allman, landing USA's first gold of Tokyo Games

Daniel Stahl continued his dominance of the men&rsquo;s discus with a convincing victory at Tokyo&rsquo;s Olympic Stadium on Saturday (31) to capture the first field event title at the Tokyo 2020 Games in what was also the 1000th athletics final in Olympic history.
The 28-year-old Swede took command with a second-round launch of 68.90m, the fourth farthest throw in Olympic history.
Lukas Weisshaidinger of Austria gave him a scare early on with a 67.07m throw in the third round but his biggest challenge ultimately came from compatriot and training partner Simon Pettersson who unleashed a 67.39m effort in the fifth round to secure an unlikely gold and silver finish for Sweden &ndash; and their first two Olympic medals ever in the event.
&ldquo;There was a lot of hard work and fun on the way,&rdquo; said Stahl, who has led the world in the event each year since 2016. &ldquo;I am extremely proud.&rdquo;
Stahl didn&rsquo;t reach the final in Rio five years ago, but improved his consistency markedly each year since, taking world silver in 2017 and European silver in 2018 before taking the world title in 2019. Stahl lost just twice in 19 competitions in 2020 and just once in 13 competitions this year.
&ldquo;My training partner Simon has been working hard,&rdquo; Stahl said. &ldquo;I am also very proud of our coach (Vesteinn Hafsteinsson) for believing in us, and having faith." 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61055286a77afcf45a2f9b1c.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Matt Denny of Australia opened with a 65.76m throw to lead after the opening round, but was overtaken by Weisshaidinger who opened the second round with a 66.65m effort. But it wasn&rsquo;t long before Stahl wrestled the lead away with his winning toss just a few minutes later, turning the competition into a battle for minor medals.
Weisshaidinger remained consistent, improving to 67.07m in the third round and throwing nearly as far &ndash; 66.86m &ndash; in the fourth.
Further back, pre-Games medal favourite Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia struggled early, fouling on his first attempt, reaching just 62.95m with his second and foot fouling his third after a mediocre throw, but stayed alive after sitting in eighth position after the first three rounds.
He was a calm figure when he returned to the circle to throw first in round four, before unleashing a 66.05m effort to move into fourth. He continued to improve, throwing 66.62m to overtake Pettersson for the bronze medal position by just four centimetres.
But the 22-year-old&rsquo;s podium ambitions were short-lived.
Pettersson bounced back brilliantly, unleashing a 67.39m throw to move into second, giving Sweden a firm hold on positions one and two.
Behind him and Weisshaidinger, Denny kept up the pressure, improving his lifetime best in the final round to 67.02m to finish fourth, just five centimetres back. Ceh, throwing next, couldn&rsquo;t respond, reaching 66.37m to take fifth in his first Olympic Games.
That secured the bronze for Weisshaidinger, the first-ever Olympic medal in athletics from an Austrian man.
After Stahl and Pettersson concluded a 50-metre backstraight victory dash, Weissheidinger, wrapped in his national flag, knelt next to the throwing circle to kiss the ring.
Further back, 2017 world champion Andrius Gudzius finished sixth with 64.11m. Mauricio Ortega, the first Olympic finalist in the event from Colombia, was seventh with 64.08m.
Germany&rsquo;s Daniel Jasinski, the 2016 bronze medallist, was 10th with 62.44m.
Bob Ramsak for World Athletics
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3">MEN'S DISCUS MEDALLISTS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 65%; background-color: #e9c968;">Daniel Stahl 🇸🇪 SWE</td>
<td style="width: 25%; background-color: #e9c968;">68.90m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 65%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Simon Pettersson 🇸🇪 SWE</td>
<td style="width: 25%; background-color: #ced4d9;">67.39m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 65%; background-color: #bd895e;">Lukas Weisshaidinger 🇦🇹 AUT</td>
<td style="width: 25%; background-color: #bd895e;">67.07m</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391/results/men/discus-throw/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;

Daniel Stahl continued his dominance of the men’s discus 

Stahl leads Swedish 1-2 in discus

There are three titles up for grabs on the second day of athletics action at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Saturday (31).
After the fastest heat times in Olympic history were recorded on Friday, the champion will be crowned in the women&rsquo;s 100m, while the first ever Olympic winners in the mixed 4x400m will be decided and the world&rsquo;s best will battle for men&rsquo;s discus glory.
Here are five things to follow on day two&hellip;&nbsp; 
<h2>More history to be made?</h2>
Women&rsquo;s 100m final 9:50pm Tokyo time | 2:50pm CEST
The women&rsquo;s 100m got off to an expected fast start on Friday as first Elaine Thompson-Herah ran 10.82, then Marie-Josee Ta Lou clocked 10.78, as they <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-day-one-morning-ta-lou-warholm-mu-thompson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">produced the two fastest ever women&rsquo;s 100m Olympic heat times</a>. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6103c8f1e20078d303218f0f.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="635" />
 Combine that with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce&rsquo;s 10.84 to win her own heat and a whole host of other strong performances behind them, and the next two rounds of competition are sure to be quite a show.
The semifinals get under way at 7.15pm Tokyo time (12.15pm CEST), with Jamaica&rsquo;s defending Olympic 100m and 200m champion Thompson-Herah heading the first as she lines up alongside Ajla Del Ponte, who with 10.91 in her heat improved Mujinga Kambundji&rsquo;s national record of 10.95 which she had matched a few heats earlier. That semifinal will also feature Britain&rsquo;s world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith and Nigeria&rsquo;s multiple world medallist Blessing Okagbare.
Ta Lou, who equalled the African 100m record in her heat, goes in the second semifinal along with Jamaica&rsquo;s Olympic and world 400m medallist Shericka Jackson.
In the third semifinal, Fraser-Pryce will continue her campaign towards becoming the first woman to win a single individual Olympic athletics event three times, to add to her 100m victories claimed in 2008 and 2012.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-olympics-preview-100m" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a> 
<h2>Mixed relay magic</h2>
Mixed 4x400m final 9:35pm Tokyo time | 2:35pm CEST
Making its Olympic debut in Tokyo, the first ever mixed 4x400m medallists will be decided on Saturday.
First tried out at senior level at the 2017 World Relays in Nassau, the mixed relay featured at the World Championships for the first time in Doha in 2019 and proved to be a big hit with its unique and unpredictable format.
The US team of Wil London, Allyson Felix, Courtney Okolo and Michael Cherry won gold in a world record time of 3:09.34 in Doha and the USA again shapes up as the favourites in Tokyo. They clocked&nbsp;3:11.39 to win their heat and although intially disqualified, the team was reinstated with a place in the final secured.
The Poland quartet qualified quickest, running 3:10.44, and they will be joined in the final by the Netherlands, Jamaica, Great Britain,&nbsp;Dominican Republic, Belgium and Ireland.
Strategy and tactics can come into play. While teams can select any order, most have chosen to go with a male lead-off runner, followed by two women over the following two laps, and a man running the anchor leg.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-olympics-preview-4x400m-relays" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a> 
<h2>Stahl seeks success for Sweden</h2>
Men&rsquo;s discus final 8:15pm Tokyo time | 1:15pm CEST
Daniel Stahl will aim to become the first Swedish athlete to ever win an Olympic discus title, as he looks to add gold in Tokyo to the world title he won in Doha in 2019. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/7147d93c-e215-4e54-b748-f59e3c7c8541.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="634" />
 The world leader with a best of 71.40m this year, <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-day-one-morning-ta-lou-warholm-mu-thompson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stahl needed just one throw &ndash; from which he recorded 66.12m &ndash; to qualify for the final</a>.
There he will be joined by Slovenia's European U23 champion Kristjan Ceh, who threw 70.35m in Kuortane in June, and Lithuania&rsquo;s 2017 world champion Andrius Gudzius. Jamaica&rsquo;s world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres will not feature, as his best of 62.91m in qualification placed him 13th overall as he continues his comeback after surgery on his hand earlier this year.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-olympics-preview-discus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a> 
<h2>Mondo&rsquo;s moment?</h2>
Men&rsquo;s pole vault qualification 9:40am Tokyo time | 2:40am CEST
After becoming the world record-holder in 2020, clearing 6.17m and then 6.18m just one week later, Mondo Duplantis will go for his first senior global gold in Tokyo.
He will seek a smooth qualification during the morning session on Saturday, but his expected head-to-head with the USA&rsquo;s Sam Kendricks will no longer be possible, with the two-time world champion having withdrawn from the competition after testing positive for Covid-19.
&ldquo;I have been basically jumping my whole life for this moment,&rdquo; said world silver medallist Duplantis. &ldquo;Ever since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to compete in the Olympics, and now the time is finally here after 15 years of jumping.&rdquo;
On the withdrawal of Kendricks, he added: "It's hard to react to it because it still doesn't really feel real right now. An hour ago I was still preparing myself for a big battle with Sam.&rdquo;
As well as Duplantis, the field will feature Brazil&rsquo;s defending champion Thiago Braz, France&rsquo;s former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie and Poland&rsquo;s multiple world medallist Piotr Lisek.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-olympics-preview-pole-vault" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a> 
<h2>Another world record-holder takes to the track</h2>
Women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles heats 9:00am Tokyo time | 2:00am CEST&nbsp;
After finishing second to Dalilah Muhammad&rsquo;s world record performances at both the US Trials and World Athletics Championships in 2019, this time Sydney McLaughlin goes into global competition as the world record-holder.
The 21-year-old clocked 51.90 in Eugene last month to secure her spot on the Olympic team in superb style and now forms part of a top field which will begin their Tokyo journey by racing in the 400m hurdles heats on Saturday morning.
McLaughlin stars in the third heat, while Muhammad is in the fifth and final heat. Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who has reduced her personal best from 53.79 to 52.37 this season and now ranks fourth on the world all-time list, starts in heat four.
Other track action beginning on day two includes the men&rsquo;s 100m and 800m, plus the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-olympics-preview-400m-hurdles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a>
&nbsp;

There are three titles up for grabs on the second day of athletics action at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games on Saturday (31).

Five things to follow on day two in Tokyo

The world&rsquo;s best sprinters put up some eye-popping times in the opening session of the athletics programme at the Tokyo Olympics as Jamaica&rsquo;s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce began her quest to become the first woman to win three 100m titles.
Exactly four years, 11 months and nine days after the close of the Rio 2016 Games, the athletics competition got underway on Friday morning (30) with a series of heats and qualification rounds held in hot and humid conditions.
With no spectators in the 60,000-capacity stadium, the atmosphere was eerie, with the incessant buzzing of cicadas from outside the arena clearly audible inside the venue.
But the weather proved ideal for sprinting, and the women took full advantage &ndash; with six runners going under 11 seconds in the 100m heats.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast stole the show, blasting to victory in her heat in 10.78 seconds, equalling the African record and recording the fifth-fastest time of the year.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m in shock actually,&rdquo; said Ta Lou, who finished fourth in the 100m and 200m at the Rio Games. &ldquo;I really didn't expect to run as fast as I just did. I have never run here. I didn't even train in the warm-up area. So it's my first time and I was like, &lsquo;Wow!&rsquo;&rdquo;
The three leading Jamaicans all advanced comfortably to Saturday&rsquo;s semifinals.
Fraser-Pryce, the 100m gold medallist in 2008 and 2012, ran a smooth and controlled pace to win her heat in 10.84. The 34-year-old, who went to No.2 on the world all-time list with her 10.63 run in June, is competing in her first Games as a mother.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s good to execute in the heat, because I guess there&rsquo;s less pressure, and then it gets to the semis where it&rsquo;s a little bit more pressure,&rdquo; Fraser-Pryce said. &ldquo;So you just want to make sure that you execute.&rdquo;
The &lsquo;Mommy Rocket&rsquo; can match fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt&rsquo;s three Olympic 100m titles, and become the first woman to win a single individual Olympic athletics event three times.
Defending Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah got off to a great start and charged home to victory in her heat in 10.82. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610373efd201b6d580dd824e.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 And Shericka Jackson, an Olympic and world 400m medallist who is focusing on shorter sprints the year, advanced by finishing second in her heat in 11.07.
All three Jamaicans are entered for the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in Tokyo.
Switzerland&rsquo;s European indoor champion Ajla del Ponte set a national record 10.91, beating the mark of 10.95 set just a few minutes earlier by world 200m bronze medallist Mujinga Kambundji. Also going under 11 seconds was Britain&rsquo;s Daryll Neita, who clocked a personal best of 10.96.
Teahna Daniels, third at the US trials, won her heat in 11.04 ahead of world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith of Britain in 11.07. 
<h2>World champions Warholm, Barshim and Stahl all advance</h2>
Karsten Warholm, the world record-holder and two-time world champion in the men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles, opened his bid for a first Olympic title by easily winning his heat to advance to the semifinals.
Running in lane eight, the Norwegian was comfortably ahead over the final hurdle and jogged across the line in 48.65 &ndash; nearly two seconds off the time he ran earlier in Oslo his year to break Kevin Young&rsquo;s long-standing world mark. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6103a916e56458df96c9cad2.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;It was nice to get out on the track again,&rdquo; Warholm said. It&rsquo;s something you&rsquo;ve been looking forward to for a long time. I&rsquo;ve been here for two weeks already, I&rsquo;m starting to get bored so it was very nice to get around.&rdquo;
World silver medallist Rai Benjamin, who clocked 46.83 at the US Trials to go third on the all-time list, sailed through his heat in 48.60.
&ldquo;I was a little too excited on the warm-up field,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;Man, let's get this show on the road'. But it was nice to come out here and get a controlled one. It's the first round and I feel pretty good."
Athing Mu, the 19-year-old US middle-distance star, made her Olympic debut in style by cruising to victory in her 800m heat. She ran past Ethiopia&rsquo;s Habitam Alemu in the final 20 meters to cross in 2:01.10. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61035e687b7233c915bcc5cd.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Mu, who clocked a world-leading 1:56.07 at the US Trials for the second-fastest time ever run by a US woman, is aiming to become the first US athlete to win the women&rsquo;s Olympic 800m since Madeline Mims at the 1968 Mexico City Games.
Mu said the absence of fans actually helped her by easing the pressure.
&ldquo;Because it's my first Games I feel like having more people in the stands and that big roar and everyone's just looking at everyone that's competing all eyes on you, it makes me feel a little more anxious,&rdquo; she said.
US teammate Raevyn Rogers, second to Mu at the US Trials, won her heat in 2:01.42. Jamaica&rsquo;s Natoya Goule, the 2019 Pan American Games champion, led all 800m qualifiers with a time of 1:59.83, followed by Britain&rsquo;s Jemma Reekie at 1:59.97.
Another top contender, Cuba&rsquo;s Rose Mary Almanza, progressed in 2:00.71. World champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda finished only fourth in her heat but qualified by her time of 2:00.92.
In the men&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase, Ethiopia&rsquo;s Lamecha Girma led all qualifiers by winning his heat in 8:09.83. He was closely followed by 19-year-old Ryuji Miura, who ran 8:09.92 to break his own Japanese national record. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610353de5a69e15a72729cd8.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Kenyans Benjamin Kigen (8:10.80) and Abraham Kibiwot (8:12.25) finished with the day&rsquo;s third- and fourth-best times.
Kenyans have won the 3000m steeplechase at all but two Olympic since 1968; the only times they didn&rsquo;t was when Kenya boycotted the Games. Reigning champion and two-time world champion Conseslus Kipruto did not qualify for Tokyo.
In men&rsquo;s high jump, two-time world champion Mutaz Barshim was among those qualifying for the final by clearing 2.28m. A bronze medallist in 2012 and silver medallist in 2016, the 30-year-old Barshim is seeking to win Qatar&rsquo;s first ever Olympic gold.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been waiting for five years for this,&rdquo; Barshim said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the one I want and I&rsquo;ll do what it takes to make it happen.&rdquo;
US star JuVaughn Harrison, who is competing in both high jump and long jump, also advanced to the high jump finals. He&rsquo;s the first US man to qualify for both events at the Olympics since Jim Thorpe in 1912.
In the men&rsquo;s discus, world champion Daniel Stahl needed just one throw to qualify for the finals with an effort of 66.12m. The world leader at 71.40m, Stahl is aiming to become the first Swede ever to win an Olympic discus title.
Andrius Gudzius, the 2017 world champion who is trying to win Lithuania&rsquo;s fourth Olympic gold in the discus, advanced with a throw of 65.94m. Rising star Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia had the day&rsquo;s third longest throw of 65.45m.
Steve Wilson for World Athletics

Eye-popping 100m times in the opening athletics session at the Tokyo Olympics

Ta Lou and Thompson-Herah impress in 100m heats as athletics begins at Tokyo Olympics

Four years, 11 months and nine days after the action in Rio came to a close, Olympic Games athletics will make its highly anticipated return at Tokyo&rsquo;s Olympic Stadium on Friday (30).
There is one final &ndash; the men&rsquo;s 10,000m &ndash; taking place on the first day of the athletics programme, while a series of heats and qualification rounds will set the scene for all that is to come.
Here are five things to follow on day one. 
<h2>A new champion</h2>
Men&rsquo;s 10,000m final 8:30pm Tokyo time | 1:30pm CEST
With two-time winner Mo Farah missing from the field, a new Olympic men&rsquo;s 10,000m champion will be crowned in Tokyo for the first time since 2012.
Two Ugandan stars &ndash; world record-holder Joshua Cheptegei and world-leader Jacob Kiplimo &ndash; shape up as the men to beat in an event in which some of the sport&rsquo;s all-time greats have won consecutive golds dating back to 1996. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/9fea4c20-b9e2-411d-b45b-07721dbc9fd1.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="633" />
 The last time the Olympics were held in Tokyo, the men&rsquo;s 10,000m produced one of the greatest athletics upsets in Games history. Unheralded US runner Billy Mills, a Native American, sprinted past the leaders in the final straight of an epic race to claim gold at the 1964 Games &ndash; the first, and still only, US athlete to win the event.
Fans can look forward to what should be a thrilling competition in Tokyo, even without the reigning champion on the start line.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/preview/tokyo-olympics-preview-10000m" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a>
<h2> Warholm takes to the track</h2>
Men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles heats 11:25am Tokyo time | 4:25am CEST
After two world title wins, this time Karsten Warholm will stand on a global start line and be introduced as the world record-holder.
In 2016, the Norwegian was just settling into his first full year as a 400m hurdles specialist. Rai Benjamin, at 18 and two years Warholm's junior, had just wrapped up his first year of NCAA competition. In Tokyo they'll co-star in one of the Games' most eagerly awaited showdowns as two of the three fastest 400m hurdlers of all-time.
Warholm &ndash; who ran 46.70 to break Kevin Young's long standing world record in Oslo &ndash; goes in heat three at 11:41am local time. Benjamin &ndash; who clocked 46.83 less than a week earlier at the US Olympic Trials &ndash; races in heat five at 11:57am.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/preview/tokyo-olympics-preview-400m-hurdles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a>
<h2> Relay exciting debut</h2>
Mixed 4x400m heats 8:00pm Tokyo time | 1:00pm CEST&nbsp;
There is one event on this athletics programme that has no previous Olympic medallists, no Olympic records and, in fact, no Olympic history at all. 
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 The mixed 4x400m relay makes its debut in Tokyo, a discipline featuring teams of two men and two women competing against each other in any order they choose.
Fans will get an early taste of the new event on the first day of action, with the final set for the next evening.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/preview/tokyo-olympics-preview-4x400m-relays" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a>
<h2> Sprint stars align</h2>
Women&rsquo;s 100m heats 12:15pm Tokyo time | 5:15am CEST
The women&rsquo;s 100m is an event on fire right now, with eight women having gone sub-10.90 in 2021 and three athletes on the Tokyo entry list &ndash; Jamaica&rsquo;s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson &ndash; all having run under 10.80.
Multiple global gold medallist Fraser-Pryce&rsquo;s 10.63 to become the second-fastest 100m sprinter of all time leads the list, while defending Olympic 100m and 200m champion Thompson-Herah is just 0.01 off her 10.70 PB from 2016 so far this season. Meanwhile, Olympic and world 400m medallist Jackson, who is concentrating on the shorter sprints this year, has run a PB of 10.77. 
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 The 100m entries joining them in having dipped under 10.90 in 2021 are multiple world medallists Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast and Nigeria&rsquo;s Blessing Okagbare, while Britain&rsquo;s Dina Asher-Smith has clocked 10.91.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/news/tokyo-olympics-preview-100m" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full preview</a>
<h2> Field focus</h2>
Men&rsquo;s high jump,&nbsp;men&rsquo;s discus,&nbsp;women&rsquo;s triple jump,&nbsp;women&rsquo;s shot put&nbsp;
The qualification rounds for the men&rsquo;s high jump (9:15am Tokyo time/2:15am CEST), men&rsquo;s discus (9:45am &amp; 11:20am Tokyo time/2:45am &amp; 4:20am CEST), women&rsquo;s triple jump (7:05pm Tokyo time/12:05pm CEST) and women&rsquo;s shot put (7:25pm Tokyo time/12:25pm CEST) all take place on the first day.
Stars in action include Qatar&rsquo;s two-time world champion Mutaz Barshim in the high jump, Sweden&rsquo;s world champion Daniel Stahl in the discus, Venezuela&rsquo;s two-time world champion Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump and New Zealand&rsquo;s shot put star Valerie Adams.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/previews" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full previews</a>
&nbsp;

Four years, 11 months and nine days after the action in Rio came to a close, Olympic Games athletics will make its highly anticipated return at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium on Friday (28).

Five things to follow on day one in Tokyo

<h2>Women's discus</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391/athletes?competitionGroup=olympic-games&amp;disciplineCode=DT&amp;sexCode=W&amp;urlSlug=the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Entries</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391/timetable/bydiscipline/women/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/women?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;rankDate=2021-07-13&amp;limitByCountry=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior/2021?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2021 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true&amp;firstDay=1900-01-01&amp;lastDay=2021-07-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Sandra Perkovic is chasing a three-peat.
The Croatian discus star is vying for a third consecutive Olympic gold medal, although she faces a loaded field in Tokyo including world champion Yaime Perez of Cuba and 21-year-old world leader Jorinde Van Klinken of the Netherlands.
Perkovic, a two-time world champion and five-time European gold medallist, became only the second woman ever to win back-to-back discus golds at the Olympics with her victories in London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. Now, the 31-year-old has a chance to become the first to win three straight.
"I want to be remembered as the best female discus athlete ever," Perkovic said.
Five years ago in Rio, Perkovic fouled on five of her six throws during the final but still won by more than two metres with her one valid throw of 69.21m. She cracked the 70-metre barrier to win gold at the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London with 70.31m but settled for bronze in Doha in 2019 with 66.72m.
Back from injury, Perkovic re-established herself as a contender for gold in Tokyo by securing her 43rd Diamond League win (and first in almost two years) in Florence in June with a throw of 68.31m, third best in the world this year.
Coached by her boyfriend and 2002 world U20 shot put champion Edis Elkasevic, Perkovic has said she hopes to compete in five Olympics, matching the number of Olympic rings. That would see her also in action in Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028.
But first comes Tokyo and a crop of challengers seeking to topple her from her Olympic throne. 
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 Van Klinken stunned the sport by unleashing a throw of 70.22m at the USATF Throws Festival in Tucson, Arizona, in May. It was the longest throw of the past three years, obliterating the Dutch record and adding about nine metres to her best mark before this year. After her 70.22m, her next best is the 65.94m she threw two days earlier, also in Tucson.
"The distance is so surreal to me and it being the No.1 mark in the world in the Olympic year," Van Klinken said after her stunning performance. "It's crazy to be at the top of the world list, unbelievable.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Van Klinken and Perkovic are the only two European throwers to surpass the 70-metre mark this century.
The Dutchwoman, the NCAA champion from Arizona State University, failed to make the discus final in Doha. She also competes in shot put and would like to participate in both events at future Olympics.
"Going to the Olympics and throwing 70 (feet) are two of my biggest goals," said Van Klinken, . "I've always said I wanted to win medals in shot put and discus so that would be my next goal.&rdquo;
Also in contention should be US champion Valarie Allman, the only other athlete who has thrown beyond 70 metres this year. The 26-year-old produced a throw of 70.01m at the US Olympic Trials in June in Eugene, Oregon. That was just short of the US record of 70.15m she set last August.
"There have been several [athletes] who have absolutely dominated for years," said Allman, who finished seventh in Doha. "And I've gone from viewing them as my idols to now trying to figure out how to view them as my rivals.&rdquo;
That includes Perez, the Cuban who took gold in Doha with a throw of 69.17m and recorded a season's best of 68.99m in May in Havana. Cuban teammate and Olympic bronze medallist Denia Caballero should also be in the mix for medals in Tokyo, while two-time Jamaican champion Shadae Lawrence, who posted a national record of 67.05m in Tucson, should not be counted out.
Tokyo will be a sixth Olympic Games for France's Melina Robert-Michon, who won her first global medal at the age of 34 when she claimed silver at the 2013 World Championships. Olympic silver in Rio followed, thanks to her French record of 66.73m, and she picked up another medal in 2017, taking bronze at the World Championships in London.
Meanwhile, making her Olympic debut is Germany's 2019 world finalist Kristin Pudenz, who has improved to&nbsp;66.31m this year.
Steve Wilson for World Athletics
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<h2>Men's discus</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391/athletes?competitionGroup=olympic-games&amp;countryCode=&amp;disciplineCode=DT&amp;sexCode=M&amp;urlSlug=the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Entries</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391/timetable/bydiscipline/men/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/men?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;rankDate=2021-07-13&amp;limitByCountry=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior/2021?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2021 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true&amp;firstDay=1900-01-01&amp;lastDay=2021-07-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Much has changed on the men's discus scene since the last Olympic Games.
Sweden's Daniel Stahl, who didn't even reach the final in 2016, has since emerged as the world's dominant discus thrower, capturing silver at the World Athletics Championships in 2017 and gold two years later. He's ended the season as world leader each year since 2016, lost just twice in 19 competitions in 2020 and just once in 13 competitions this year.
He'll arrive in Tokyo as the world leader at 71.40m and with three of the four farthest throws of the year.
His leading challengers?
Slovenia's Kristjan Ceh is a rapidly rising star in the event who, at just 22, is already a member of the 70-metre club after a 70.35m blast in Kuortane, Finland, in late June, landing him second on the world list heading into Tokyo. But the two-time European U23 champion hasn't yet managed to find a way to beat Stahl in their nine meetings. 
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 In recent years, few have.
Andrius Gudzius, the 2017 world champion, has fared best, sitting on the losing side of a 26-18 head-to-head tally against the Swede. The last time Gudzius emerged victorious was at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin last September. Gudzius, who unleashed his 69.59m career best in 2018, has a 68.62m best effort from this season.
Simon Pettersson, the No.2 Swede, and Austria's Lukas Weishaidinger, are this year's other two 69 metre-plus throwers and arrive with realistic podium ambitions. Pettersson, 27, reached a lifetime best of 69.48m in May while the 29-year-old Weishaidinger, the world bronze medallist, improved his national record to 69.04m in June.
Likewise, Jamaican strongman Fedrick Dacres, the world silver medallist two years ago, is fully capable of stealing a podium spot. The 27-year-old broke the 70-metre barrier in 2019 with 70.78m but has competed less often than most of the other top throwers over the past two seasons. In his last outing, he finished third in Szekesfehervar against a strong field.
Other prospective medallists include top US thrower Reggie Jagers (67.82m SB) and Alex Rose (67.48m PB, SB), who is looking to become the first Samoan athlete to reach an Olympic final.
Meanwhile, Christoph Harting, who succeeded older brother Robert as Olympic champion five years ago &ndash; a first in Olympic annals &ndash; has only been named to the German team as an alternate. 2015 world champion Piotr Malachowski, whose silver in Rio was his second in Olympic competition, will be the second oldest entrant in the competition, aged 38. He has a 2021 best of 64.67m that marks his 18th consecutive season with a throw of 64 metres or better. That won't land the Pole in the medal hunt but Daniel Jasinski's 67.47m career best from late May might. That throw was 42 centimetres better than the one that bagged the German a surprise bronze in Rio.
Bob Ramsak for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the men's and women's discus.

Tokyo Olympics preview: discus

100 ones to watch in Tokyo: short throws

Fresh from her heroics at the FBK Games in Hengelo, world record-breaker Sifan Hassan will again take centre stage at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, a Wanda Diamond League meeting, in Florence on Thursday (10).
Dutch world champion Hassan, who improved the global 10,000m record to 29:06.82c on Sunday (pending ratification), will give herself a speed test in the Italian city, stepping down to her other world title distance, the 1500m, where another exceptional challenge awaits.
The other contenders include the Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, also in brilliant form after a commanding win in the 800m at the previous Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha, and the European champion Laura Muir, undefeated outdoors this year at this distance.
But having won the world titles over 10,000m and 1500m a week apart in Doha in 2019, Hassan will fancy her chances at taking this double too.
On the 40th anniversary of Sebastian Coe&rsquo;s monumental world 800m record, also set in Florence, it is fitting that the middle distance events will command the spotlight.
The men&rsquo;s 5000m and 3000m steeplechase also promise to be outstanding races based on the quality of the fields assembled.
Uganda&rsquo;s world 5000m record-breaker Joshua Cheptegei heads a stacked 5000m field that includes seven sub-13-minute men, among them the Ethiopian duo of world champion Muktar Edris and Hagos Gebrhiwet, as well as the Norwegian boy wonder Jakob Ingebrigtsen, European champion but yet to prove he can mix it with the world&rsquo;s very best over this distance. This is his opportunity. 
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Joshua Cheptegei on his way to a world 5000m record in Monaco</div>
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Spain&rsquo;s Mohamed Katir, who was an impressive winner of this event at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead last month, will also contend.
Cheptegei returns to this distance for the first time since he set the world record in Monaco last year. He has made no secret of his desire to turn his dominance of the clock over 5000m and 10,000m in the past two years, into two Olympic gold medals in Tokyo in August.
The steeplechase line-up is equally formidable, featuring three of the first four from the 2019 World Championships podium from Doha, Kenyan winner Conseslus Kipruto, Morocco&rsquo;s bronze medallist Soufiane El Bakkali and fourth-placed Getnet Wale.
Another athlete who will bring outstanding form to Florence is the world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, who will have her first outing over her preferred distance this year, coming off a dominant display over 100m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Hengelo.
Waiting for her will be the dual world champion Dafne Schippers, world bronze medallist Mujinga Kambundji and the highly-regarded Marie-Josee Ta Lou.
In the men&rsquo;s 100m, Akani Simbine, who inspired South Africa to victory in the 4x100m at the World Athletics Relays in Silesia last month, returns to Europe to take on a field that includes four other sub-10-second performers.
A warm evening in early summer in Italy promises to provide perfect conditions for the sprints, and will give world leader in the 100m hurdles Jasmine Camacho-Quinn every chance of improving her personal best of 12.32 and extending her unbeaten run this year. 
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Jasmine Camacho-Quinn at the 2021 USATF Grand Prix in Eugene</div>
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Olympic 110m hurdles champion Omar McLeod is also rounding into form after a 13.08 clocking in Hengelo and will take on world bronze medallist Pascal Martinot-Lagarde.
Following her 54.33 400m hurdles season-opener in Hengelo last weekend, Femke Bol will look to go even quicker in Florence when she takes on Olympic silver medallist Sara Slott Petersen, the winner in Gateshead, and Ukraine&rsquo;s Anna Ryzhykova.
In the men&rsquo;s 400m, world silver medallist Anthony Zambrano takes on Botswana&rsquo;s Isaac Makwala, European champion Matt Hudson-Smith and Italian record-holder Davide Re.
Florence is not only likely to be faster, but higher too, with world-class fields assembled in both the women&rsquo;s pole vault and men&rsquo;s high jump.
The pole vault will feature Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi on the comeback trail from injury where she will face world champion Anzhelika Sidorova and in the in-form Holly Bradshaw.
In the high jump, world champion Mutaz Essar Barshim of Qatar will compete in Europe for the first time in two years, taking on the early season pacesetter Ilya Ivanyuk (2.37m) and the home favourite Gianmarco Tamberi. 
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Mutaz Barshim at the Ready Steady Tokyo meeting</div>
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The only horizontal jump programmed, the women&rsquo;s long jump, will be similarly intriguing as world champion Malaika Mihambo takes on a high-quality field including fellow seven-metre jumpers Chantel Malone and Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova, two-time world triple jump champion Caterine Ibarguen, world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic and world silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk.
For stronger (to complete the Olympic motto), look to the men&rsquo;s shot put and the women&rsquo;s discus.
New Zealand&rsquo;s 2017 world shot put champion Tom Walsh will face the leading thrower in Europe this season, Poland&rsquo;s Michal Haratyk, who has a best mark of 22.17m this year.
Cuba&rsquo;s world discus champion Yaime Perez will look to extend her unbeaten run this year, taking on the dual Olympic discus champion Sandra Perkovic again after a narrow victory in Hengelo.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics

Fresh from her heroics at the FBK Games in Hengelo, world record-breaker Sifan Hassan will again take centre stage at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, a Wanda Diamond League meeting, in Florence on Thursday (10).

World record-breakers Hassan and Cheptegei lead distance showcase in Florence

Thirty-one athletes who earned medals at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 &ndash; including 11 champions &ndash; will return to the Qatari capital on Friday (28) for the second Wanda Diamond League meeting of 2021.
Every scoring discipline on the programme includes at least one world medallist, while three of the disciplines &ndash; the women&rsquo;s triple jump, pole vault and discus &ndash; boast the full complement of podium finishers from the 2019 World Championships.
All eyes will be on the triple jump after world champion Yulimar Rojas bounded out to a world-leading 15.43m at the World Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Andujar last week. Her leap is the same distance as her world indoor record and just seven centimetres &ndash; which, if you&rsquo;re reading this on a smartphone, is roughly the width of your device &ndash; away from the long-standing world record.
The last time Rojas was in Doha, she won the world title with 15.37m. The Venezuelan will be reunited with the top five finishers from that occasion, including Olympic champion Caterine Ibarguen, world silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts, Commonwealth champion Kimberly Williams, and 2011 world champion Olga Saladukha. USA&rsquo;s Keturah Orji and Dominica&rsquo;s Thea LaFond, both of whom have set national records this year, are also in the line-up.
The women&rsquo;s pole vault is of a similarly high standard and is essentially a replay of the 2019 World Championships, featuring the top eight finishers from that competition.
World champion Anzhelika Sidorova returns to Diamond League action for the first time in almost two years. She vaulted 4.90m during the indoor season but hasn&rsquo;t competed since then.
World indoor champion Sandi Morris and 2019 Diamond League winner Katerina Stefanidi &ndash; both with season&rsquo;s bests of 4.80m &ndash; are also slated to compete, but Katie Nageotte may start as the slight favourite. The US vaulter recently cleared a world-leading PB of 4.93m, moving her up one place to equal fifth on the world all-time list.
All three world medallists in the women&rsquo;s discus &ndash; Yaime Perez, Denia Caballero and Sandra Perkovic &ndash; will be in action on Friday. The presence of USA&rsquo;s Valarie Allman means the line-up contains three women with 70-metre-plus PBs.
<h3>Fraser-Pryce aiming for sub-11 territory</h3>
On her 100m season debut at the Wanda Diamond League opener in Gateshead, world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was hampered by the harsh wet and windy conditions, clocking 11.51. 
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 Conditions in Doha will be be far more conducive to fast times, so the Jamaican star is more likely to be closer to the Qatari all-comers&rsquo; mark of 10.71 she set when winning the 2019 world title than her performance in Gateshead last week.
World bronze medallist Marie Josee Ta Lou, Nigeria&rsquo;s Blessing Okagbare, World Indoor Tour winner Javianne Oliver, European indoor champion Ajla del Ponte and USA&rsquo;s Hannah Cunliffe add further depth and quality to the field.
The men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles has been one of the hottest disciplines on the Wanda Diamond League circuit in recent years, and it makes its 2021 debut in Doha with world silver medallist Rai Benjamin lining up against world bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba &ndash; half the members of the event&rsquo;s sub-47-second club.
Benjamin looked extremely comfortable when racing to a world-leading 47.13 at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC earlier this month. Samba hasn&rsquo;t contested a hurdles race since the 2019 World Championships final, but a 45.43 clocking on the flat in South Africa two months ago shows the Qatari hurdler is in good form.
Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands and Alison Dos Santos of Brazil, who recorded national records of 47.50 and 47.68 respectively when finishing behind Benjamin at Mt SAC, are also in the line-up. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/63da1a35-7d6e-49d1-a88b-447013abcf4c.jpg?cachebuster=91ba1b51-5b72-4171-9b8b-91aad94ff542" alt="" width="600" height="400" />
 Two of the greatest all-round sprinters in history will clash at their specialist distance when Michael Norman takes on Fred Kerley over 400m.
Norman, the world leader in 2019 and 2018, is undefeated at 400m this year. World bronze medallist Kerley, meanwhile, has impressed at a range of distances, clocking a 100m PB of 9.91 and an indoor 400m best of 45.03.
The US duo&rsquo;s head-to-head record currently stands at 3-3. Norman won two of their three clashes in 2019, but Kerley took the US title ahead of Norman that year with both men dipping inside 44 seconds.
It may not be just a two-man contest, either. 2011 world and 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James, fresh from impressive runs in Phoenix and Ostrava over the past five weeks, will make his first Wanda Diamond League appearance since 2018. World silver medallist Anthony Zambrano, meanwhile, will make his Wanda Diamond League debut.
Kenny Bednarek&rsquo;s streak of sub-20-second 200m performances came to an end in Gateshead. The US sprinter had posted times of 19.65 (wind-assisted), 19.94 and 19.93 in his first three races of the year, but in the harsh conditions at last weekend&rsquo;s Wanda Diamond League opener Bednarek managed 20.33 (-3.0m/s). Nevertheless, the manner of his victory there &ndash; finishing almost half a second ahead of a world-class field &ndash; was a clear statement of the 22-year-old&rsquo;s form.
In Doha Bednarek will take on the likes of 2017 world champion Ramil Guliyev, world and Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse, 2014 European champion Adam Gemili and USA&rsquo;s Justin Gatlin.
<h3>Obiri and Cheruiyot target triumphant return</h3>
Kenyan distance duo Timothy Cheruiyot and Hellen Obiri struck gold in Doha two years ago and will be aiming to come out on top again this weekend.
Obiri will contest the 3000m, the event she won at last year&rsquo;s Doha Diamond League meeting, and she&rsquo;ll be up against world 5000m silver medallist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi and 2017 world cross-country bronze medallist Lilian Rengeruk. All three Kenyan women have set their 3000m PBs in Doha.
While Cheruiyot has dominated the 1500m on the Wanda Diamond League circuit in recent years, he has yet to win at the Doha meeting. He hopes to rectify that on Friday, though, when he takes on the lines of Australian record-holder Stewart McSweyn, world indoor champion Samuel Tefera, Ugandan record-holder Ronald Musagala and world indoor 3000m bronze medallist Bethwell Birgen. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/de9d5f5f-eb98-43cd-8243-1bac0323776d.jpg?cachebuster=d6135474-d1e5-4b41-96b0-acc431cb229e" alt="" width="600" height="400" />
 The women&rsquo;s steeplechase features four of the top five finishers from the World Championships, led by Emma Coburn and Kenya&rsquo;s Hyvin Kiyeng, the 2017 and 2015 world champions respectively.
World bronze medallist Gesa Felicitas Krause, Asian champion Winfred Yavi, Ugandan record-holder Peruth Chemutai and sub-nine-minute performer Norah Jeruto are also in the line-up.
World silver medallist Amel Tuka and world bronze medallist Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich will square off in the men&rsquo;s 800m. Britain&rsquo;s Daniel Rowden, who made a break-through last year with some notable international victories, will make his 2021 debut.
Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon steps down in distance to contest the 800m in Doha, where she&rsquo;ll face European indoor champion Keely Hodgkinson, Uganda&rsquo;s Winnie Nanyondo and Jamaican record-holder Natoya Goule.
<h3>Barshim and Drouin resume duel</h3>
For the first time in almost four years, world champion Mutaz Barshim will compete against Olympic champion Derek Drouin in the high jump.
The duo racked up a stack of medals and Diamond League wins between 2012 and 2017, both joining the exclusive 2.40m club in the process, but their careers were hampered by injuries in recent years. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/c9a28459-dba9-46a5-a9b0-9393cbbfae62.jpg?cachebuster=b2d11707-6532-4190-b87c-20774f86546d" alt="" width="600" height="400" />
 Barshim returned in 2019, winning the world title in sensational style on home soil, while Drouin has been out of action since 2017 and is only just returning to top-flight competition, having cleared 2.24m at a low-key meeting last week.
World bronze medallist Ilya Ivanyuk, who cleared a world-leading 2.37m last weekend, also competes, as does European indoor champion Maksim Nedasekau and 2018 Diamond League winner Brandon Starc.
In the men&rsquo;s shot put, meanwhile, two-time world indoor champion Tom Walsh takes on Serbian record-holder Armin Sinancevic, Croatia&rsquo;s Filip Mihaljevic and Poland&rsquo;s Konrad Bukowiecki.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

Thirty-two athletes who earned medals at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 – including 12 champions – will return to the Qatari capital on Friday (28) for the second Wanda Diamond League meeting of 2021.

Rojas ready to fly again in Doha

Four-time world hammer champions Anita Wlodarczyk and Pawel Fajdek are among the first star names confirmed for the Paavo Nurmi Games &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting &ndash; in the Finnish city of Turku on 7-8 June.
When Wlodarczyk last competed at the Paavo Nurmi Games, she set a meeting record of 75.61m. Just one week later, however, she cut short her 2019 season due to injury and subsequently sat out the entire year in 2020.
Earlier this month, however, the two-time Olympic champion from Poland returned to action with an encouraging 73.87m at a low-key competition in Antalya. The 35-year-old is now ready to line up at top-flight competitions as she prepares to defend her Olympic title in Tokyo later this year.
Compatriot Fajdek will also be making a return appearance in Turku. He won in 2015, broke the meeting record with 81.12m in 2016 and extended it to 82.40m in 2017.
He will be joined in Turku by the three athletes with whom he shared the podium at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019. Compatriot Wojciech Nowicki, who beat Fajdek in Turku in 2018, fellow world bronze medallist Bence Halasz of Hungary and world silver medallist Quentin Bigot are all set to compete.
World champion Daniel Stahl will contest the discus at the Paavo Nurmi Games for the third time. The Swedish thrower set a meeting record of 69.23m in Turku last year. He also had a throw that landed beyond the 70-metre line, but it was later ruled to be a foul after the referee analysed video footage of the performance.
Stahl will no doubt be keen to achieve a valid 70-metre throw in Turku next month when he lines up against 2017 world champion Andrius Gudzius of Lithuania.
German javelin duo Johannes Vetter and Thomas R&ouml;hler also return. Vetter, the 2017 world champion, won in Turku last year with 91.49m, breaking the 91.28m meeting record that had been set in 2016 by Olympic champion R&ouml;hler.
Vetter, who last year produced the second-best throw in history with his 97.76m effort in Chorzow, has started 2021 in fine form, throwing 91.50m in Offenburg at the end of April.
In the women&rsquo;s triple jump, world indoor silver medallist Kimberly Williams of Jamaica takes on European champion Paraskevi Papahristou of Greece, while the men&rsquo;s 800m line-up includes world indoor champion Adam Kszczot, and European indoor medallists Mateusz Borkowski and Jamie Webb.
Organisers for World Athletics

Four-time world hammer champions Anita Wlodarczyk and Pawel Fajdek are among the first star names confirmed for the Paavo Nurmi Games – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in the Finnish city of Turku on 7-8 June.

Wlodarczyk leads strong throws cast for Turku

For the first 15-or-more years of Dani Stevens&rsquo; remarkable career, serious injury was something that happened to somebody else. One of the few athletes to win world titles at all three levels of competition &ndash; youth, U20 and senior &ndash; a fixture in the top half-dozen female discus throwers in the world, Stevens was a model of consistency.
When injury did strike, however, it seemed fate unleashed its pent-up fury at being denied so long. From the World Athletics Continental Cup in September 2018 until 13 March 2021, Stevens was able to compete just twice. A serious back injury and long rehabilitation wrecked almost all of 2019, before an even more devastating neck injury early in 2020 threatened to end her career.
The second major injury &ndash; a bulging disc and consequent extensive nerve damage to her throwing arm &ndash; was the result of a seemingly innocuous accident in the gym, a situation where, as Stevens puts it, &ldquo;the weight is going one way and you&rsquo;re going the other.&rdquo; Innocuous-looking or not, the consequences were immediate, and severe.
&ldquo;It was in the back of my mind that I might not be able to throw again,&rdquo; says Stevens. &ldquo;My first priority was to get some function back in my arm, so I could do simple things like picking up my nieces and nephews, (or) being able to drive a car.&rdquo;
<img style="width: 200px; height: 267px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/607558aed370a5e099032184.jpg" alt="Dani Stevens' singlet" align="right" />
Progress was frustratingly slow at times, even as function did return. &ldquo;I was told I would get to a certain point and it would pick up exponentially,&rdquo; says Stevens, whose singlet and bib (in the name of Samuels) from the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin will be displayed in the <a title="Museum of World Athletics" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage/mowa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Museum of World Athletics&trade;</a> &ndash; the world&rsquo;s first 3D virtual sports museum &ndash; from July. 
Like a mirage in a barren desert, the rocket-like lift-off always seemed to be a step further away.
Even as she prepared to resume at Sydney&rsquo;s Continental Tour bronze meeting on 13 March, Stevens was unsure of her condition. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel ready,&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;but I knew it was in my best interest to compete.&rdquo;
Stevens believed she was ready to throw 60 metres. She figured the adrenaline of competition might add a metre or two more. Her 63.36m was at the top end of her expectations. Since then, she has competed at the Continental Tour Silver meeting Queensland Track Classic, throwing 62.22m. She is due to compete in the Australian Championships in Sydney on 15-18 April (the women&rsquo;s discus in on 18 April) when, still over a month short of turning 33, she will be chasing her title No.14 (plus five more at shot put).
The bizarre thing about the 2019-20 years for Stevens is that she has come out of them with an Olympic qualifier and, with the postponement of Tokyo 2020 due to Covid-19, still has an Olympic Games to contest.
The qualifier came at a Sydney interclub competition on the last day of November, 2019. Stevens had done only a couple of throwing sessions at the first of which&nbsp;&ldquo;I picked up that discus, and suddenly I had the biggest smile on my face,&rdquo; she told World Athletics last year. &ldquo;I said to myself, &lsquo;Yeah, I still really love doing this.&rdquo; She loved it all the more when that one-and-only competition for 2019 resulted in a 65.93m throw, well in excess of the Tokyo automatic standard of 63.50m. With the Covid-19 postponement and consequent splitting of the qualifying window, Stevens still has her Tokyo qualification nailed down.
Both injury rehabilitations were protracted and gradual, but also different. Stevens avoided surgery for the back injury in 2020 and almost got back into competition a couple of times during that year, whereas her neck and nerve injuries in 2020 did require surgery and were followed by a ground-up rebuild.
&ldquo;It was a strange time,&rdquo; Stevens says of early 2020. &ldquo;I had never had surgery before and then there was Covid and the postponement of competition. It was a crazy time to have to get your head around a lot of things at once and let them settle in.&rdquo;
There may be more &ldquo;crazy time&rdquo; yet, but the certainty around the Olympics &ndash; for athletes, at least &ndash; appears to be there, even if the certainty around lead-up competition is not. Stevens, who is based on the Gold Coast, and her team have decided that she will do most of her preparation in Australia.
&ldquo;Travel to Europe is a big decision,&rdquo; Stevens explains, &ldquo;especially if you have to quarantine when you come back. I&rsquo;ll spend time in Sydney with (career-long coach) Dennis Knowles and there will be competitions here in Queensland where I can compete against Matt Denny. I am confident I can prepare successfully at home. I&rsquo;ve done it before.&rdquo;
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60756c87f056c73aa0995aec.jpg" alt="" width="950" height="612" /> Dani Stevens during the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London, where she claimed silver&nbsp;(&copy; Getty Images)
 Dani Stevens has done it&nbsp;all&nbsp;before. Stevens, along with retired duo Sally Pearson and Jared Tallent, has been one of the pillars of Australian performance since competing in the first of her two World U18 Championships in 2003. She was a DNQ in the shot put then, but won the discus at the next edition of the championships in 2005.
From 2005 until 2019, Stevens never missed a major global event in which she was eligible to compete. She won the discus at the World U20 Championships in 2006, made her senior debut at the age of 19 at the Osaka 2007 World Championships, made the Olympic final in Beijing and became the youngest-ever winner of the women&rsquo;s discus at the Berlin 2009 World Championships.
Even in her &lsquo;less good&rsquo; seasons, Stevens has been there, or thereabouts. For 11 straight years &ndash; 2008-2018 &ndash; she was ranked top-10 in US magazine&nbsp;Track &amp; Field News&rsquo;s annual event rankings. No other Australian has ranked top-10 in as many years consecutively &ndash; not Betty Cuthbert, nor Ron Clarke, nor Pam Ryan, nor Cathy Freeman, nor Tallent. Not even Pearson.
If the middle years of that period saw Stevens somewhat in the doldrums, the most recent have produced a revival. Although bitterly disappointed with the competition, Stevens finished fourth at the Rio 2016 Olympics, then threw a national record 69.64m in taking the silver medal at the London 2017 World Championships. She followed that up with a Commonwealth Games win on home soil at the Gold Coast in 2018.
An Olympic medal is the obvious missing link. Fourth in Rio left Stevens &ldquo;feeling crushed&rdquo;. It was a strange competition, a night-session qualifying conducted in heavy rain followed by a final the next morning in heat and steamy humidity. No-one threw well, some just threw slightly better than others.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so very motivated for Tokyo,&rdquo; Stevens told World Athletics just before 2020 turned &ldquo;crazy&rdquo;. She hasn&rsquo;t lost the motivation, hasn&rsquo;t lost the love of competing. Fit and healthy, she will be a threat in Japan.
Len Johnson for World Athletics

For the first 15-or-more years of Dani Stevens’s remarkable career, serious injury was something that happened to somebody else. 

Stevens: "It was in the back of my mind that I might not throw again"

There was a national record in the women&rsquo;s pole vault, one of two Tokyo Olympic automatic standards on the night. There were two national championships decided in the 5000m.
None of those laurels fell to Dani Stevens, but it was difficult to go past her win in the discus as the most significant performance of the Sydney Track Classic, the second of three Australian meetings forming part of the 2021 World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting series.
Competing for just the second time in two-and-a-half years, Stevens won the event in which she has been a world championships gold and silver medallist, an Olympic fourth placegetter and a fixture in the world top 10 for more than a decade, with a throw of 63.36m.
This was just 14 centimetres short of the 63.50m Tokyo automatic qualifying standard, a mark she had already achieved in her only other competition since September 2018. Stevens threw 65.93m at a Sydney interclub competition in November 2019. It was the fact she was throwing at all which both thrilled her and the fans at her hometown meeting in which she was competing for the sixteenth time.
Back and neck injuries had threatened to end Stevens&rsquo; career just as she had enjoyed lifetime-best form through 2017 and 2018. In London in 2017 she took the silver medal at the World Championships, eight years after she had become the youngest-ever world champion in the event in Berlin in 2009. Her 69.64m in London was a career-best and she followed up with a 68.26m to win the gold medal at her home Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018.
But Stevens missed all of 2019 other than that low-key, late-year competition. Then, in 2020, just as Covid-19 closed world competition down and forced the postponement of the Tokyo Games, she was left unable to even lift her throwing arm after an accident in the gym, and the resulting popped disc, severely damaged a nerve. Her first priority in rehabilitation, she said, &ldquo;was to get some function back&rdquo; in her arm.
In a pre-meeting interview, Stevens described the competition as &ldquo;just a starting point to see where I&rsquo;m at.&rdquo; With four throws exceeding 60 metres &ndash; 61.67m, 62.81m, 60.18m and her 63.36m best &ndash; and two fouls, it seems she is in a pretty good place.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a good starting point to be around the Olympic qualifier in March,&rdquo; Stevens said. &ldquo;I love the feeling (of competing), I love the adrenalin, and I love throwing something a long way.&rdquo;
<h3>Kennedy tops 4.82m</h3>
Stevens is one of that rare breed of athlete to have won world titles at youth, junior and open levels. Though Nina Kennedy set a world junior record of 4.59m in the pole vault in 2015, her transition from outstanding junior to outstanding senior has experienced some bumps along the way.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NATIONAL RECORD for Nina Kennedy in the pole vault. She now has six Olympic qualifiers to her name, taking it to another level tonight when narrowly missing 4.87m. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ThisIsAthletics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ThisIsAthletics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ContinentalTourBronze?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ContinentalTourBronze</a> <a href="https://t.co/kRQeMPhxaV">pic.twitter.com/kRQeMPhxaV</a>
&mdash; Athletics Australia (@AthsAust) <a href="https://twitter.com/AthsAust/status/1370678180676177921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async=""></script>
Kennedy has hit a new level of consistency now. In Sydney, she capped that improvement &ndash; for now &ndash; with a clearance at 4.82m, adding one centimetre to the national record set by Alana Boyd in 2016 a couple of months before she finished fourth in the Rio Olympic final.
Kennedy opened with easy clearances at 4.50m and 4.70m, had one miss before another big clearance at a personal best 4.77m, and then sailed over 4.82m first time as well. She bowed out with three good attempts at 4.87m. In her current form, Rio bronze medallist Eliza McCartney&rsquo;s Oceania record of 4.94m may not be beyond Kennedy.
Her coach, six-metre vaulter Paul Burgess, can certainly see more. &ldquo;It was an amazing jump,&rdquo; he said of the record leap. &ldquo;She cleared it by a lot.&rdquo;
Kurtis Marschall won the men&rsquo;s event with 5.75m, going out with three misses at a personal best 5.90m.
Riley Day burst on to the Australian scene as a teenager, winning the national sprint double at the 2018 national titles just over a month before her 18th birthday. She ran 22.93 that year, which remained her personal best until she produced a 22.77 (w: 2.0) to win the Sydney 200m. That was 0.03 under the Tokyo auto standard and should see Day into the Olympic team.
The men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s 5000m national titles were contested at the meeting. Canada&rsquo;s Doha finalist Andrea Seccafien snatched victory from Jenny Blundell at the line to win the women&rsquo;s race, 15:25.62 to 15:25.84. Blundell took the national title, however, from Izzi Batt-Doyle and Genevieve Gregson.
Matthew Ramsden was a more decisive winner of the men&rsquo;s title, a sub-56 second final lap taking him to the line almost two seconds clear of Brett Robinson, 13:29.99 to 13:31.97.
In the 100m hurdles, Liz Clay continued her run of good performance with a win in 12.88 (+1.3). Behind the Sharon Hannan-coached hurdler, the Sally Pearson-coached Hannah Jones crept ever closer to a sub-13 with 13.01.
Clay competed with bandaging on her shoulder, the result of a training fall earlier in the week. &ldquo;I had a huge fall,&rdquo; she told Tamsyn Manou. &ldquo;I hit my head and (skidded along) the ground.
&ldquo;I was probably overdue a fall,&rdquo; Clay laughed. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t had one in years and it&rsquo;s part and parcel of hurdling.&rdquo;
Doubling back from the Canberra meeting two days earlier, Nick Hough won the men&rsquo;s 110 hurdles in 13.61 ahead of Nicholas Andrews&rsquo; personal best 13.66.
Most of the 800m runners had also competed in Canberra. Peter Bol, who just missed the Tokyo auto standard in the national capital, was taken through 400 in 50.45 by training mate Joseph Deng, on his way to a 1:46.12 win.
In the women&rsquo;s race, Linden Hall, who ran the 1500m in Canberra, followed the pacemaker to build a big lead ahead of Catriona Bisset and then hung on to defy Bisset&rsquo;s late charge to win in a personal best 2:01.27. Bisset, over 10 metres down coming into the straight, was a step back in 2:01.58.
Len Johnson for World Athletics

Nina Kennedy topped 4.82m to break the Australian pole vault record at the Sydney Track Classic.