Godfrey Mokoena in the long jump at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo (© DECA Text & Bild)
Five men who have won gold medals at the Olympics or IAAF World Championships will line up in the long jump at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games in Oslo on 11 June, the sixth leg of the 2015 IAAF Diamond League.
Olympic champion Greg Rutherford will be competing in the Norwegian capital for just the second time, four years after his first appearance. He is coming off the back of one of his best years to date in which he not only won the European and Commonwealth titles but also set a British record of 8.51m.
Christian Taylor’s Olympic title may be in the triple jump, but he is also an accomplished long jumper and finished third in this event in last year’s Diamond Race. The US all-rounder has started 2015 in incredible form, leaping a triple jump PB of 18.04m in Doha and jumping a season’s best of 8.18m in the long jump, just one centimetre away from his PB.
After missing most of 2014 through injury, world champion Aleksandr Menkov is back in top form. The Russian won at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Shanghai with a leap of 8.27m, his best jump since winning the world title in 2013.
African record-holder Godfrey Mokoena won the long jump Diamond Race last year. The 2008 world indoor champion won in Oslo in 2011, the last time the men’s long jump was held at the Bislett Games. He competed in the triple jump in Oslo last year before going on to win at the African Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Ignisious Gaisah won the world indoor title in 2006, two years before Mokoena’s triumph, but the 31-year-old Dutchman is still one of the best jumpers in the world and in 2013 he took the silver medal at the World Championships.
World bronze medallist Luis Rivera of Mexico will also be in Oslo, meaning the Bislett Games will feature the three podium finishers from the 2013 World Championships.
Others in the field include European indoor champion Michel Torneus, African champion Zarck Visser and European silver medallist Louis Tsatoumas.
Organisers for the IAAF
2015 IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 15 May
Shanghai, CHN – 17 May
Eugene, USA – 30 May
Rome, ITA – 4 June
Birmingham, GBR – 7 June
Oslo, NOR – 11 June
New York, USA – 13 June
Paris, FRA – 4 July
Lausanne, SUI – 9 July
Monaco, MON – 17 July
London, GBR – 24-25 July
Stockholm, SWE – 30 July
Zurich, SUI – 3 September
Brussels, BEL – 11 September
