Cordell Tinch wins at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Shanghai/Keqiao (© Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
Many Olympic and world champions will get their Wanda Diamond League seasons under way when the first event of the 2026 series takes place in Shanghai/Keqiao on Saturday (16).
World record-holders Faith Kipyegon, Mondo Duplantis and Karsten Warholm will be joined by fellow global gold medallists such as Shericka Jackson, Cordell Tinch, Letsile Tebogo, Ditaji Kambundji and Daniel Ståhl as the sport’s leading stars look to make some early season statements.
Sprint showdowns, distance duels and fierce field clashes will set the tone for the season, which features 14 Diamond League meetings before the two-day final in Brussels in September.
Multiple global medallists will collide in the women’s 200m. Jamaica’s two-time world 200m champion Jackson and USA’s world and Olympic 100m medallist Sha'Carri Richardson both contest their first half-lap races of the year, lining up alongside world 200m silver medallist Amy Hunt, two-time Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, last year’s winner Anavia Battle and Jenna Prandini, who has already clocked 10.97 for 100m and 22.36 for 200m this season.
Olympic 200m champion Tebogo races the 100m, fresh from forming part of Botswana’s victorious 4x400m team on home soil at the World Athletics Relays. The field is stacked with sub-10.00 sprinters including two-time Olympic and world 200m medallist Kenny Bednarek, two-time world 100m bronze medallist Trayvon Bromell, South African record-holder Akani Simbine and Lachlan Kennedy, who ran 9.96 to win the Australian title last month.
The women’s 100m hurdles stars a clash between the past four global outdoor champions – Kambundji, Masai Russell, Danielle Williams and world record-holder Tobi Amusan – and the athlete who has won the past three world indoor 60m hurdles titles: Devynne Charlton.
Tinch stormed into the spotlight in Shanghai last year, clocking 12.87 to move to fourth on the world 110m hurdles all-time list. He returns as the world champion and Diamond League champion, ready for a rematch against Olympic silver medallist Orlando Bennett and Japanese record-holder Rachid Muratake, who clocked 12.92 in 2025.
After winning the 400m hurdles in Shanghai last year, three-time world gold medallist Warholm returns to race the 300m hurdles – an event for which he owns the world best of 32.67. He races for the first time since the World Championships in Tokyo, where he finished fifth, and he’s not easing himself in gently as he faces 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos, 2023 world silver medallist Kyron McMaster and 2022 world bronze medallist Trevor Bassitt.
Duplantis and Kipyegon make season debuts
Swedish pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis competed three times during the indoor season – his performances including another world record – 6.31m – and another world indoor title win. Now he opens his outdoor season – the start of a campaign that he hopes will end with another crown from the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September.
He might not have things all his own way this year, however. In Shanghai he faces Emmanouil Karalis, who moved to second on the world all-time list with a 6.17m clearance in February, as well as two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and two-time world bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall.
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon makes her season opener in the non-Diamond League 5000m – the event in which she won world gold in 2023 as part of a 1500m and 5000m double. Since then, she has added another world 1500m title and another Olympic 1500m crown to her haul, which now stands at three Olympic and five world titles.
She ran a world 1500m record of 3:48.68 during the Diamond League meeting in Eugene last year and will want to make her mark in the 5000m again after running 14:05.20 – a since-improved world record – in Paris in 2023. Her competition this time includes two-time world U20 champion Medina Eisa, two-time world U20 cross-country champion Marta Alemayo and Hirut Meshesha.
Jess Hull got Olympic silver and world bronze behind Kipyegon in Paris and Tokyo, and the Australian races that distance in Shanghai against the athlete who got world silver between them – Dorcus Ewoi. Olympic 800m silver medallist Tsige Duguma makes her outdoor 1500m debut.
Kenya’s 2019 world 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot steps up to contest the 3000m against his compatriots Jacob Krop, Edwin Kurgat and Reynold Cheruiyot, the world 1500m bronze medallist. World 10,000m bronze medallist Andreas Almgren adds further strength to the field.
The men’s 800m includes three sub-1:43 runners in Wycliffe Kinyamal, Ben Pattison and Peter Bol, while the women’s 400m pits Salwa Eid Naser against Nickisha Pryce and two-time world bronze medallist Sada Williams.
Three global gold medallist race in the 3000m steeplechase as world champion Faith Cherotich faces 2022 world champion Norah Jeruto and Tokyo Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai.
There will be a clash of titans in the men’s discus as the in-form Matt Denny and Steven Richter go up against three-time world champion Daniel Ståhl, Olympic champion Rojé Stona, 2022 world champion Kristjan Čeh and world bronze medallist Alex Rose. Denny and Richter both threw 74 metres in Ramona last month.
A host of global gold medallists are in shot put action, too. Two-time world outdoor champion Chase Jackson won her first world indoor title in Poland in March ahead of two-time champion Sarah Mitton and they renew their rivalry against world champion Jessica Schilder and Olympic champion Yemisi Mabry (née Ogunleye).
Lex Brown will want to continue her strong form in the long jump after leaping 7.07m last month – one centimetre farther than the PB Larissa Iapichino set last year. They both compete in Shanghai against world bronze medallist Natalia Linares and 2025 world indoor champion Claire Bryant.
World champion Mattia Furlani leads the non-Diamond League men’s long jump field as he takes on world indoor bronze medallist Bozhidar Sarâboyukov, Tajay Gayle, Wayne Pinnock and home favourite Shi Yuhao, world bronze medallist last year in Tokyo.
