News15 Jul 2015


Global champions galore set for London – IAAF Diamond League

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Allyson Felix at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in London (© Getty Images)

41 world and 22 Olympic champions will re-open the Olympic Stadium with a fantastic weekend of IAAF Diamond League athletics at the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games on 24-25 July.

Usain Bolt will be the star attraction on the Friday night of the three-day event and he will be joined by British Olympic champions Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill among a host of other global superstars.

British 100m champion Chijindu Ujah will face Bolt alongside British team-mates European champion James Dasaolu and world indoor champion Richard Kilty.

In the 100m hurdles, Olympic heptathlon champion Ennis-Hill will go up against the in-form 2008 Olympic champion Dawn Harper Nelson, world champion Brianna Rollins, world leader Sharika Nelvis, Doha IAAF Diamond League winner Jasmin Stowers and European champion Tiffany Porter.

Bogdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Essa Barshim will go head to head in the high jump and could threaten the 2.38m stadium record.

Also competing on the Friday night will be world pole vault record-holder Renaud Lavillenie of France and USA’s 110m hurdles world record-holder Aries Merritt.

After running faster than 44 seconds for the first time in Paris, Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa could threaten the 400m stadium record of 43.94.

In the women’s 400m, Britain’s world champion Christine Ohuruogu will have a good test against world indoor champion Francena McCorory, Commonwealth champion Stephenie Ann McPherson, and Shaunae Miller, who clocked a PB of 49.92 in Lausanne.

Saturday 25 July will again be headlined by Ennis-Hill as she competes against Katarina Johnson-Thompson for the first time this season in the long jump, before lining up in the 200m a couple of hours later.

In the long jump, Olympic champion Greg Rutherford will face US champion Marquis Dendy, who has jumped a windy 8.68m this season, and Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor.

Kenya’s David Rudisha will return to the scene of his Olympic gold-medal-winning world record run from 2012 as he lines up in the 800m against the man who finished second in the Olympics, Nijel Amos of Botswana.

In the women’s 100m, British record-holder Dina Asher-Smith will take on world silver medallist Murielle Ahoure, Commonwealth champion Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor and double European champion Dafne Schippers.

In the 200m, Ennis-Hill will face three-time world champion Allyson Felix as well as Olympic 400m champion Sanya Richards-Ross.

Other Olympic and world champions confirmed as competing include shot putter Valerie Adams, Asbel Kiprop in the Emsley Carr Mile, 800m runner Eunice Sum and Zuzana Hejnova in the 400m hurdles.

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