US sprinter Christian Coleman (© Getty Images)
Organisers of the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea have revealed the full fields for the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rome on 31 May with a line-up that includes 10 Diamond League champions, nine world champions, eight Olympic champions and seven world indoor champions.
Christian Coleman falls into the latter category after winning the world indoor 60m title earlier this year. Before that, he broke the world indoor record for the distance with his 6.34 run at the US Indoor Championships.
The world 100m silver medallist will be competing in Rome for the first time in his career and will be up against the two men who shared a podium with him at the World Indoor Championships: China’s Su Bingtian and USA’s Ronnie Baker. The field also includes world 200m champion Ramil Guliyev and two of Italy’s leading sprint hopes: European junior champion Filippo Tortu and former long jump specialist Lamont Marcell Jacobs.
The men’s 400m hurdles line-up includes world champion Karsten Warholm, Olympic champion Kerron Clement, IAAF Diamond League champion Kyron McMaster, European champion Yasmani Copello and world leader Abderrahman Samba.
World champions will line up against Olympic champions in all three of the men’s field events as Sam Kendricks and Thiago Braz clash in the pole vault, Luvo Manyonga and Jeff Henderson face off in the long jump, and Andrius Gudzius and Christoph Harting duel in the discus.
World gold and silver medallists Elijah Manangoi and Timothy Cheruiyot will renew their rivalry in the men’s 1500m. World champion Emma Coburn leads the women’s steeplechase field, while world champion Pierre Ambroise Bosse takes on world indoor champion Adam Kszczot in the 800m.
World champion Maria Lasitskene will face 2016 world indoor champion Vashti Cunningham, world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko and world bronze medallist Alessia Trost in the high jump.
The fields for the women’s hurdles events are led by the two US athletes who won Olympic gold in 2016: Brianna McNeal and Dalilah Muhammad.
World indoor champion Courtney Okolo will take on world silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser and Italian record-holder Libania Grenot in the 400m. Commonwealth champion Isaac Makwala will contest the men’s 400m, double world silver medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou will line up in the women’s 200m, and Sandra Perkovic headlines the discus field.
Organisers for the IAAF
2018 IAAF Diamond League calendar:
4 May – Doha, QAT
12 May – Shanghai, CHN
26 May – Eugene, USA
31 May – Rome, ITA
7 Jun – Oslo, NOR
10 Jun – Stockholm, SWE
30 Jun – Paris, FRA
5 Jul – Lausanne, SUI
13 Jul – Rabat, MAR
20 Jul – Monaco, MON
21-22 Jul – London, GBR
18 Aug – Birmingham, GBR
30 Aug – Zurich, SUI
31 Aug – Brussels, BEL
