Current and former world record holders, Amusan and Harrison clash in Lausanne on Friday
The line-ups for the Diamond League in Lausanne on Friday are mouth-watering with the women’s 100m arguably the stand-out highlight
If you thought the athletics season had reached its peak with the climax of the third major championships in six weeks in Munich on Sunday, then think again.
The line-ups for the Diamond League in Lausanne on Friday are mouth-watering with the women’s 100m arguably the stand-out highlight.
But the women’s 100m hurdles also look exciting.
The world record-holder Tobi Amusan takes on former world record-holder Keni Harrison, Britany Anderson and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn.
In the men’s steeplechase, the World Champs one-two Soufiane El Bakkali and Lamecha Girma have a rematch.
In women, 100m world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce faces Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah plus world 200m gold medallist Shericka Jackson.
The three Jamaicans won’t have it all their own way, though, as also in the field are Americans Tamara Davis, Twanisha Terry and Aleia Hobbs, Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast and Swiss star Mujinga Kambundji.
Such is the quality of the race, the only athlete who has a PB slower than Dina Asher-Smith’s British record is Kambundji – and she beat Asher-Smith to the European 200m title a few days ago.
In fact, the only big names missing from this 100m clash are Asher-Smith and the newly-crowned European 100m champion Gina Lückenkemper of Germany.
With a best of 10.62 this year, Fraser-Pryce will start favourite for a race that starts just before 9pm local time on Thursday. But there is far more at the annual Athletissima meeting than the women’s 100m.
Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen takes on Olli Hoare – the Australian fresh from his stirring Commonwealth Games victory in Birmingham – plus former world champion Timothy Cheruiyot and Kenyan team-mate Abel Kipsang.
The races over barriers are among the most interesting at the meeting, too, with world champion Grant Holloway facing Olympic gold medallist Hansle Parchment over 110m hurdles.
The men’s shot put is particularly stacked with world No.1 Ryan Crouser joined by fellow American world medallists Joe Kovacs and Josh Awotunde, plus European champion Filip Mihaljevic of Croatia and Commonwealth Games one-two Tom Walsh and Jacko Gill of New Zealand.
Elsewhere in the field the men’s javelin sees the Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra return to take on, among others, European gold medallist Julian Weber of Germany. Olympic champions Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi renew their rivalry in the high jump. The women’s triple jump sees world champion, Yulimar Rojas, against European gold medallist Maryna Bekh-Romachuk.
Most of the Lausanne meeting takes place on Friday evening but on Thursday (Aug 25) there is a men’s pole vault in the marquee of Place de la Navigation in Lausanne featuring Mondo Duplantis and which is free to view for the public.
The women’s pole vault featuring world champion Sandi Morris is in the stadium on Friday, though, with the meeting brought to a climax with a men’s 200m that includes world champion Noah Lyles and rising British star Charlie Dobson together with a women’s 4x100m which includes senior and junior teams from the host nation Switzerland.
