Chinese language stars Gong Lijiao, Liu Shiying and Feng Bin will guarantee loads of curiosity as World Athletics’ flagship competitors will get underway on Saturday
The 2024 Diamond League season kicks off on Saturday (April 20) with the primary assembly staged in Xiamen. It’s the first of two early-season Diamond League occasions in China and will show a livelier begin than you may think.
All eyes will probably be on the TCS London Marathon on Sunday, however the observe and discipline season has been effervescent into life in latest weeks and together with the Xiamen Diamond League there’s the Kip Keino Traditional in Kenya.
The Xiamen assembly final yr attracted nearly 30,000 spectators and this weekend a fair larger crowd is anticipated on the Xiamen Egret Stadium attributable to various prime Chinese language athletes being in motion.
They embrace reigning Olympic champions Gong Lijiao (shot put) and Liu Shiying (javelin), plus 2022 world discus champion Feng Bin.
Gong Lijiao (Mark Shearman)
Gong takes on reigning world champion Chase Jackson of america and reigning world indoor champion Sarah Mitton of Canada.
Within the non-Diamond League girls’s javelin, in the meantime, Liu is up in opposition to fellow Chinese language thrower Lyu Huihui, a three-time world medallist, and Australia’s Kathryn Mitchell and Colombia’s Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado.
The ladies’s discus sees Bin taking over two-time Olympic champion Sandra Elkasevic (née Perkovic) of Croatia, reigning Olympic and Diamond League champion Valarie Allman of america, in-form Yaime Perez of Cuba and reigning world champion Laulauga Tausaga of america.
The occasion will probably be proven for UK viewers on the BBC and a number of the sport’s largest stars have made the journey to China. Mondo Duplantis faces American trio Christopher Nilsen, Sam Kendricks and KC Lightfoot within the pole vault. The boys’s triple leap sees reigning world indoor and out of doors champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso in opposition to the reigning Olympic champion, Pedro Pichardo of Portugal.
The boys’s excessive leap will see reigning world indoor champion Hamish Kerr of New Zealand tackle Barshim, the three-time world out of doors champion who will bid to win his second Olympic title in Paris.
Devynne Charlton (Getty)
The ladies’s 100m hurdles incorporates a stacked line up with the final two world out of doors champions in Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan and Jamaica’s Danielle Williams, the final two world indoor champions in France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela and Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, together with the reigning Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico.
There are some large names within the sprints, too, with former world 100m champions Fred Kerley and Christian Coleman going face to face, whereas the ladies’s 200m sees Sha’Carri Richardson in opposition to Tamara Clark and Anavia Battle of USA, whereas Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, USA’s Kayla White and Twanisha Terry and Anthonique Strachan of the Bahamas are additionally within the line-up.
Sha’Carri Richardson (Getty)
Gudaf Tsegay, the reigning world 10,000m champion and 5000m world record-holder, runs the 1500m in opposition to fellow Ethiopians Diribe Welteji and Freweyni Hailu.
Just one Brit is prone to be in motion, although, Ethan Hussey within the 800m in a discipline that features world champion Marco Arop of Canada.
Following Xiamen, the Diamond League strikes on to the Yangtze River Delta Athletics Diamond Gala on April 27 in Shanghai/Suzhou with round 25 world and Olympic champions lined as much as compete.
Most of the athletes from Xiamen aren’t surprisingly taking within the April 27 occasion on their travels too. Opponents embrace world 200m champion Shericka Jackson dealing with world 100m gold medallist Richardson within the 200m.
Christian Coleman (Getty)
Kerley and Coleman face one another once more within the males’s 100m, whereas Duplantis goes once more within the pole vault.
Letesenbet Gidey leads the ladies’s 5000m entries with Britain’s Megan Keith additionally entered. The boys’s 5000m, in the meantime, sees Selemon Barega and Lamecha Girma within the line up.
Within the girls’s shot put house favorite Gong takes on all however one among final yr’s prime eight within the Budapest World Championships.
The Xiamen assembly is because of be on the BBC Purple Button channel and BBC iPlayer from 12pm to 2pm UK time.
Outcomes and timetable right here.
2024 Diamond League calendar
Xiamen –April 20
Shanghai/Suzhou – April 27
Doha – Could 10
Rabat/Marrakech – Could 19
Eugene – Could 25
Oslo – Could 30
Stockholm – June 2
Paris – July 7
Monaco – July 12
London – July 20
Lausanne – August 22
Silesia – August 25
Rome – August 30
Zurich – September 5
Brussels – September 14
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