Record-seekers Keely Hodgkinson and Josh Kerr lend a strong home interest at Saturday’s Diamond League meeting in London where Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis, Julien Alfred and Femke Broeders-Bol are also in action.
The star-studded track and field meet, featuring athletes with an astonishing 71 medals between them from the 2025 world championships in Tokyo and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, is the 11th of 15 on the elite circuit.
AFP Sport looks at five events to watch at the London Stadium, home to Championship football team West Ham United.
Women’s 800m
Broeders-Bol continues her crossover from the 400m hurdles in which she has claimed multiple world and Olympic medals when she races the two-lap event.
The 26-year-old Dutch star, along with Ethiopia’s Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma, Australian Sarah Billings and American Addison Wiley, will face a stellar British contingent led by Olympic champion Hodgkinson and Jemma Reekie.
Also set to compete are rising British runners Issy Boffey and 2024 Olympic semi-finalist Phoebe Gill, the latter in her Diamond League debut.
One notable absence is Audrey Werro, the Swiss runner who has run the world’s fastest time this year to become the first woman to dip under 1:54 since 1983.
Hodgkinson will use the London meet as a chance to chase the 43-year-old 800m world record of 1:53.28 set by Jarmila Kratochvilova.
Men’s 800m
Olympic and world champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi headlines an outstanding field also featuring Canada’s Marco Arop and American Bryce Hoppel, second and fourth at the Paris Games in 2024.
European contenders include two capable Britons, Max Burgin and Ben Pattison, although Jake Wightman, who won silver at last year’s Tokyo worlds, was a late withdrawal.
The home crowd will have an eye on whether one of that trio can break World Athletics president Sebastian Coe’s British record of 1min 41.73sec.
Wanyonyi will be the main man, however, touching down in London fresh from setting a world best over 1 000m in Monaco last week.
“I don’t want to talk about the world record in the 800m,” the 21-year-old Kenyan said in Monaco.
“I first want to run fast and improve my personal best. Let me keep quiet, actions speak louder than words.”
Men’s mile
The Emsley Carr Mile brings together an exceptional field led by 1500m Olympic silver medallist and 2023 world champion Kerr, who will be gunning for Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record of 3:43.13 set in Rome back in 1999.
“It’s time to bring this record into the modern era through training, technology and effort,” said the 28-year-old US-based Scot.
Kerr will be pushed by Olympic bronze medallist Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler, alongside a third American in Nathan Green, plus fellow Briton Neil Gourley.
“I have won three world titles and two Olympic medals, but joining Sir Roger (Bannister), as well as middle-distance legends Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram on the roll call of mile record holders, would be the biggest moment of my career,” said Kerr.
Women’s 100m
Olympic champion Alfred is in blistering form, having run the third-fastest women’s 200m time in history in Monaco.
The St Lucian will defend her London title against a world-class field that includes Americans Gabby Thomas and Anavia Battle, Britons Dina Asher-Smith and Amy Hunt, and veteran Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas.
“There are no limits right now,” a slow-starting Alfred said after clocking 21.51sec in Monaco, bettering her own personal best by 0.20sec.
Only American world record holder Florence Griffith Joyner (21.34) and Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson (21.41) have gone faster over 200m.
“It’s not about the reaction time, it’s about how you finish,” said Alfred. “I was first, that’s all that matters.”
Men’s pole vault
Duplantis will come up against Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis in the latter’s London debut.
Karalis has vaulted 6.17m to go second in the all-time list and has the necessary gamesmanship, power and skill to ensure any showdown with Duplantis is worth watching.
The US-born Swede had a hiccup at the Stockholm Diamond League but has since been back to his best.
As always, expectations are raised about a potential tilt at a 16th world record.
