The elite of world athletics has set a date this evening for the Charléty Stadium (20,000 seats), where the MEETING de PARIS, the seventh leg of the Diamond League, will be hosted. Sixteen events are on the programme, including a 100m that prompted the event’s slogan: Speed in Paris!
A top-flight 100m for Vicaut, Lemaitre hoping to cause double trouble
Jimmy Vicaut (9"92 in 2018) will have his work cut out down the home straight against American Michael Rodgers (9"88, 2nd best perf in the world this year), his compatriot Ronnie Baker (9"90) and Jamaican Yohan Blake (record of 9"69, 10"00 this season). Meantime, Christophe Lemaitre will be competing in the 200m, a non-Diamond League event, and the 100m "B", in the hope of achieving the minimum requirement (10"15) for the European Championships (7-12 August in Berlin).
Sergey Shubenkov will be the man to beat in the 110m hurdles. The Russian is the only athlete to have run a sub-13-second time this year (12"99). He’ll be up against some stiff competition: Spaniard Orlando Ortega (13"17 in 2018), Jamaican Hansle Parchment (13"22) and five Frenchmen in the heats, including Dimitri Bascou (13"75, back from injury) and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (13"28).
Triathlon for Mayer, Thiam challenges Lasitskene in the high jump
The stars of the combined events will also be in Charléty this evening! Kevin Mayer, Olympic No.2 in 2016 in the decathlon, will tonight be competing in a triathlon (long jump, shot put, 110m hurdles) on the fringes of the IAAF Diamond League, as was the case last year at the MEETING de PARIS, where the event was a brand new feature. Nafissatou Thiam, gold medallist in the heptathlon at the Rio Games, will be in the high jump. She’ll be notably up against the Russian Mariya Lasitskene, reigning double world champion, and the Bulgarian Mirela Demireva. This trio alone has cleared 2m this season.
The triple jump competition promises a superb duel between the Colombian Caterine Ibarguen, reigning Olympic champion and the American Tori Franklin, who jumped one centimetre further (14.84m) at the summit of the annual hierarchy. Taking the start of the women’s 800m will be the podium from the last Olympics, headed by Caster Semenya, with Rénelle Lamote (2’00"96 this season) on the hunt for her ticket to "Europe" (2’00"60).
Lavillenie on a recapturing mission, Bosse on the track
Another big name is also expected: Renaud Lavillenie (5m95 this season, the world’s best perf so far). The world record holder in the pole vault has been beaten in three of his last four competitions. Last year, he finished 2nd at the MEETING de PARIS, which he’s won a total of seven times. Hoping to squash his ambition will be the athlete who toppled him last year, American Sam Kendricks, Brazil’s reigning Olympic champion Thiago Braz, and the Swedish prodigy Armand Duplantis (5m93, at just 18 years of age).
Pierre-Ambroise Bosse (800m, non-Diamond League), Timothy Cheruiyot (1500m), Sandra Perkovic (discus), Marie-Josée Ta Lou (200m), Shakima Wimbley (400m), Fedrick Dacres, Andrius Gudzius (discus), Celliphine Chespol (3,000m steeplechase), Abderrahman Samba and Karsten Warholm (400m hurdles) will also make up the star cast at the 2018 edition of the MEETING de PARIS. The event kicks off at 17:36hrs with the regional races, whilst the main events will start at 18:40hrs with the women’s discus competition.
