Benefit from the amazing launch offer from Athlé TV, the all-new 100% athletics platform rolled out by the FFA and SportAll, by enjoying live video coverage of the first two legs of the Wanda Diamond League in Gateshead (23 May) and Doha (28 May) free of charge. Join us this Sunday from 20:00 hrs on the Fédération Française d’Athlétisme Facebook page and on the SportAll application.
After a 240-day wait, it is back. The Wanda Diamond League, broadcast exclusively in metropolitan France via the Fédération Française d’Athlétisme (French Athletics Federation), SportAll and L’Equipe channel (which will broadcast four meetings in 2021) for the next four seasons, reasserts itself this Sunday in north-east England. The line-up is truly sensational and a sure sign of how eager the big names of world athletics are to get back together and do battle with just over two months to go till the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The women’s 100 m alone is a symbol of the density of the event with no fewer than three athletes on the start line within touching distance of an Olympic title in Japan. The favourite will be the precious new talent in American sprinting, Sha’Carri Richardson, 21, who has already clocked up a sub-10’’80 three times this spring in the United States, with a personal best of 10’’72, and took the win on Wednesday in Ostrava in the 200 m with a time of 22’’35. Also in the running is an athlete is one of the world’s finest track records in women’s short sprint in the person of Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. A special mention must also go out to Briton Dina Asher-Smith, reigning world champion in the 200 m, who will have the support of a home crowd expected to come out in their hundreds to Gateshead, albeit with the stands currently at a reduced capacity.
The Doha podium in the pole vault
Though Renaud Lavillenie will be absent, the cream of the men’s pole vault line-up will be reminiscent of the competition climax at the major championships. Indeed, vying for supremacy will be the podium from the Worlds in Doha with, in order, American Sam Kendricks, Swede Armand Duplantis and Pole Piotr Lisek. Since October 2019, the hierarchy has evolved somewhat though and the Swedish athlete is the new boss of the sport, at the meetings at least, thanks to a world record jump of 6.18 m. Eagerly awaited each time he competes at very high altitude, Duplantis, the winner in Ostrava with 5.90 m, will be the man to beat.
Still on the subject of vertical jumps, albeit the high jump this time around, this should be an equally thrilling highlight with a generational duel between the experienced Russian Mariya Lasitskene, 28, world champion of the triple jump, and the new wave represented by Ukrainian athlete Yaroslava Mahuchikh, with a personal best of 2.04 m, or even her compatriot Yuliya Levchenko.
Ingebrigtsen in the spotlight
Another prodigy worth keeping an eye on is the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, a massive favourite in the 1,500 m, whose every performance is dissected by all the middle-distance specialists, given how close he is to breaking the European and even the world reference times. Over the same distance, but in the women's competition, the British crowds can expect to be inspired by what is always a spectacular performance by Laura Muir, the figurehead of Britain's middle-distance running with her impressive reserves The atmosphere is set to be electric.
The editorial team
Gressier and Valette keen to make the cut for Tokyo
Four Frenchmen are on the list of entries for Gateshead. Two of them, Jimmy Gressier (Boulogne-sur-Mer AC) in the 5,000 m and Laura Valette (Nantes Métropole Athlétisme) in the 100 m hurdles, have their sights on making the mark set by World Athletics for the Tokyo Games. The former, having fluffed one attempt in Toulon back in March (13’18’’00), will attempt to secure the required sub-13’13’’50 time. Laura Valette shares this ambition after running the course in 12’’87 in Angers on Saturday, equalling her personal best, which is just three hundredths of a second shy of the minimum requirement. Both the tricoloured athletes will be able to count on a highly European competition on Sunday to satisfy their objective.
Meantime, Djilali Bedrani (SA Toulouse UC) in the 3,000 m steeplechase and Valentin Lavillenie (Clermont Athlétisme Auvergne) in the pole vault will be gunning for the top spots. Both finalists in the Doha Worlds two years ago, they will be looking to move a little further up the leader board. The former will notably be up against Moroccan athlete Soufiane El Bakkali, a real contender, whilst the latter will be keen to pile the pressure on the top trio.
Discover the list of entries by clicking here
