World record-holders Karsten Warholm, Mondo Duplantis and Yaroslava Mahuchikh are among the 14 winners in Xiamen last week who’ll be hoping to notch up another victory at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Shanghai/Keqiao on Saturday.
The sport’s premier one-day meeting circuit got off to a flying start last Saturday, and dozens of the world’s leading athletes have made the 900km journey north from Xiamen to Keqiao to compete in the second leg of the Wanda Diamond League, a World Athletics preview said.
Warholm was one of the standout performers in Xiamen, breaking his own world best in the 300m hurdles with 33.05.
When he set the previous mark of 33.26 in 2021, he went on to run 46.70 – a world record at the time – in his next 400m hurdles race.
This Saturday, the world champion will be contesting his first 400m hurdles race of the season. Expectations will be high as the Norwegian takes on a field that includes world silver medallist Kyron McMaster and rising Brazilian Matheus Lima.
Duplantis may not have had the same record-breaking start to his outdoor season in Xiamen as he did last year, but a six-metre clearance is never far away for the Swedish pole vaulter. The world and Olympic champion, who won last week with 5.92m, will be looking to improve on the meeting record of 6.00m that he set last year.
Global medallists Emmanouil Karalis, Kurtis Marschall and Sam Kendricks will do their best to keep Duplantis on his toes.
Another world and Olympic champion, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, started her outdoor campaign last week with something of a point to prove. The Ukrainian high jumper was surprisingly beaten into bronze at the World Indoor Championships in March, but in Xiamen last Saturday she gained revenge over the athletes who finished 1-2 in Nanjing: Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson.
The Australian duo will renew their rivalry with the world record-holder this Saturday in what will no doubt be another hard-fought contest.
Global Champions Clash Over 400m
Saturday will mark Quincy Hall’s first race since winning the Olympic 400m title last year.
If his 2024 campaign is anything to go by, he may not be in top gear until much later in the season. Last year, he opened with 45.98 and then gradually improved with each and every competition, eventually winning in Paris with 43.40 to move to fourth on the world all-time list.
As the reigning Olympic champion, though, he’ll want to uphold his reputation against the top eight finishers from Xiamen, including Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori and world indoor champion Chris Bailey.
Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson will contest his first 100m of the year in what could be quite the baptism of fire.
The Jamaican, who last year set a PB of 9.77, faces Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, world indoor 60m champion Jeremiah Azu, African record-holder Ferdinand Omanyala and South Africa’s Akani Simbine, a clear winner of the 100m last week in Xiamen.
USA’s Grace Stark, who was overtaken in the closing stages in Xiamen, and world indoor champion Devynne Charlton, who fell earlier in the race, will be out for redemption as they face two-time world champion Danielle Williams – the winner last Saturday – in the 100m hurdles.
Elsewhere, Cordell Tinch and Rachid Muratake – the top two finishers in the men’s 110m hurdles in Xiamen – will clash again this Saturday, while Anavia Battle takes on Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke in the women’s 200m.
Schilder Leads Loaded Shot Put Field
Eight of the top 10 athletes in the women’s shot put world rankings will be in action on Saturday, led by Jessica Schilder. The Dutch thrower triumphed in Xiamen last week with an outdoor PB of 20.47m, beating two-time world champion Chase Jackson and two-time world indoor champion Sarah Mitton, both of whom will be in Keqiao.
The women’s javelin is of a similarly high quality. World and Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi opens her 2025 campaign, taking on Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk, Chinese teenage super talent Yan Ziyi, and Greece’s Elina Tzengko, the winner in Xiamen last weekend.
In the women’s discus, a non-scoring Diamond League event in Keqiao, Olympic champion Valarie Allman faces world champion Laulauga Tausaga-Collins, Cuba’s Yaime Perez and multiple global gold medallist Sandra Elkasevic.
Portugal’s 2021 Olympic triple jump champion Pedro Pichardo is another athlete who’ll be kick-starting his season in Keqiao. Long-time rival Hugues Fabrice Zango is also in the field, as is Jamaica’s Jordon Scott, who won in Xiamen last week. World indoor silver medallist Zhu Yaming, meanwhile, will have the backing of the home crowd.
The same is true of Zhang Mingkun, winner of the long jump in Xiamen last weekend. The Chinese jumper will be back in action on Saturday, taking on Australia’s Liam Adcock and Jamaican duo Tajay Gayle and Wayne Pinnock.
Elsewhere, Berihu Aregawi will be looking to continue his outdoor track campaign where he left off last year.
The Ethiopian’s last outdoor track race was at the Diamond League Final in Brussels last September, which he won in 12:43.66. The 24-year-old – who has earned medals at the Olympics, World Indoors and World Cross over the past 14 months – will take on compatriot Getnet Wale and Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir.
In the women’s 800m, Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma clashes with world indoor silver medallist Nigist Getachew, Jamaica’s Natoya Goule-Toppin and 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi.
And in the men’s steeplechase, rising Ethiopian Samuel Firewu will be out to prove his victory over Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali in Xiamen last week wasn’t a fluke. Kenyan duo Simon Koech and Edmund Serem will also be in contention.
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