Duplantis set to put on a show on home soil in Stockholm
Stockholm will renew the rivalry between pole vault stars Armand Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie on the second Scandinavian leg of the Wanda Diamond League.
Duplantis won the first Diamond League competition of his career in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium in 2018 at the age of 18 with 5.86m beating Kendricks in front of his home fans.
The world record holder set the three best performances in the world this year with 6.10m in Hengelo, 6.01 in the Oslo Bislett Games and 6.00m in Karlstad. The 21-year-old Swede broke the meeting record in Oslo with his seventh six-metre-plus clearance of the year.
The Bauhaus Galan will be the first international sports event in Sweden that is allowed to welcome back spectators on the stands.
Stockholm Diamond League live stream and results.
Armand Duplantis: “I have not got the chance to jump in front of a crowd since I broke the world record. Stockholm dream is to jump at the Bauhaus Galan in front of a packed Stockholm Stadium. It will help me reach new heights. Stockholm is special in many ways. If we go out there and we get good conditions, in front of a home crowd, I hope to go out there and try to do something special in front of everybody”.
Lavillenie jumped his indoor seasonal best performance of 6.06m in Clermont Ferrand and recently won the Chorzow meeting with 5.92m, but finished runner-up to his younger brother Valentin at the French Championships in Angers last week.
Kendricks won the pole vault competition with 5.72m in Stockholm in 2019 with 5.72m in rainy conditions and finished second to Duplantis with 5.81 in 2018. The US pole vault star qualified for his second Olympic Games after finishing second at US Trials with 5.85 behind Christopher Nielsen, who will also line up in Stockholm.
Nielsen cleared 5.90m in Eugene and 5.92m in the Bydgoszcz Continental Tour Gold meeting on Wednesday. He won the 2019 NCAA outdoor title with 5.95m in Austin beating Duplantis.
The other emerging star in the field is KC Lightfoot, who cleared 6.00m in Lubbock last February and won the NCAA Indoor title with 5.93m in Fayetteville. Lightfoot qualified for the Olympic Games after finishing third with 5.85m at the US Trials in Eugene.
The line-up is completed by Asian champion Ernest John Obiena from the Philippines, who set the national record with 5.87m in Bydgoszcz last Wednesday.
Men’s 100 metres:
World Indoor bronze medallist Ronnie Baker will make his European debut this season after finishing second in the 100m at the US Olympic Trials with 9.85. Baker will face European Indoor champion Marcell Jacobs, who broke the Italian 100m record with 9.95 in Savona and returned from a minor injury problem with two wins in Chorzow in 10.06 and at the Italian Championships in Rovereto in 10.01 into a headwind of -1.0 m/s.
The line-up also features Divine Oduduru from Nigeria, who won the 100m and the 200m titles with 9.86 and 19.73 at the 2019 NCAA Championships in Austin, US Marvin Bracy, world indoor silver medallist in the 60m in Sopot 2014, Aaron Brown from Canada, eighth in the 2019CWorld Championships final in Doha 2019, Chijundu Ujah from Great Britain, world and European champion in the 4x100 relay and Diamond League winner in the 100m in Zurich in 2017, and Isiah Young, who set his seasonal best of 9.89 this year in Clermont.
Women’s 200 metres:
Olympic 400m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson makes her seasonal debut in Europe after finishing second to Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce at the Jamaican Olympic Trials in the 100m and 200m. She improved her PBs to 10.77 in 100m and 21.82 in 200m.
Jackson will face three-time world medallist Marie Josée Ta Lou from Ivory Coast, who won the 100m in the Oslo Diamond League meeting setting her seasonal best with 10.91, 18-year-old Namibian rising star Beatrice Masilingi, who improved her PB to 22.67 in Lucerne and dipped under 50 seconds with 49.88 in Chorzow, Beth Dobbin, second at the British Championships in the 200m in Manchester, and US Morolake Akinosun, who finished eighth in the 200m final at the US Olympic Trials in 22.49, and Jamile Samuel from the Netherlands, European bronze medallist in the 200m.
Women’s high jump:
World outdoor silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchik makes her seasonal debut in the Wanda Diamond League. The Ukrainian 19-year-old high jumper won all her six indoor competitions last winter, including the European Indoor gold medal in Torun, and improved her PB to 2.06 in Banska Bystrica. In her first outdoor competition, she was beaten by her compatriot Iryna Gerashchenko on countback at 1.92m. Mahuchik avenged this defeat against Gerashchenko by winning the Ukrainian title with 2.00m in Lutsk.
Geraschenko, who won the European Indoor silver medal with 1.98m in Torun, will also line up in Stockholm.
Australia’s Nicola McDermott will be looking to continue her successful season after winning the national title with 2.00m in Sydney last April.
Kamila Lichwinko will be aiming to take her second consecutive Diamond League win this season after finishing first with 1.91m in Gateshead in rainy conditions.
Men’s 1500 metres:
World 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot will be looking to avenge his fourth place at the Kenyan Olympic Trials, which ruled him out from the Olympic Games. Cheruyiot won three of the past four editions of the Bauhaus Galan in Stockolm: 3:30.77 in 2017, 3:35.79 in 2019 and 3:30.25 in 2020. The Kenyan star set the world seasonal list with 3:30.48 in the Doha Diamond League meeting.
The other top names are 3000m world indoor bronze medallist Bethwell Birgen, Ronald Kwemoi (PB 3:28.81), Ronald Musagala, who set the Ugandan record with 3:30.58 in Monaco in 2019, Morocco’s Brahim Kaazouzi (PB 3:31.68 in Monaco in 2018) and Adam Musab Ali from Qatar (3:32.41 in 2021 in Doha) and Ignacio Fontes from Spain.
Women’s 400 metres hurdles:
European 400m Indoor champion Femke Bol set hit her 11th national record of the season at the Bislett Games in Oslo, where she won her second Diamond League race of the season win 53.33. Last June the Dutch hurdler also won at the Golden Gala in Florence in 53.44 and improved her 400m Dutch record to 50.37 at the European Team Championships in Cluj Napoca.
Bol will clash against 2015 world silver medallist Shamier Little, who finished fourth at the US Olympic Trials, 2021 Jamaican Trials champion Janieve Russel from Jamaica, Lea Sprunger from Switzerland and Anna Ryzhikova, who finished first and second at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin.
Women’s long jump:
European Indoor champion Maryna Bekh Romanchuk will battle against world champion Malaika Mihambo and Khaddi Sagnia from Sweden in a reunion of last March’s European Indoor Championships in Torun. The trio is joined by Olympic bronze medallist Ivana Spanovic, who won the Golden Gala competition in Florence. Mihambo claimed the win in Oslo with 6.83 in the Final Jump-off.
Men’s long jump:
Juan Miguel Echevarria will return to Stockholm, where he jumped a wind-assisted 8.83m in 2018. The world indoor champion will take on world outdoor gold medallist Tajay Gayle from Jamaica.
Women’s shot put:
Valerie Adams will make her first appearance in the Diamond League since 2018. Adams lifted five Diamond Trophies and won 35 competitions in the circuit. Last February she set her best result since 2016 with 19.65m in Auckland. Earlier this week she made her European debut this season with 18.91m in Lucerne. The four-time world gold medallist will face 2021 European indoor champion Auriol Dongmo from Portugal, 2015 world champion Christina Schwanitz from Germany, US shot putters Maggie Ewen and Chase Ealey, who finished fourth and fifth at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Swedish record holder Fanny Roos, 2019 world silver medallist Danniell Thomas Dodd.
Women’s 800 metres:
US Kate Grace will be running her second European race three days after winning the 800m in Oslo in 1:57.60. Grace bounced back from the disappointment at the US Olympic Trials i Eugene. She will take on Cuba’s Rose Mary Almanza, who set the world seasonal best with 1:56.42 in Castellon, and British teenager Keely Hodgkinson, who set the European Under 20 record with 1:59.89 and won the British title in Manchester last week., Catriona Bisset from Australia, who set the Oceanian record with 1:58.09, Jamaica’s Natoya Goule, who won at the Jamaican Trials with 1:57.84, Norwegian record holder Hedda Hynne, Ethiopia’s Workenseh Melese (1:58.71) and Lovisa Lindh (1:59.81).
Men’s 800 metres:
World bronze medallist Ferguson Rotich from Kenya starts as the favourite after finishing second in the Diamond League meeting in Doha in 1:44.45, in Turku in 1:44.59 and at the Kenyan Trials in 1:45.93. The Kenyan middle-distance runner will take on Elliot Giles (British Indoor record holder with 1:43.63). European Indoor silver medallist Jamie Webb, world silver medallist Amel Tuka and European silver medallist Andreas Kramer from Sweden.
Women’s 3000m steeplechase:
Former world champion Hyvin Kyeng will face world champion and record holder Beatrice Chepkoech and two-time European silver medallist Gesa Felicitas Krause from Germany.
Men’s 400 metres:
Former Olympic champion Kirani James from Grenada finished fourth in Doha in 44.61 in his first Diamond League race since 2018. James will clash against 2018 Commonwealth champion Isaac Makwala, who clocked 44.47 in Chorzow, Liemarvin Bonevacia from the Netherlands, and US 400m sprinter Vernon Norwood.
See the complete Stockholm Diamond League start lists here.
