The first of those, the Meeting Areva in Paris, has a 16-year history in its current form and is proud to call the Stade de France its home. With a record attendance of more than 70,000 spectators in 2005 and a list of meeting record holders that includes many of the true greats of the sport, such as Bolt, Rudisha, Wariner, Bekele, Vlasic, Dibaba and Adams, this year’s competitors know that winning in the French capital would mean entering into truly esteemed company.
Retrospective…
With the likes of Sergey Bubka, Edwin Moses, Jan Zelezny, Jonathan Edwards, Mike Powell and Marie-Jose Perec all holding Paris meeting records, making it onto that list has proved difficult for the athletes competing in the Diamond League era.
Nevertheless, eight meeting records have been set since the Diamond League’s inception in 2010, most recently by Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic in the discus just one year ago. The multiple Diamond Trophy winner threw 68.48m on her way to picking up four Diamond Race points, while on the same night Hiwot Ayalew (3000m steeplechase) also set a meeting record, clocking 9:11.65 on her way to victory over USA’s Emma Coburn.
Two years ago it was the Usain Bolt show, as the great Jamaican, sadly missing from this year’s edition, ran 19.73 for 200m victory, with Olympic Champion Ezekiel Kemboi also victorious in the steeplechase, setting a MR of his own (7:59.03).
Blanka Vlasic jumped 2.02m in the inaugural Diamond League meeting to be held in Paris in 2010 and the following year there were strong performances in the throws, with both Valerie Adams (20.78m in the shot) and Christina Obergfoll (68.01m in the javelin) both producing the best ever performances seen at the Meeting Areva.
Perhaps most spectacularly, Kenya’s David Rudisha clocked a superb 1:41.54 over 800m in 2012, which still stands as an outright IAAF Diamond League record.
Diamond Race Leaders
17 current Diamond Race leaders (including joint leaders) compete in Paris across the 17 events on show.
Star turn, as ever, will be five-time Diamond Trophy winner and current leader in the pole vault, Renaud Lavillenie and the Frenchman will be joined by fellow leaders Piotr Malachowski (discus), Fabiana Murer (pole vault), Mutaz Essa Barshim (high jump), Caterine Ibarguen (triple jump), Kirani James (400m), Christina Schwanitz (shot put), Eunice Sum (800m), Murielle Ahoure (100m), Silas Kiplagat (1500m), David Oliver (110m hurdles) and Genzebe Dibaba (5000m), plus four women who currently jointly lead the javelin standings.
Leadership isn’t necessarily an indicator of guaranteed success on Saturday, however.
Schwanitz faces the return of four-times Diamond Race winner and reigning champion Valerie Adams, while Dibaba lines up against world leader and Shanghai winner Almaz Ayana.
David Oliver has to contend with last year’s Diamond Trophy winner and home favourite Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in the sprint hurdles and Ahoure has both Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor to contend with in the 100m, both winners already in the Diamond League this year.
In the javelin, there have been different winners in each of the four meetings so far and Sunette Viljoen, Huihui Lu, Christina Obergfoll and Marharyta Dorozhon will all look to move ahead in the standings in Paris.
In the absence of Greg Rutherford, the leader in the long jump, Aleksandr Menkov and Michael Hartfield can both take the overall lead with victory, while Mike Rodgers (100m) and Cassandra Tate (400m hurdles) can close the gaps in their Diamond Races in the absence of Justin Gatlin and Kaliese Spencer.
Dean Harman for the IAAF Diamond League
