Photo: Matthew Quine
The Wanda Diamond League touches down in Europe for the first time this season on Friday, with a whole host of Olympic, world and Diamond League champions set to compete at the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala in Florence.
As well as another high-class clash in the men's 100m, Florence will also see several reigning champions launch their title defence and provide early clues about which athletes can take their early-season form into the summer. Here are five things to look out for on Friday.
When the Golden Gala was last held in Florence two years ago, it proved to be a bittersweet evening for Kenyan 1500m legend Faith Kipyegon. Though she clocked what was then a personal best and national record of 3:53.91, Kipyegon came in second behind Sifan Hassan in one of the most thrilling middle-distance races in Diamond League history. Having got her 2023 campaign off to a winning start in Doha earlier this month, the three-time Diamond Trophy winner will be hoping to create some better memories of Florence on Friday as she aims to take another step towards a third successive series title.
Things move fast in the men's shot put these days. Last season, Joe Kovacs looked unbeatable in the Diamond League as he cruised to four victories from five competitions, a series record and a second title win in a brilliant display of dominance. Less than a year on, and it seems that Olympic and world champion Ryan Crouser is once again the man to beat after he smashed the world record last weekend. Kovacs makes his first Diamond League appearance in 2023 on Friday, and while a world record is hardly expected, the American will no doubt want to prove that he remains a strong favourite for the title this season.
Another reigning Diamond League champion making their first appearance of the new season on Friday is Dutch 400m hurdles star Femke Bol. Like Kovacs, Bol has two titles to her name and, like Kovacs, her Diamond League dominance is qualified by the fact that another athlete, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, currently holds the world record. Nonetheless, the Dutch star has been going from strength to strength in recent years, with 14 Diamond League wins to her name since 2020. In February, she broke the longest-standing track world record in the world with 49.26 over 400m indoors, and a few months later, she too is out to throw down the gauntlet ahead of another gruelling Diamond League season.
Bol is not the only athlete hoping to translate her brilliant indoor form into Diamond League success. British long jump star Jazmin Sawyers stunned herself and the world when she jumped a world-leading 7.00m to win gold at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul earlier this year, and may well be hungry for more outdoors. The 29-year-old is a familiar face on the Diamond League circuit with 15 appearances since 2015, but she is yet to pick up her first victory in the series. She will face the very best in the world in Florence, with Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, Diamond League champion Ivana Vuleta, last year's Golden Gala Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk and the likes of Ese Brume and Tara Davis-Woodhall all competing.
Though Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs is once again unable to compete in front of his home crowd, the men's 100m still looks to be a mouth-watering prospect as some of the world's best and most in-form sprinters do battle once again just a week after going head to head in Rabat. World champion Fred Kerley took the victory in Morocco with a meeting record of 9.94, while South Africa's Akani Simbine and Kenyan world leader Ferdinand Omanyala came in second and third. The two African stars will be hoping to go one better in Rome, as will reigning Diamond League champion Trayvon Bromell, who finished a slightly underwhelming fifth in Rabat.
