Photo: Thomas Windestam
The Wanda Diamond League returns after a two-week break this week, as the battle for points and a place in the final continues at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne. Following a women's high jump street event at the Place Centrale on Thursday, the main event will take place at the Stade de la Pontaise on Friday evening.
Here are five things to look out for in Lausanne.
The women's sprints have been among the hardest races to call for several years now in the Wanda Diamond League, but Ivory Coast legend Marie-Josée Ta Lou may be emerging as a surprise favourite in the 100m this season. The 34-year-old is in the form of her life and top of the qualification standings after back-to-back wins in Florence and Oslo this month. The latter was particularly impressive, with Ta Lou setting a meeting record of 10.75 to become the fastest woman in the world this year. Victory in Lausanne would be another big step towards the final, and she will be favourite in a field which includes her fellow Ivorian and 2018 Diamond League champion Murielle Ahouré-Demps.
Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser lost his Diamond League title to Joe Kovacs last year, and he will be chomping at the bit to get his hands back on the Diamond Trophy in 2023. The 30-year-old will open his campaign in Lausanne, taking on old rivals such as Kovacs and Tom Walsh and Florence Diamond League winner Leonardo Fabbri. Expectations will be high of the American, who has been in history-making form after tweaking his technique this season. In May, he set a new world record of 23.56m, adding 19 centimetres to his own previous mark.
Lausanne is a place with good memories for Neeraj Chopra, who became the first Indian athlete ever to win at a Diamond League meeting when he claimed victory in the men's javelin at Athletissima last year. There was more joy on Swiss soil a few months later, when he was crowned Diamond League champion in Zurich. The Olympic champion has been recovering from a muscle strain in recent weeks, and will be keen to get back into winning ways when he makes his comeback on Friday. Having already claimed one victory this year at the season opener in Doha, he tops the standings and is well placed to defend his Diamond League title in the months ahead.
In another throwback to 2022, Friday will also see world record holder and Diamond League champion Tobi Amusan lock horns with Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in the women's 100m hurdles. In one of the most enthralling rivalries of last season, the Nigerian and the Puerto Rican traded blows at almost every stage of the season, with Amusan eventually coming out on top with a second successive title in Zurich. Camacho-Quinn could still walk away with six wins out of nine on her Diamond League card, however, and she will be keen to inflict another Lausanne defeat on her rival a year on from her victory at Athletissima last year.
Few athletes are currently in the kind of form Jakob Ingebrigtsen is in, and the Lausanne crowd will be hoping for another treat when they welcome him for the third year in a row on Friday. The Norwegian set a new world best over two miles at the Paris Diamond League earlier this month, before following up with a European record in the 1500m in Oslo. As he reminded people before that race, the 1500m remains his bread and butter, and he can make it three Diamond League wins in three in the discipline on Friday.
