15 August, 2023

The series so far: World records fall in Florence and Paris

Photo: Marta Gorczynska

Catch up with all the action from the first five meetings of the 2023 Wanda Diamond League season in the first part of our series ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

When the World Athletics Championships kick off in Budapest this Saturday, it won't be the first time that the world's biggest track and field stars have gone head to head at the highest level this season.

Faith Kipyegon, Mondo Duplantis, Fred Kerley and co. have been strutting their stuff in the Wanda Diamond League since May, and have delivered some extraordinary statements of intent ahead of this month's major championships.

So as they limber up for the biggest event of the season in Budapest, we take a look back at some of the highlights of the Diamond League season so far.

Doha: Lift-off for Kerley and Richardson

American sprinters Fred Kerley and Sha'Carri Richardson threw down an early gauntlet at the season opener in Doha. Kerley, who will be hoping to defend his 100m world title in Budapest, stormed to a cool 19.92 in the men's 200m, while Richardson delivered an early blow to Jamaica's recent dominance with a meeting record 10.76 in the women's 100m. There were also impressive opening wins from Kristjan Ceh in the men's discus and Diamond League champion Neeraj Chopra in the men's javelin, while Lamecha Girma broke a meeting record in the men's 3000m. It would not be the first record the Ethiopian would go on to break on the circuit this year.

Rabat: Electric El Bakkali

Moroccan 3000m steeplechase star Soufiane El Bakkali is another defending world champion in action in Budapest, and he will be hoping to channel the form with which he exploded into the Diamond League season in Rabat back in May. Competing in front of an adoring home crowd, El Bakkali roared to a personal best and meeting record of 7:56.68 to take the headlines and reestablish his status as the best steeplechaser in the world. That has since been challenged by Girma, and the battle between the two may be one of the highlights of the upcoming championships.

Florence: Kipyegon makes history

Faith Kipyegon will be one of the most keenly watched stars in Budapest, and with good reason. The Kenyan distance star has broken three world records in the Diamond League this season, and the first of them came in Florence in early June. Having narrowly missed out on victory and set a new personal best in the same stadium two years earlier, Kipyegon knew she could perform in Florence, and she had been edging ever closer to the world record for several years. But even she looked flabbergasted as she crossed the lie in 3:49.11, breaking Genzebe Dibaba's previous record from the Monaco Diamond League in 2015.

Paris: Kipyegon makes history again

Kipyegon was by no means the first athlete to break a world record at a Diamond League meeting, but a week later in Paris, she became the first athlete ever to break two in one Diamond League season. If the 1500m world record had been in the works for some time, the 5000m record of 14:05.20 in the French capital came as a complete shock, with the Kenyan even professing to be a little tired ahead of the race. On what is arguably the greatest ever night in the Diamond League history, Lamecha Girma also broke the men's steeplechase world record with 7:52.11, making Paris the first ever Diamond League meeting to see two world records on one day.

Oslo: Ingebrigtsen and Warholm shine

After missing out on the Bislett Games through injury last year, Norwegian 400m hurdles star Karsten Warholm more than made up for lost time when he clocked a Diamond League record of 46.52 in front of his home crowd in mid-June. For Warholm, who is hoping to reclaim his world and Diamond League titles, it was the perfect start to a huge season. There was also home joy for compatriot Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Oslo, who smashed the European record with 3:27.95 in the men's 1500m.