Photo: Matthew Quine
With the World Athletics Championships in Budapest behind them, the world's best athletes return to the Wanda Diamond League stage this week with their eyes fixed on the final global title of the year.
Here are five things to look out for at Weltklasse Zurich on Thursday.
The women's pole vault delivered one of the stories of the championships in Budapest, with the USA's Katie Moon and Australia's Nina Kennedy sharing gold after they both cleared 4.95m and opted not to take part in a jump-off. The two women will lock horns again at Weltklasse as both line up in the women's pole vault competition at Zurich's central train station on Wednesday evening. Both have already qualified for the Diamond League Final in Eugene, so the pressure is off from a points point of view, but there is plenty of pride at stake as the reigning world champions write a postscript to their fairytale final in Budapest.
We should have known it was going to be a big year for Sha'Carri Richardson when she stormed to a world lead and meeting record of 10.76 at the Diamond League season opener in Doha back in May. Sure enough, the charismatic American sprinter has continued to deliver since then, picking up another 100m Diamond League win in Silesia before her stunning championship record of 10.65 to win gold in Budapest. Richardson still needs a few more points to seal qualification for the Diamond League Final, and she will be determined to get them when she lines up against the likes of Daryll Neita and Mujinga Kambundji in Zurich.
Josh Kerr's sensational victory over Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men's 1500m was one of the biggest surprises of the World Athletics Championships, and the British star will be back in action on Thursday night as he aims to move into a qualifying position in the Diamond League standings. With only six points on the board from his third-place finish in Lausanne, Kerr has a bit of work to do if he is to secure a ticket to Eugene, but on the back of his Budapest brilliance, he will be confident of delivering another good Diamond League performance in Switzerland.
Another man who is - somewhat surprisingly - in need of points going into Zurich is Noah Lyles. The American superstar rampaged his way to three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m in Budapest, and he remains the firm favourite to win the Diamond League sprint titles next month. Yet Lyles has only competed a few times on the circuit this year and he is currently on course to miss the final in tenth place in the standings. That should change in Zurich, where a winning performance would double his points tally and catapult him up the rankings and towards the Eugene starting blocks.
It's been a topsy-turvy season in the women's 100m hurdles, with Nia Ali, Tobi Amusan and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn all picking up wins so far and a total of nine athletes having already secured 10 points or more. New world champion Danielle Williams will be hopign to continue her winning form and muscle in on the qualifying places with a first Diamond League victory of the season in Zurich, but just as in Budapest, she will face tough competition in the likes of Camacho-Quinn and Keni Harrison. Only Ali and Amusan have qualified for Eugene so far, so it is all to play for going into the final three series meetings.
