Ten world record-holders and 23 reigning global individual champions lead the star-studded fields for the first Wanda Diamond League meeting of the year in Xiamen on Saturday (26).
Mondo Duplantis, Grant Holloway, Faith Kipyegon, Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Gudaf Tsegay are among the athletes who will be looking to kick off their campaigns in style when they head to the Egret Stadium in the Chinese city.
Duplantis returns to the scene of the eighth of his now 11 world pole vault records. The Swedish 25-year-old, who on Monday was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, cleared 6.24m in Xiamen last year and went on to set another world record of 6.25m in Paris, where he retained his Olympic title.
He has achieved another two world records since – 6.26m in Silesia later in August and 6.27m in Clermont-Ferrand in February. The meeting in Xiamen will be his outdoor season opener as Duplantis competes for the first time since winning his third consecutive world indoor title in Nanjing last month. Emmanouil Karalis of Greece improved his national record to 6.05m to secure silver and is also in action this weekend, along with world silver medallist Ernest John Obiena and two-time world champion Sam Kendricks.
Competition is set to be fierce in the women’s high jump. Ukraine’s Mahuchikh improved the world record to 2.10m in Paris last year and went on to claim Olympic gold, but she was third behind Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson at last month’s World Indoor Championships. Those three athletes clash again in Xiamen, with the field also featuring Mahuchikh’s compatriot Yuliya Levchenko.
Five women who have surpassed 70 metres will renew their rivalry in the women’s discus. Leading the field is USA’s Olympic champion Valarie Allman, who improved the North American record to 73.52m in Ramona earlier this month. She faces world champion Laulauga Tausaga, multiple global gold medallist Sandra Elkasevic, Yaime Perez and Jorinde van Klinken, as well as Olympic silver medallist Feng Bin, competing on home soil.
The women’s shot put also offers a top-class battle, as USA’s two-time world champion Chase Jackson faces Canada’s two-time world indoor champion Sarah Mitton, Olympic silver medallist Maddi Wesche, two-time world medallist Jessica Schilder and home favourites Gong Lijiao and Song Jiayuan.
Season debuts for Kipyegon and Warholm
Kenya’s Kipyegon claimed her third Olympic 1500m title in Paris last year and in Xiamen she will make her 2025 debut by dropping down to the 1000m. The 31-year-old holds world records in the 1500m and the mile, and she sits second on the world all-time list for the 1000m following her 2:29.15 run in Monaco in 2020 – that performance just 0.17 shy of Svetlana Masterkova’s world record set in 1996.
The Xiamen 1000m will be Kipyegon’s first race since the Athlos meeting in September last year. Earlier that month she won her fifth Diamond League title at the final in Brussels.
She will be joined in Xiamen by athletes including Ethiopia’s world U20 champion Saron Berhe and Olympic 800m silver medallist Tsige Duguma, plus Australia’s Abbey Caldwell, Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi and Benin’s Noelie Yarigo.
The women’s 5000m will feature a clash of global champions – both of them world record-holders. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet achieved an Olympic 5000m and 10,000m title double in Paris and is the world record-holder in the longer distance as well as for 5km on the roads, while Ethiopia’s Tsegay is the world 5000m record-holder who more recently won the world indoor 1500m title in a championship record in Nanjing.
Their head-to-head record in 5000m track finals stands at 3-2 in Tsegay’s favour and in Xiamen they will clash for the first time since last year’s Olympic Games. Among those joining them on the start line are Ethiopia’s two-time world indoor champion Freweyni Hailu, Birke Haylom and world U20 steeplechase champion Sembo Almayew, making her 5000m debut.
Following its introduction as an official event, the meeting will feature the 300m hurdles with world 400m hurdles record-holder Karsten Warholm using the race to open his season. The Norwegian three-time world champion has held the world 300m hurdles best of 33.26 since 2021 and the race will close the competition in Xiamen, where he will go up against Kyron McMaster and CJ Allen.
The women’s 100m hurdles pits world indoor 60m hurdles champion and world record-holder Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas against world 100m hurdles record-holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, Jamaica’s two-time world champion Danielle Williams, USA’s early world leader Grace Stark and home star Wu Yanni.
In the men’s 110m hurdles, USA’s Olympic and three-time world champion Holloway will want to return to winning ways after finishing second in Gainesville last weekend following his third world indoor 60m hurdles title triumph in Nanjing. His competition includes his compatriots Cordell Tinch, Freddie Crittenden and Olympic silver medallist Daniel Roberts.
Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson continues her comeback in the 200m. The two-time world champion last raced the distance in Szekesfehervar in July but pulled up injured and did not run at the Olympic Games. She clocked 36.13 for 300m earlier this month after opening her year with two 60m races and in Xiamen she will face world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji, Jenna Prandini and Tamara Clark.
The entry list for the men’s 100m stars Botswana’s Olympic 200m gold and 100m silver medallist Letsile Tebogo as well as all three world indoor 60m medallists – champion Jeremiah Azu, Lachlan Kennedy and Akani Simbine – plus Christian Coleman and Ferdinand Omanyala.
The men’s 400m features USA’s world indoor champion Christopher Bailey, Olympic and world gold medallist Kirani James and Bayapo Ndori, while Morocco’s multiple Olympic and world champion Soufiane El Bakkali goes in the 3000m steeplechase – his first race since last year’s Diamond League final.
World indoor medallists Wayne Pinnock and Liam Adcock are in long jump action, while the non-Diamond League triple jump includes Hugues Fabrice Zango and the javelin features Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk.
