Six Olympic champions will be in action at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d’Athletisme de Rabat for the fourth fixture in the 2025 Wanda Diamond League series, set for the Moroccan capital on Sunday (25).
Nine months on from claiming the sport’s biggest prize in Paris, Letsile Tebogo, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Beatrice Chebet, Quincy Hall, Soufiane El Bakkali and Hamish Kerr will be aiming to notch up another victory in Rabat as part of their preparations for the World Championships later this year.
Tebogo, the world athlete of the year, will in fact be doubling up in Rabat. He’ll first compete in the 100m, where he’ll face world indoor bronze medallist Akani Simbine, 2022 world champion Fred Kerley and African record-holder Ferdinand Omanyala.
Then 70 minutes later, Tebogo will be out on the track again, this time for his preferred event, the 200m, where he’ll face two-time world medallist Erriyon Knighton and world 400m record-holder Wayde van Niekerk.
Tebogo won the 200m at the Diamond League meeting in Doha earlier this month, but by just 0.01. In Rabat, all nine men in the field have sub-20-second PBs, so he may have to improve on his season’s best of 20.10 to pull off another victory.
The men’s 800m field is similarly loaded. Wanyonyi, the Olympic champion, takes on Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela, the winner in Doha last week, his compatriot Kethobogile Haingura, two-time Commonwealth champion Wyclife Kinyamal and Olympic finalist Max Burgin.
Following on from her 5000m win in Xiamen last month, double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet steps down to the 3000m in Rabat. Ejgayehu Taye, who won over 3000m and 5000m at the Grand Slam meeting in Kingston last month, will be among the leading challengers, alongside fellow Ethiopian Lemlem Hailu, Olympic silver medallist Nadia Battocletti and Oceanian record-holder Georgia Griffith.
The majority of the home crowd will be at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium to see their star athlete, Soufiane El Bakkali, in action in the men’s steeplechase at the end of the programme. The world and Olympic champion has won at this meeting for the past three years, and it’s where he set his lifetime best of 7:56.68.
Having been beaten in his last two steeplechase races, El Bakkali won’t want to lose again, but he’ll be up against Samuel Firewu, who beat El Bakkali in Xiamen, and Abrham Sime, winner at the following Diamond League meeting in Keqiao. Olympic bronze medallist Abraham Kibiwot and rising Kenyan star Edmund Serem add further quality to the field.
In the men’s 400m, Olympic champion Quincy Hall takes on US compatriot Jacory Patterson, who is competing for the first time since setting a world-leading 43.98 in Miramar earlier this month. Not including his appearances at the World Relays and World Indoors, it will be Patterson’s first race outside of the USA.
USA’s Bryce Deadmon and Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori and Leungo Scotch are also in the line-up.
In the men’s high jump, Olympic champion Hamish Kerr takes on Olympic silver medallist Shelby McEwen and world silver medallist JuVaughn Harrison.
World champions to the fore
Alongside the six Olympic gold medallists in action, five other reigning world champions, indoors or out, will be competing in Rabat.
World 400m hurdles champion Femke Bol will be getting her outdoor campaign under way on Sunday, taking on a field that includes leading Jamaican duo Rushell Clayton and Andrenette Knight.
Two-time world 200m champion Shericka Jackson will make her seasonal 100m debut. The Jamaican will face US pair Cambrea Sturgis and Jacious Sears, Liberia’s Maia McCoy, and Australia’s Bree Rizzo, the surprise winner in Tokyo last weekend.
In the women’s pole vault, world champion Katie Moon lines up alongside 2024 world indoor champion Molly Caudery and European champion Angelica Moser.
New Zealand’s Tom Walsh will be competing for the first time since winning his third world indoor shot put title two months ago. He faces two-time world champion Joe Kovacs, who’s making his 2025 debut, world silver medallist Leonardo Fabbri, Olympic bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell and world indoor silver medallist Roger Steen.
The women’s 800m, meanwhile, will be a clash between the winners of the last two world indoor titles: current champion Prudence Sekgodiso and 2024 winner Tsige Duguma. The latter got her outdoor campaign off to a strong start in Keqiao earlier this month, clocking a world-leading 1:56.64 to break the Ethiopian record.
The top two throwers in the world this year, Adriana Vilagos and Elina Tzengko, will clash in the women’s javelin. Olympic silver medallist Jo-An van Dyk, world silver medallist Flor Ruiz and Polish record-holder Maria Andrejczyk are also in the line-up.
Leave a Reply