World champions Mondo Duplantis and Karsten Warholm will get their 2025 Wanda Diamond League campaigns under way with appearances in Xiamen and Keqiao, the first two meetings in this year’s series.
The Red Star Macalline Wanda Diamond League will be held in Xiamen on 26 April, while the Yangtze River Delta Athletics Diamond Gala – usually staged in Shanghai but this year in Keqiao – will take place one week later on 3 May.
Olympic pole vault champion Duplantis has fond memories of competing in China. Last year, he kick-started his outdoor season in Xiamen with a world record of 6.24m, then followed up with a 6.00m victory in Suzhou one week later.
The Swedish superstar went on to improve his world record with his 6.25m triumph at the Olympic Games in Paris before upping it to 6.26m at the Diamond League meeting in Silesia.
Warholm, meanwhile, will be competing in China for the first time. The Norwegian, who holds the 400m hurdles world record at 45.94, had to contend with some injuries throughout 2024, but still managed to win his third European title. He also earned Olympic silver and broke 47 seconds in four of his races.
Two other world champions have recently had appearances confirmed for the early season Diamond League meetings.
World and Olympic 110m hurdles champion Grant Holloway will star in Xiamen, while world and Olympic high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh will compete in Keqiao. The Ukrainian, who holds the world high jump record at 2.10m, had already been confirmed for Xiamen.
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