Mondo Duplantis, Faith Kipyegon and Grant Holloway are among the entries for the first event of 2025 on Saturday in Xiamen, China
Mondo Duplantis, Grant Holloway, Faith Kipyegon, Beatrice Chebet, Karsten Warholm, Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Gudaf Tsegay are among the line-ups for the first Wanda Diamond League meeting of 2025 in Xiamen, China, on Saturday (April 26).
Duplantis cleared 6.24m in Xiamen last year and went on to set another world record of 6.25m in Paris in August before improving to 6.26m at the Silesia Diamond League and then 6.27m in Clermont-Ferrand in February.
The meeting in Xiamen will be his outdoor season opener as the Swedish superstar competes for the first time since winning his third world indoor title in Nanjing last month.
The women’s high jump sees world record-holder Mahuchikh of Ukraine taking on Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson, with Olyslagers winning world indoor gold in Nanjing last month ahead of Patterson and Mahuchikh.
(Getty)
Warholm will tackle 300m hurdles in Xiamen with his own world record of 33.26 under threat. He faces Kyron McMaster and CJ Allen among others.
In the men’s 110m hurdles, Holloway of the United States takes on Cordell Tinch, Freddie Crittenden and Daniel Roberts.
A few days after announcing her audacious bid to break the four-minute barrier in the mile in Paris in June, Kipyegon will run 1000m in Xiamen with Svetlana Masterkova’s world record of 2:28.98 set in 1996 in danger.
Gudaf Tsegay (Getty)
Another Kenyan endurance running star, Beatrice Chebet, leads the women’s 5000m fields but will take on Gudaf Tsegay, who looked in great form when winning the world indoor 1500m title last month. Tsegay also holds the world record for 5000m and is bouncing back from a disappointing Olympics that saw Chebet win 5000m and 10,000m golds.
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Fresh from a North American discus record of 73.52m, Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the United States faces world champion Laulauga Tausaga, plus Sandra Elkasevic, Yaime Perez, Jorinde van Klinken and Feng Bin.
Elsewhere, in the women’s 200m Shericka Jackson faces Mujinga Kambundji, Jenna Prandini and Tamara Clark, whereas the men’s 100m sees Letsile Tebogo against Britain’s world indoor 60m champion Jeremiah Azu, plus Lachlan Kennedy, Akani Simbine, Christian Coleman and Ferdinand Omanyala.
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