By Paul Hof-Mahoney
July 19, 2024
Six days before the opening ceremonies commence in Paris, some of the best athletes in the world will be giving us one final preview of what’s to come at the London Diamond League this Saturday. Six reigning World champions will be competing inside London Stadium this week before heading across the Channel to France, where athletics will begin on August 1st.
The meet will be streamed on Peacock (subscription required) for U.S. fans beginning at 9am E.T. and on the World Athletics YouTube channel for most other countries. You can follow along with live results and a full entry list here.
Here are some the athletes and events to keep a close eye on:
Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Lyles looks to answer Thompson in first race since Trials
One of the more interesting storylines of the final week of June, where nearly every country held their version of national championships or Olympic Trials, was the proxy war between the American and the Jamaican men in the 100m. Reigning World champ Noah Lyles ran 9.92 in round one, a windy 9.80 in the semis, and finally won the U.S. crown by equalling his PB of 9.83. A few days later, Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville put on a show in Kingston, with Thompson clocking 9.82, 9.84, and 9.77 through three rounds to claim his first national title. He backed those performances up with a strong win in Hungary earlier this month, cruising through the line in 9.91 at the Gyulai István Memorial.
Saturday morning’s 100m race will be Lyles’s first opportunity to respond to Thompson’s imposing warning shots. Thompson won’t be in London this weekend, unfortunately, but the American will still have his hands full with a very strong field. His chief competitors will be the two men who stood behind on the podium in Budapest last August, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain. These three clashed over 200m at this meet last year, and it was one of the fastest races in history (19.47 for Lyles, 19.50 for Tebogo, 19.73 for Hughes).
While Lyles has clearly been in great form this year, and Tebogo’s smooth 200m in 19.87 from Monaco last week shows he’s back in shape after taking about a month off to mourn the loss of his mother in May, there are several question marks floating around Hughes heading into this weekend. He hasn’t raced since June 1st, where he lost to Lyles and Seville (among others) in Jamaica. In his absence, due to a minor hamstring tear, he was forced to miss both the European Championships and the British Trials. He was still selected by British Athletics for both the 100m and the 200m thanks to their discretionary spot policy, but this race will be incredibly significant in proving to fans he should still be considered a medal contender in two weeks. As if a clash of the three medallists from last year’s World championship couldn’t get more dramatic, Hughes’s comments earlier this week on quips made by Lyles in Netflix’s SPRINT have added another layer of intrigue to what will be a spectacular race.
World Indoor bronze medallist and the third-place finisher at Jamaican Trials, Ackeem Blake, and Akani Simbine add to an impressive field. NCAA champion Louie Hinchliffe, fresh off a British Title in ugly conditions in Manchester, will be making his Diamond League debut.
Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Shot put fans, rejoice!
If you’re a big fan of seeing 16-pound balls fly 75 feet, I’ve got great news for you. Saturday’s men’s shot put competition will be the first time in world history that four men in the same competition will have PBs over 75 feet/22.86m. Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs, Leonardo Fabbri, and Tom Walsh make up half of the illustrious club of eight men that can say they’ve cleared that barrier, and they will all be stepping into the same circle in London.
This is the battle that throwing fans have been waiting for all season, and it is finally here. Leonardo Fabbri has been on an absolute mission this outdoor season. Despite the fact that it feels like he’s competing every weekend, his worst mark in a non-qualifying round outdoors this year was 22.11m, which won the Italian Championships by nearly two meters. On the high-end of his marks, he’s thrown 22.95m, 22.91m, 22.90m, and 22.88m, a truly awe-inspiring level of consistency that has only ever been matched by a man by the name of Crouser (more on him in a second). Fabbri already took down Kovacs last year in Budapest (granted Kovacs looks significantly better this year), and Saturday will serve as a proving ground to show that he can truly threaten Crouser’s chances at a three-peat.
Saturday will only be Crouser’s second outdoor competition of the year after dealing elbow injuries early in the season, but his win at the U.S. Trials in 22.84m shows he’s still the same Ryan Crouser that threw 23.07m to take the win in this stadium 362 days ago. Despite holding the world lead, Kovacs finished a relatively distant second to the man he’s landed just beneath on the last two Olympic podiums in Eugene, only managing 22.43m. He said post-competition that he felt he should’ve beaten Crouser by a meter, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on whether or not he can back that belief up this weekend.
Walsh took bronze in both Rio and Tokyo, but he’s been far from in the form necessary to make it three podiums in a row. He hasn’t won a competition since mid-February and his best mark outdoors is only 21.51m. Don’t count out the Kiwi great yet, however, as he and his wife, Dana, announced earlier this week via Instagram that they are expecting their first child. Perhaps the same dad strength that Kovacs has found will buoy Walsh and he’ll get closer to the shape we’re used to seeing him in.
I’ve gotten so caught up in all the greatness I’ve already mentioned that I failed to point out that U.S. third-place finisher, Payton Otterdahl, will also be making the trip to London. The 28-year-old moved to 13th on the all-time list earlier this year (22.59m) and has produced the six best marks of his career already in 2024.
Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Strong home presence leads excellent 800m field
The men’s two-lap races have stolen the show at each of the last two Diamond Leagues, but this week is the women’s opportunity to shine. The field contains five Brits, including world leader and Olympic favorite Keely Hodgkinson. The 22-year-old already has three global silvers and four sub-1:56s to her name, and her dominant 2024 campaign has her situated very nicely to come away with her first global title in a couple of weeks.
Other members of Team GB headed to Paris that will be racing Saturday include Jemma Reekie, the World Indoor silver medallist from Glasgow, breakout star and double national champion Georgia Bell, and reigning Olympic silver medallist in the 1500m Laura Muir. The British middle distance women are one of the stronger teams in the world as the Olympics draw closer and closer, and they could come away with a very nice medal haul.
Strong contenders from outside the UK include Jamaican record holder Natoya Goule-Toppin and U.S. runner-up Allie Wilson. Wilson finished second at the Morton Games last week in Ireland, but this will be her first true test against an Olympic-caliber field since her brilliant run at the Trials.
Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Other highlights:
- Less than a week after becoming only the second woman to break 51 seconds in the 400m hurdles, Femke Bol will be back at it in London, looking to put even more pressure on world record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone before their highly-anticipated matchup in Paris. Bol will be followed in hot pursuit by Jamaica’s Rushell Clayton, who’s the third-fastest woman in the world this year – her only loss came to Bol in Stockholm.
- A week after Quincy Hall became the first man to break 44 seconds in the 400m this year, a handful of strong contenders will look to join him. Christopher Morales-Williams (Canada), Matthew Hudson-Smith (Great Britain and N.I.), and Bayapo Ndori (Botswana) have all run tantalizingly close to that barrier this year. Hudson-Smith likely has the best chance of achieving that on Saturday. His last 400m was a European record of 44.07 at the Bislett Games back in May, and his most recent action on the track was a PB of 20.34 in poor conditions to win the British 200m title.
- The field for the Emsley Carr Mile is impressive and dominated by the Commonwealth: five Aussies and four Brits headline the field. Olli Hoare holds the fastest PB, but Neil Gourley had the best finish in the Bowerman Mile.
- With Shericka Jackson struggling throughout the year in the 200m and pulling up in her most recent race (just a minor issue according to her coach), Saturday could be a golden opportunity for Gabby Thomas to further strengthen her case as the gold medal favorite heading to Paris. The bronze medallist from Tokyo has the two fastest times in the world this year, but she’ll be doing battle against a great group of women. Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita will have the support from the home crowd, while former Texas standouts Julien Alfred and Rhasidat Adeleke are in the field as well.
- Seven of the eight best women in the world this year will be competing in the pole vault on Saturday, and five of the six best in javelin. You will be sorely missing out on some great competitions if you don’t keep tabs on them.
Thanks for reading! All the action gets underway action Saturday morning at 8am E.T., with streaming beginning on Peacock at 9am E.T.
Paul Hof-Mahoney
Paul is currently a student at the University of Florida (Go Gators) and is incredibly excited to be making his way into the track and field scene. He loves getting the opportunity to showcase the fascinating storylines that build up year-over-year across all events (but especially the throws).
