With Grand Slam Track and its field-eventless focus firing the first shot of the professional outdoor season, it’s fitting that the first installment of the 2025 Diamond League is heavy on the field events. Many of the world’s most prominent jumpers, throwers, and vaulters will descend on Xiamen, China, for this Saturday’s meet.

You want Mondo Duplantis? Assuming you’ve got an active Flotrack subscription… you got Mondo! You want loaded women’s high jump, shot put, and discus fields? You got ‘em—and we’ll dive in a bit deeper in a moment on those. The meet organizers even pulled out all the stops for the men’s horizontal jumps, where there’s considerable depth across both events, but no clear favorite in either.

The field events may get more of the shine in Xiamen, but there’s still plenty to tune in for taking place on the oval. Grant Holloway looks to lead an American sweep of the podium in the 110m hurdles. Soufiane El Bakkali, the reigning World and Olympic champ in the steeplechase, will open up his 2025 campaign with his signature event. And we’ll be treated to the return of Karsten Warholm, following an injury sustained in the aftermath of his 100m duel with Duplantis last summer. He will race the off-distance 300m hurdles.

Early season DL meets may not always produce the most jaw-dropping metrics, but they’re international events that attract a range of the world’s finest athletes. And they’re essential for establishing the narratives that will follow these athletes through the entirety of the outdoor season. With that said, here are a handful of emergent storylines we’ll be keeping our eyes on as the action gets underway in Xiamen:

Women’s high jump: A rematch of champions

The Diamond League portion of this meeting opens up with the high jump, and with apologies for the following quip, that’s very apt… as the bar will be set high both literally and figuratively. Three of the four podium finishers from Paris are slated to jump: Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh, silver medalist Nicola Olyslagers, and co-bronze medalist Eleanor Patterson. Olyslagers and Patterson both already squared off outdoors. Olyslagers (2.01m) got the better of Patterson (1.97m) in that meeting, as well as at World Indoors, where the compatriots struck gold and silver. Meanwhile, Mahuchikh will be making her 2025 outdoor debut, following an indoor season where she cleared 2.01m but only managed a bronze medal at World Indoors.

In all likelihood, this trio (give or take a fourth athlete in the event of another tie) will stand atop the podium in Tokyo this September, so this matchup is all about making a statement. Mahuchikh has been on a hot streak outdoors but has missed gold at the last two indoor championships. She’ll want to send a clear message that Nanjing was a fluke. Both Aussies undoubtedly want to register another win against their Ukrainian rival—and each other—to kick off the season with the knowledge that they have the goods to claim gold at its conclusion.

Men’s 100m: Tebogo drops down in distance

The field events will get a lot of shine in Xiamen, but there’s plenty of action to take in on the track as well. Akani Simbine, two-time Olympic fourth-placer in the 100m for South Africa, is hot out of the gate, having already run a world leading 9.90. Yet it’s hard to consider Simbine the clear favorite when Letsile Tebogo will be sharing a starting line. Tebogo’s only registered one 100m race this year, an unimpressive 10.55. He placed sixth in Paris but won World silver in 2023, so he can be a bit hit or miss in the shortest sprint event. In reality, his strength is his strength, and he’s more of a 200m specialist with the ability to flex up to the 400m. But whether he likes it or not, Tebogo is on the short list of track and field stars who could be considered the face of the sport. So when he lines up for a race of any real consequence, regardless of the distance, the pressure will be on him to deliver.

Looking to play the role of spoiler will be… well, basically the entire field, but with preference given to athletes possessing strong starts. (This early in the season, sharpness might not be universal.) Perhaps the biggest threat for an African victory will come in the form of Christian Coleman, a consistent performer who tends to run well at these early season Diamond League meets, but only finished fourth in 10.06 at the Tom Jones Invitational last weekend. The only man in the field without a sub-10-second clocking to his name is Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy (10.00 PB), but he’s coming off a World Indoors silver at 60m and surely wants to insert his name into the global short sprint conversation.

Women’s shot put: All the world’s best collide

If world rankings are something you give a lot of weight to, then strap in for a battle between the women ranked 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 13 in the world. The top seven finishers from World Indoors four weeks ago and about 1,000km away are locking horns again, led up front by the impressive 20m+ podium of Sarah Mitton, Jessica Schilder and Chase Jackson. None of the medal-winning trio have opened their outdoor seasons yet, meaning they’re launching themselves directly back into the fire. Other notable names on the entry list include former Oregon Duck Jaida Ross making her professional debut after signing with Nike last week and Olympic silver medalist Maddison-Lee Wesche coming off a frustrating 15th-place finish in Nanjing. Finally, it would be a sin to exclude the home nation duo of Gong Lijiao and Song Jiayuan. A 19.04m SB and fifth-place finish at World Indoors may be signs of the 36-year-old Gong finally losing a couple ticks off her fastball, but she downed a similarly stacked field at this venue last April.

Women’s discus: We’re not in Ramona anymore

If anyone not in this competition lands on the podium in Tokyo, it’d be a pretty significant upset. Several women are making the trek to Xiamen fresh off big days in the discus mecca that is Ramona, headed up by the American duo of Valarie Allman and Lagi Tausaga-Collins. Allman threw 73.52m two weeks ago, the best mark by a woman since before Kyle Merber was born, but her and coach Zeb Sion have made it clear they aren’t necessarily expecting to throw that far on the circuit. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be expecting any big throws out of Allman though, as she won this meet last year with a pair of 69.80m and 69.73m bombs. For Tausaga-Collins, her 70.72m PB in Oklahoma was an emphatic “I’m back” statement after a foul-filled, frustrating 2024 campaign for the defending World champ. Her results sheets so far might still have a few more Xs than she’d hoped for, but the distances have been there and she’s been able to handle in-competition adversity. Feng Bin and Sandra Elkasević, the other members of the Paris podium behind Allman, will be opening their seasons on Saturday.