Johannesburg – Kenya’s 800m Olympic champion David Rudisha will be one of the main attraction at the Bauhaus-Galan in Stockholm on June 16, the eighth leg of the IAAF Diamond League.
Eleven Olympic gold medals, 59 world titles and seven world leads feature on the combined resumes of the athletes who are set to appear at the event.
Four of the top five finishers from the 800m final at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 will meet again over two laps of the track. Rudisha faces 2013 world champion Mohammed Aman Ethiopia, European champion Adam Kszczot, Kenya’s Ferguson Cheruyiot and French record-holder Pierre-Ambroise Bosse.
Thomas Rohler extended his javelin world lead to 89.30m when winning in Oslo recently, while Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott showed improved form with an 86.35m season’s best. World champions Julius Yego and Vitezslav Vesely will also be present in Stockholm along with Egypt’s world silver medallist Ihab Abdelrahman.
World indoor 3000m champion Yomif Kejelcha and 2011 world 10 000m champion Ibrahim Jeilan might provide the toughest opposition for fellow Ethiopian and world leader Muktar Edris in the 5 000m.
Sprint hurdles sensation Kendra Harrison goes up against two-time world indoor champion Nia Ali and European champion Alina Talay, who recently broke her own Belarusian record with 12.63. But all eyes in the Olympic Stadium will be on Susanna Kallur, Sweden’s world indoor record-holder, who will run her first 100m hurdles race since 2010.
Since recording the second-fastest steeplechase performance in history, Ruth Jebet has been training hard back at home. The Asian record-holder will take on Olympic champion Habiba Ghribi, who will be making her 2016 debut.
World leader Chaunte Lowe will take on two-time European champion Ruth Beitia and 2014 world indoor champion Kamila Licwinko in the high jump.
In the discus, Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic will be challenged by the two Cuban women who beat her in separate encounters last year: Yaimi Perez and world champion Denia Caballero.
– ANA