Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson is one of the newly crowned Rio 2016 Olympic Champions set to compete in the 11th leg of the IAAF Diamond League series in Lausanne on Thursday, August 25th.
The 24-year old produced one of the most outstanding performances at the Games when she became the second woman in history after USA’s Florence Griffith-Joyner to be crowned DOUBLE Sprints Olympic Champion.
The World Indoor Bronze medallist astonishingly won the 100m with an impressive time of 10.71s, before going on to upstage World 200m Champion, Dafne Schippers in the half-lap event clocking a Season’s Best (SB) of 21.78s.
This time around, Thompson will be up against some of the familiar names she faced in Rio, with her stiffest competitor being Cote D’Ivoire’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou, who narrowly missed a podium finish after finishing 4th in 10.86s.
Also in the 100m line-up are the Jamaican duo of Veronica Campbell-Brown and Christania Williams, Great Britain’s pair of Dina Asher-Smith and Desiree Henry, and Jenna Prandini of USA.
After finishing 7th in the men’s 200m at the Rio Olympics, Panama’s Alonso Edward will be hoping to extend and secure his lead on the Diamond League standings.
Edward will be up against a respectable field that consists of Dutchman Churandy Martina, Canada’s Aaron Brown, Great Britain’s James Ellington, and Jamaica’s Julian Forte.
Meanwhile in the men’s sprint hurdles, it’s expected that the event will be one of the most tactical races on the night as all medallists from Rio will face each other once again.
Top on the list is World and Diamond League leader, Omar Mcleod who’ll be aiming to extend his dominance after his Olympics victory.
The Jamaican will have his hands full against Silver medallist, Orlando Ortega and Bronze medallist, Dimitri Bascou. Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and USA’s David Oliver may be in for possible upsets as well.
Interestingly, the women’s 400m Hurdles will also feature all medallists from Rio, with USA’s Dalilah Muhammad leading the pack.
The world leader will be aiming for another victory when she lines up against Silver medallist, Sara Petersen and Bronze medallist, Ashley Spencer, with USA’s duo of Shamier Little and Cassandra Tate expected to make the field even more competitive.
Wayde Van Niekerk and Caster Semenya were South Africa’s heroes at the Rio Olympic Games, with the former setting a World Record (WR) of 43.03s in the men’s 400m, while the latter raced to a National Record (NR) of 1:55.28 in the women’s 800m.
Both athletes will not be in action in Lausanne, leaving room for 400m Bronze medallist, LaShawn Merritt and 800m Silver medallist, Francine Niyonsaba as favourites for the win in their respective events .
In the field events, newly crowned Olympic Triple Jump Champion Caterine Ibarguen already has her name on the Diamond Trophy, but she’ll aim to go past her biggest rival, Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova once again when both women square up in the event.
Another mouthwatering event to watch out for is the women’s Shot Put where USA’s Michelle Carter and New Zealand’s Valerie Adams, will be engaged in a battle for superiority.
Carter created one of the upsets at the Rio Games, throwing an NR of 20.63m to win her first Olympics GOLD medal, with defending Champion Adams, settling for 2nd place, throwing a Season’s Best (SB) of 20.42m.
Olympic Discus Champion, Christoph Harting will be hoping for another victory when he goes against Diamond Leader Piotr Malachowski, while the men’s High Jump will feature nothing less than four men (Bohdan Bondarenko, Mutaaz Essa Barshim, Erik Kynard and Robbie Grabarz), aiming for all maximum points to extend their lead on the Diamond standings.
Renaud Lavillenie may have lost his Olympic Pole Vault title to Brazil’s Thiago Braz da Silva, but the Frenchman won’t be leaving things to chance when he vaults against World Champion, Shawn Barber and Olympic Bronze medallist, Sam Kendricks.
