The last Diamond League meet before the Paris Games features an Olympic appetizer in the men’s 100m, where all three 2023 World Championships medalists are entered.
American Noah Lyles, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and Brit Zharnel Hughes headline the field in London on Saturday, live on Peacock from 9-11 a.m. ET.
Last August, Lyles won the world title in a personal best 9.83 seconds en route to sweeping golds in the 100, 200m and 4x100m. Tebogo and Hughes were second and third, each in 9.88.
Lyles again ran 9.83 to win the U.S. Olympic Trials on June 23. Tebogo (season’s best 9.99) and Hughes (season’s best 10.09) did not need to run trials meets to make their nations’ Olympic teams, so they may still be ramping up.
Meanwhile, the men’s 100m has only gotten more competitive with Kishane Thompson winning the Jamaican trials in 9.77, Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala running 9.79 last month and Jamaican Oblique Seville clocking 9.82 to beat Lyles on June 1 in Kingston.
Who is competing at Diamond League London?
Here are the London entry lists. Here are five events to watch:
Men’s Shot Put -- 8:23 a.m. ET
The top six from the 2023 World Championships are in the field, led by Olympic and world champion and world record holder Ryan Crouser. But Crouser, set back by elbow and pec injuries earlier this season, is not the world’s farthest thrower this year. That’s Joe Kovacs, who took silver behind Crouser at the last two Olympics and was also second at trials.
Women’s Pole Vault -- 8:36 a.m. ET
The world’s top six performers this outdoor season are entered, including American Katie Moon, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist. Moon, who dealt with an Achilles injury earlier this year, has yet to win a top-level international competition in 2024. This will be her last chance before the Olympics. Brit Molly Caudery has been the world’s best performer in 2024 indoors (4.86 meters) and outdoors (4.92). Australian Nina Kennedy, who shared the 2023 World title with Moon, won last week’s Diamond League stop in Monaco (4.88).
Women’s 400m Hurdles -- 9:04 a.m. ET
World champion Femke Bol of the Netherlands races six days after posting the third-fastest time in history (50.95 seconds). That time amped up the anticipation for a likely Paris Olympic showdown with American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the Tokyo gold medalist who owns the two fastest times in history (50.65 and 50.68). Bol and McLaughlin-Levrone haven’t gone head-to-head in two years and will not do so in London. Instead, Bol’s competition includes Jamaican Rushell Clayton, who is the third-fastest woman in the projected Olympic field with a personal best of 52.51.
Women’s 200m -- 10:42 a.m. ET
Gabby Thomas, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist and U.S. Olympic Trials winner, faces the two fastest non-Americans this year: Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia and Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain. Thomas owns the world’s two best times year -- 21.78 and 21.81. It may take something faster to win gold in Paris. Last August, Jamaican Shericka Jackson won the world title in 21.41.
Men’s 100m -- 10:52 a.m. ET
If Lyles continues his progression this year, he may well lower his personal best from 9.83 here. Tebogo is coming off a 200m win in Monaco last week. Hughes last raced June 1, then missed the British trials later in June due to a hamstring injury. He still made the British Olympic team via medical exemption given his fast times in 2023.
