Clash of champions as global stars converge in Swiss city
By People.Reporter, August 26, 2022
With world titles won and continental crowns claimed, many of the sport’s stars will clash again at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne on Friday (26) as the Wanda Diamond League continues towards its crescendo.
Global gold medallists are among those heading to the Swiss city on the hunt for performances that will secure their spot in the Diamond League final back in Switzerland – at the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich – on 7-8 September.
The stacked fields feature 12 recently-crowned individual world champions, the same number of individual Olympic gold medallists from Tokyo and nine champions from last year’s Diamond League. There is incredible quality wherever you look, including Jakob Ingebrigtsen – fresh from another European 1500m and 5000m double – against Timothy Cheruiyot, Abel Kipsang and Oliver Hoare in the shorter event, and Sifan Hassan against Ejgayehu Taye, Laura Muir and Konstanze Klosterhalfen in the 3000m.
The women’s 100m is close to a re-run of the recent world final, with all three medallists – Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah – challenging each other for the first time since Oregon as they seek points to qualify for the final.
Also on the hunt are world finalists Mujinga Kambundji, Aleia Hobbs and Marie-Josee Ta Lou, plus USA’s 19-year-old Tamari Davis, who twice ran under the world U20 100m record in Memphis last month, clocking 10.87 and 10.83, and her compatriot Twanisha Terry.
It has been another phenomenal year for Fraser-Pryce, the 14-time global gold medallist, and it isn’t over yet. The 35-year-old won 100m gold and 200m silver in Oregon, and has dipped under 10.70 for the shorter distance a remarkable six times this season, topped by her 10.62 in Monaco earlier this month.
In Lausanne she returns to the scene of her 10.60 PB set last year, a time that puts her third on the world all-time list behind Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 10.49 world record and the 10.54 run by treble Tokyo Olympic champion Thompson-Herah in Eugene last year.
That Lausanne race was the last time Fraser-Pryce, Jackson and Thompson-Herah all clashed at a Diamond League meeting, with Fraser-Pryce winning ahead of Thompson-Herah (10.64) and Jackson (10.92).
Jackson, the world 200m winner with a best of 21.45 that makes her No.2 all-time for that distance, improved her 100m PB to 10.71 when finishing second behind Fraser-Pryce in Monaco to become the sixth-fastest ever women’s 100m runner.
Thompson-Herah has clocked 10.79 this season and Ivory Coast’s Ta Lou 10.72, while Swiss star Kambundji returns to the track fresh from her 200m triumph at the European Championships.