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10 Things to Watch at the Lausanne Diamond League Meet
A preview of the stacked 2022 Athletissima Lausanne meet this Friday, August 26th at 2pm EST
In the month since the World Championships, some athletes rested. Others racked up their medal counts at the Commonwealth Games, European Championships, and NACAC Championships. A few squeezed in last-minute training blocks to try to find that extra fraction of a percent that could put them on top. No matter how they spent their August, the biggest studs in the sport are all back in action for this Friday’s Athletissima meet at the historic Pontaise Olympic Stadium. It’s not every day you get to watch a track meet in a 118-year-old venue.
In a sport where we often complain about stars dodging competition due to loosey-goosey meet schedules and inadequate appearance incentives, it’s great to see so many big names going head-to-head here. The full Worlds podiums from the women’s 100m, the men’s high jump, the men’s shot put, the women’s triple jump, and the women’s 100m hurdles are all entered for a rematch here, not to mention a head-to-head clash between the Commonwealth champion and the European champion in the men’s 1500m.
Three world record holders are competing in their specialty events, and the women’s 1 mile and 2000m world record holders are throwing down over 3000 meters. Below, we break down the top 10 storylines to watch on Friday in depth for you so you know what to watch for in this star-studded meet.
Full entries and live results can be found here. American viewers can watch the meet from 2 pm-4 pm E.S.T. on Peacock and many other territories can stream the meet live on the Diamond League YouTube page.
Women’s 100m: Will a rerun of the Worlds final yield a new result?
6 of the 8 finalists from Eugene are on the entry list, including the Jamaican trio that swept the podium in both the Olympics and World championships. The fastest woman in the field, double-double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, is fresh off gold medals in the 100m and 200m at the Commonwealth Games, but to pick up another W, she’ll have to beat NACAC 100m champ and World 200m champ Shericka Jackson… and find a way to stop the freight train that is Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
It’s hard to find new ways for SAFP to demonstrate greatness, but the five-day stretch in early August where she ran 10.66, 10.67 and 10.62 in three different meets in three different European countries was a sight to see. You have to think that the “Pocket Rocket” has only one thing left on her 2022 to-do list: breaking her personal best of 10.60 and becoming the third woman in history under the 10.6 barrier. Here’s hoping this stacked field can push her to a blazing finish.
Men’s 200m: Can anyone stop Noah Lyles?
Something very important changed for Noah Lyles this summer. The American sprinter known for his top-end speed was accustomed to playing catch-up to the rest of the world’s best coming off the turn in the 200-meter dash, but all of a sudden, that stopped happening. He was now running the first 100 meters of his race with the best turn-runners in the world, and when Noah Lyles enters the home stretch with a lead, there’s no catching him.
With 4 of the top 12 200s ever run - the same number as Usain Bolt - Lyles has proven he can run extremely fast with impressive consistency. The average of Lyles’s 10 200m races this year is 19.70 - a time that only two other men have bested this season. One of those men - 18-year-old Erriyon Knighton - is entered in this race, but for all the talk of a Knighton-Lyles rivalry, the young prodigy has never beaten Lyles head-to-head (outside of championship rounds). Americans Knighton and Michael Norman, who took 2nd and 3rd behind Lyles in Monaco, look to be well-positioned to re-create that podium unless someone like Joe Fahnbulleh of Liberia recaptures some mid-season form. But upfront, all indications point to the Noah Lyles show continuing one more entertaining episode.
Women’s 100m hurdles: How much is Tobi Amusan the real deal?
The casual track fan may not have known Tobi Amusan’s name a month ago, but a lot’s changed since then. The Nigerian hurdler was the 2017 NCAA champ for UTEP, but she had never medaled at a major championship as a pro, finishing 4th at 2019 Worlds and 4th at the Tokyo Olympics. All that changed in Eugene when she lowered her personal best from 12.41 to 12.12, setting a new world record and winning gold in three stellar rounds of racing. For perspective: Amusan went from #21 on the all-time list to #1 in the course of two days.
She went on to win gold again at the Commonwealth Games in 12.30, proving her World title was no fluke, but she hasn’t raced Olympic champ Jasmine Camacho-Quinn or now-former world record holder Keni Harrison since Eugene. If she can re-assert her dominance over this field, there will be no question remaining over whether she deserves to be in the GOAT conversation.
Men’s Steeplechase: Can Jager get back with the best?
The usual Diamond League suspects are all in this one: World and Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali, double silver medalist Lamecha Girma, and four other men who’ve broken 8:10 this year. The heavy betting favorite has to be El Bakkali, who’s undefeated on the year and always seems to come out on top thanks to his lethal kick. But the more intriguing prospect for American fans has to be the presence of Bowerman Track Club’s Evan Jager on the start line in his first Diamond League appearance in almost exactly 4 years.
Jager has had a resurgent season, making the Worlds team in the steeple and finishing 6th in the final in Eugene, and he should be feeling confident coming off a dominant win at the NACAC championships last weekend. But the question remains: Can he get close to his 8:00.45 lifetime best, or will a fast, crowded race be too much to manage? Given the consistency we’ve seen this year, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Jager flirt with the 8:10 barrier, and if all else fails, knocking out the 8:15.00 standard for Budapest ‘23 would take some of the heat off next spring.
Women’s 400m hurdles: Can Dalilah flip the script back on Femke?
Dalilah Muhammad and Femke Bol have raced head-to-head in the 400-meter hurdles three times. In Tokyo, Muhammad picked up silver and Bol grabbed bronze behind Sydney McLaughlin’s second world record. In Eugene, Bol got the better of her rival, getting a silver of her own as the 2019 World champion battled to third after an injury-limited spring. The only other time they’ve raced was at this meet last year, where Bol emerged victorious and Muhammad faded to fourth. Will we see a repeat of 2021 Lausanne, or will a few more weeks of healthy training serve Dalilah well? It’s hard to bet against the veteran, but Bol has been on fire this year, running under 53 seconds on 5 separate occasions, and unless she’s tired coming off the 400/400H double win at Euros, the 22-year-old Dutchwoman probably has the edge over the American.
Men’s Shot Put: Will Crouser beat his 2021 self?
Ryan Crouser finally got his World Championship gold in Eugene, and with indoor and outdoor world records in the shot put in his pocket, there’s little left for him to achieve. But if there’s one knock on his 2022 season compared to 2021, it’s that his season’s best is “only” 23.12 meters, a mark achieved by only one other man in history, but over 20 centimeters short of his personal best. Before we close the books on the throws in 2022, it would be nice to see Crouser get back up around 23.30 again and perhaps even threaten his 23.37m best. Perhaps we’re getting greedy, though - Crouser has 6 of the 9 23+ meter throws in history, as well as the top 3 marks, so to complain that he’s not quite up to his own astronomical standards feels gratuitous. But it’s only human nature - we want more!
Women’s 3000m: How many national records fall?
We have to talk about the elephant in the room in this event. The top 5 marks in history were all achieved in September 1993 by Chinese athletes long suspected to be associated with state-sponsored doping, and Junxia Wang, the 3000m world record holder, allegedly admitted to doping. The next two women on the list, Sifan Hassan and Francine Niyonsaba, have battled controversies of their own, but they are toeing the line in Lausanne along with a star-studded international lineup to chase fast times in the non-standard distance.
Commonwealth and European 1500m champ Laura Muir will face off with Euro 5000m champ Konstanze Klosterhalfen, a group of talented Ethiopians including national record holder Ejgayehu Taye, and a quartet of speedy Americans. With the current Dutch, Burundian, Ethiopian, German, Kazakh, Mexican, and Australian record holders in the race, we could see a huge number of national records getting reset. Two records that fans will certainly be keeping an eye on are Paula Radcliffe’s British record of 8:22.20 and Mary Decker Slaney’s 8:25.83 American record - with Muir, Alicia Monson, and Elise Cranny in the race, those marks could be living on borrowed time.
Men’s 110m hurdles: With Allen in the NFL, is Holloway untouchable?
Two-time World champion Grant Holloway has only lost two hurdle races in the last two years, and the only man to beat him and run faster in 2022, Devon Allen, is busy with other obligations. Olympic champ Hansle Parchment is the only other athlete to beat Holloway recently, but he’s struggled to stay healthy, pulling out of both the World and Commonwealth Games finals. He’s entered here, but the last time the two went head-to-head, Holloway won in Monaco and Parchment had to settle for third behind Trey Cunningham. In that race, Holloway showed no signs of a post-Eugene slump, clocking his first sub-13 of the season, and if he can get back to his 2021 Olympic Trials form, Aries Merritt’s 12.80 world record might not survive to its 10th birthday in September.
Women’s Triple Jump: Will we see more women over 15 meters?
It’s a foregone conclusion that Venezuelan legend Yulimar Rojas will continue her winning ways in this event, and she may even threaten her own world record in the process. What will be fun to see along the way is how many other women can bust through the 15-meter barrier alongside her. Two others in the field, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine and Patricia Mamona of Portugal, have gotten over 15 meters in the past, and two more, Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica and American Tori Franklin, are getting closer and closer. Ricketts is the best bet to be the next 15-meter jumper, with a season’s best of 14.94m and a lifetime best of 14.98m, but it will be fun to see if the competition can push Franklin to break compatriot Keturah Orji’s 14.92m American record.
Men’s 1500m: How low can they go?
It’s been a thrilling year for the men’s mile/1500m, full of rivalries, upsets, and comeback stories, but until July, it hadn’t exactly been a fast year. Headed into Worlds, the fastest time of 2022 was Abel Kipsang’s 3:31.01, but thanks to two speedy championship races, that mark is now #11. In the Eugene final, Jakob Ingebrigtsen towed the field to fast times only to be outkicked by Jake Wightman’s world-leading 3:29.23. At the Commonwealth Games, Australian Olli Hoare bounced back after missing the Worlds final to win gold in a new PB of 3:30.12 and lead 4 men under 3:31.
Now, with all the sharpness of championship form and the help of Diamond League pacers, how fast can they go? Wightman and World bronze medalist Mohammed Katir are skipping this one, but European 1500m champ Mario Garcia Romo, Tokyo bronze medalist Josh Kerr, and 2019 World champ Timothy Cheruiyot are all here. With guys like Kerr, Cheruiyot, Ingebrigtsen, and Stewy McSweyn, all of whom are no stranger to pushing the middle laps of a race, in the field, setting up a fast time if the weather is right should be no problem. It wouldn’t be surprised to see a few new sub-3:30s on the list when the dust settles on this one.