Middle-distance maestros Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Keely Hodgkinson headline the 800m fields at Athletissima and are among seven Olympic champions set to compete at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on Wednesday (20).
The two world 800m leaders head to Lausanne off the back of very different seasons.
Wanyonyi has raced every month this year since February and has won his past four Diamond League races, racking up victories in Oslo, Stockholm, Monaco and London.
The 21-year-old Kenyan ran a world-leading 1:41.44 in Monaco last month and returns to Lausanne with fond memories, as it’s where he set his lifetime best of 1:41.11 last year – a performance that consolidated his third-place position on the world all-time list.
The three men who followed Wanyonyi across the line in Lausanne last year are all returning, meaning the Olympic champion will take on world champion Marco Arop, European champion Gabriel Tual and 2024 world indoor champion Bryce Hoppel.
They’re joined by world indoor champion Josh Hoey and Olympic finalists Max Burgin, Mohamed Attaoui and Tshepiso Masalela.
In contrast to Wanyonyi, Hodgkinson heads to Lausanne off the back of just one race this year. But the Briton, who delayed the start to her season due to injury, made that one race count; she won in Silesia recently in a world-leading 1:54.74, just 0.13 shy of her lifetime best.
She won that race by two seconds, but Wednesday’s outing will be another test ahead of next month’s World Championships as she takes on world indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso, European U23 champion Audrey Werro, Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell and Botswana’s Oratile Nowe.
