Records will be under threat and rivalries will be renewed across a star-studded schedule when the Wanda Diamond League season resumes with the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia, Poland, on Saturday (16).
Mondo Duplantis and Faith Kipyegon are among the 13 world record-holders who will want to make a statement when they stop in Silesia on the road to Tokyo, where they will defend their titles at the World Championships in September.
How many world records as Mondo Duplantis set?
Swedish pole vault superstar Duplantis returns to the scene of his 10th world record, just four days after setting his 13th.
The 25-year-old cleared 6.26m in Silesia last year, three weeks after claiming his second Olympic title and setting another of his world records in Paris. He improved the world record to 6.29m in Budapest on Tuesday, managing that mark on his second attempt.
The whole Paris Olympic podium is reunited as Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis also compete, the latter fresh from a runner-up finish to Duplantis in Budapest – a performance that followed his national record of 6.08m at the Greek Championships.
Adding further strength to the field are Ernest John Obiena and Kurtis Marschall, who joined winner Duplantis on the podium at the 2023 World Championships, plus former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie.
Kenya’s Kipyegon contests the 3000m, six weeks on from improving her own world 1500m record in Eugene. The three-time Olympic and four-time world gold medallist also holds the mile world record and is a former world record-holder in the 5000m. She has only raced the 3000m twice before and her PB of 8:23.55 was set in 2014, but anything is possible when Kipyegon steps on the track.
“I’m just going there to lower my personal best. That world record is tough,” she said recently, referencing the 8:06.11 set by Wang Junxia in 1993.
“We are here to try. I say, ‘dare to try’. It’s always good to dare to try than not to try, so I’m going to Silesia to just lower my personal best and see if I will dare to try and if the world record is possible.”
Who will Faith Kipyegon face at Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia?
Kipyegon will line up alongside another world record-holder in Australia’s Jessica Hull, the Olympic silver medallist who ran 5:19.70 for 2000m in Monaco last year, while three other world record-breakers – double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet (5000m and 10,000m), Gudaf Tsegay (1500m short track) and Diribe Welteji (road mile) – will meet in the 1500m, Chebet making her international 1500m debut.
They will be joined by Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell, Birke Haylom and Nikki Hiltz.
Keely Hodgkinson is set to race for the first time since winning the Olympic 800m title in Paris as she continues her comeback after injury.
The men’s 1500m features six men who have dipped under 3:30 this season, including Timothy Cheruiyot, world indoor champion Josh Hoey and Cameron Myers. They take on Olympic bronze medallist Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler.
