Eight gold medallists from the Olympic Games in Paris will be in Rome for the Golden Gala on Friday (30) as the Italian capital hosts the 13th Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season.
The octet of Olympic champions includes world record-holders Faith Kipyegon and Ryan Crouser, sprinter Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, Bahraini steeplechaser Winfred Yavi, Jamaican discus thrower Roje Stona, US sprint hurdler Masai Russell, Australian pole vaulter Nina Kennedy and US long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall.
Kipyegon will return to the meeting where she set her first world 1500m record, though this year’s edition has returned to its traditional home in Rome as opposed to Florence.
The Kenyan won her third successive Olympic 1500m title in Paris, breaking her own Games record with 3:51.29, just two seconds shy of the world record of 3:49.04 she set earlier this year at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.
She’ll be joined in Rome by the Australian who followed her home in both her world record run and at the Olympic Games, Jess Hull.
World indoor champion Freweyni Hailu and fellow Ethiopian Birke Haylom are also in the field, while Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Nadia Battocletti steps down in distance.
Faith Cherotich, Yavi and Chemutai face-off again
All three Olympic medallists will reunite in the women’s steeplechase as Yavi, the world and Olympic champion, takes on Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai and Kenya’s Faith Cherotich. The meeting record of 9:00.71 looks vulnerable.
The men’s 5000m is of a similarly high standard as five of the top six finishers from the Olympic final will take to the start line.
Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi and USA’s Grant Fisher, the Olympic silver and bronze medallists respectively, take on world leader Hagos Gebrhiwet, European 10,000m champion Dominic Lobalu, Ethiopian teenager Biniam Mehary, Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed and Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha.
