IAAF Diamond League - World’s best converge for high class Athletics Monaco meeting
Diamond League Monaco online TV coverage Diamond League live stream online free IAAF Athletics Diamond League Monaco live full video The provisional entry lists for the ninth meeting of the 2016 IAAF Diamond League in Monaco on 15 July are now available
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For quality, the men’s 1500m takes the biscuit. World champion Asbel Kiprop, who ran his personal best of 3:26.69 at this meeting last year, has been itching for a pacemaker to set him on a world record tilt all season. When the Kenyan ran the world lead (3:29.33) in Birmingham, he did it by overtaking the pacers and romping to a near four-second win.
Should they get it right this time, Diamond Race leader Kiprop may not be running on his own. Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi has showed good pace over 800m this season and will hope it pays off in a fast race in Monaco.
The IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco has a reputation for high-class performances. With the Rio Olympics just a month away, the clashes in store at Herculis on Friday (15) will have added spice.
Other in-form athletes hoping to go fast include Kenya’s world silver medallist Elijah Manangoi, who is currently second in the Diamond Race, and Morocco’s Abdalaati Iguider, who won over 3000m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rabat and is third on this year’s 1500m world list with 3:33.10.
Distance king Mo Farah adds further depth. The Briton will surely follow the pace as he tunes up to defend his 5000m and 10,000m titles in Brazil.
Ingebrigtsen brothers Filip and Henrik, first and third respectively at the European Championships, also run.
Caster Semenya has been unbeatable in the women’s 800m this season – literally – with three straight IAAF Diamond League wins and a world-leading 1:56.64 in Rome.
Tianna Bartoletta set a personal best of 10.78 to finish second in the 100m at the US Olympic Trials 10 days ago and runs again in Monaco. Few expected to see Veronica Cambell-Brown finish fourth at the Jamaican Trials. The 2007 world champion was way back in 11.10, though a 10.83 season’s best (equal to Schippers’) suggests she will add even more bite to the contest.
Similarly, the men’s 110m hurdles will pit Europe’s finest against the best in the world. This year, that title belongs to Jamaica’s Omar McLeod. The world indoor champion’s 12.98 in Shanghai ranks him number one in 2016.
Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Spain’s Orlando Ortega are the only other two men in the field to have run faster than 13 seconds. Joining them is newly crowned European champion Dimitri Bascou.
Francine Niyonsaba, the world indoor champion who won in Birmingham (with Semenya absent) in 1:56.92, and world junior champion Margaret Wambui, who is ranked third this year with 1:57.52, are the most likely to push the South African in Monaco. Any of the three could challenge the 1:56.04 meeting record.
The men’s steeplechase features Conseslus Kipruto, who is fastest this year with 8:00.12. He goes after his fifth straight IAAF Diamond League win in 2016, though the meeting record of 7:53.64 might be just out of his grasp.