The new champions will line up against 26 Olympic medallists, 8 reigning world champions and 16 champions of the recent European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam. The impressive Weltklasse Z\u00fcrich entry lists suggest another edition of \u00abOlympic Games in one night\u00bb and a unique athletics experience for 25 000 stadium visitors.<\/p>\n
16 winners of the Diamond Trophy will be determined. In the final leg of each Diamond Race, points are doubled. Therefore, the winners of the final in Zurich will be awarded 20 points, a factor that could shake up the race in more than one case.<\/p>\n
The meeting\u2019s 200m women is a sparkling gem in the 2016 programme of events: New Olympic champion Elaine Thompson (Jamaica), world champion Dafne Schippers (Netherlands), Allyson Felix (USA), and Veronica Campbell-Brown (Jamaica) have won a total of as many as 25 titles at Olympic Games and world championships, including twelve in individual events.<\/p>\n
Zurich is looking forward to this summit of four of the greatest female sprinters of all times. Dafne Schippers is the one leading the Diamond Race by an uncatchable margin. Lining up next to them will be Swiss national record holder Mujinga Kambundji.<\/p>\n
Kendra Harrison, 100m hurdles record holder, has left a very strong impression in the IAAF Diamond League meetings this summer. The American won as many as five of her races. After missing out on the Olympic Games, she triumphed again in Lausanne and Paris, and is considered the top favourite for the race on Thursday.<\/p>\n
World record holder Renaud Lavillenie has also already forged an uncatchable margin in the Diamond Race. He will be the first athlete to win the trophy for the seventh consecutive time in Zurich. \u201cMister Diamond League\u201d is about to make athletics history: No pole vaulter has ever been able to steal the Diamond League crown from him so far.<\/p>\n
In addition, the French Olympic silver medallist is ready for a rematch with Olympic champion Thiago Braz (Brazil). The star-studded field also includes Olympic bronze medallist Sam Kendricks (USA), Piotr Lisek (Poland) and Jan Kudlicka (Czech Republic), who both placed fourth in Rio.<\/p>\n
With her impressive world record run in Paris, Ruth Jebet (Bahrain) has cemented her role as current 3000m SC dominator. It will be interesting to see, whether she can run a similar time in Zurich, and whether she will be able to defend her lead in the Diamond Race against Olympic silver medallist and world champion Hyvin Kiyeng (Kenia).<\/p>\n
Ruth Jebet has collected only four points more than her strongest opponent and must avoid mistakes at all cost. Only then she can crown the season that already earned her an Olympic title and a world record with a Diamond Trophy. The task is not an easy one, as she will be challenged by a strong field, including the five fastest finalists of the Olympic Games and Swiss national record holder Fabienne Schlumpf.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s 800m race will feature another all-star cast. Switzerland\u2019s European indoor champion Selina B\u00fcchel, who placed ninth in Rio, will be running against the eight Olympic finalists. It will be a perfect opportunity for the 25-year-old athlete to prove that she belongs with the world\u2019s best.<\/p>\n
Lining up next to her will be Olympic champion Caster Semenya (South Africa), who will be running her first race since the Olympic final. She has collected 40 points in the Diamond Race. But winning the Trophy will be no walk in the park: Olympic silver medallist Francine Niyonsaba (Burundi) is breathing down her neck \u2013 with 38 points.<\/p>\n
The Zurich Trophy, a women\u2019s 4x100m relay race, will conclude the night at Letzigrund Stadium. The Swiss national record holders will run against teams from the USA, Jamaica, Ukraine, and Germany.<\/p>\n
As many as six other local heroes will compete in the international programme of events: European championship bronze medallists Mujinga Kambundji (200m) and Lea Sprunger (400m h), 2015 winner and former European champion Kariem Hussein (400m h), national record holders Selina B\u00fcchel (800 m) and Fabienne Schlumpf (3000m SC), and Dominik Alberto (pole vault) are all looking forward to compete in front of their home crowd.<\/p>\n
14 champions of the Rio Olympic Games are heading the illustrious entry lists for the IAAF...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zurich"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.wdl.uat-sports.swisstiming.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}