Lausanne Diamond League Preview

It is hard to believe that the Olympics are not only over, but that the Diamond League will resume with the Lausanne meeting this Thursday. Historically, the meeting has delivered fast times in the wake of the Olympics as athletes capitalize on their peak fitness with fast times. In 2012, Bolt blitzed a 19.58 200m and Yohan Blake delivered an equally impressive 9.69.

A few events to watch out for:

Women 100m

Elaine Thompson races the clock after showing she can’t be stopped with her Olympic 100m-200m Double Gold.

Women 800m

This race is pratically an rematch of the silver medal olympic race with Niyonsaba, Wambui, Bishop, Sum and Sharp all entered. The only thing that would make this race better would be the addition of Semenya.

Men’s Shot put

A loaded field includes the Olympic Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists facing off again. Olympic Champion Christophe Harding gets to show whether his surprise victory was a one off or if the newly minted champion is here to stay.

Men’s Steeplechase

While the event does not include any of the Olympic medalists, American’s Donn Cabral, Dan Huling, and Andy Bayer are all in the hunt for a historic win in a Diamond league race. The best entrant in the event, Jarius Birech, has struggled since his 8:03 in May at the Rabat DL meeting. Subsequently he has run 8:11 and 8:20 before DNF’ing the Kenyan Trials. The next best entrant has an 8:08 SB. While such a performance would be a step forward for Cabral (8:13), Huling (8:13) or Bayer (8:17), it is certainly not out of their range.