Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 10.83 in the Zurich chill (© Gladys Chai van der Laage)
Zurich’s Weltklasse on 29 August – the first of two finals in the 2013 IAAF Diamond League – will be an exciting showdown after the recently concluded IAAF World Championships.
The provisional entry lists for the meeting include 19 of the athletes who won gold medals at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, as well as 15 reigning Olympic champions.
The line-ups for all 17 events of the night’s international programme of events – and for the two Shot Put events which are being held at Zurich Main Station on Wednesday – will resemble those of the World Championships finals in Moscow.
Two of the sport’s biggest stars, Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – will be there.
Bolt will contest the 100m, where the top six finishers from the World Championships final will meet again to take on USA’s Walter Dix and Britain’s Adam Gemili.
Meanwhile, Fraser-Pryce goes in the 200m and will take on World 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu.
One of the most eagerly anticipated clashes in Stockholm will be the one between Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar in the 5000m. The pair haven’t raced against each other since last year’s Olympic 5000m final, but the stakes have been raised after they each won a gold medal in Moscow; Dibaba in the 10,000m and Defar in the 5000m. Also in the race is 5000m silver medallist Mercy Cherono and the two other medallists from the 10,000m, Gladys Cherono and Belaynesh Oljira.
In the 110m Hurdles, former World record-holder Dayron Robles will challenge the top seven finishers from Moscow, including gold medallist David Oliver and Olympic champion Aries Merritt.
The field for the men’s High Jump promises an exciting competition as the top eight athletes from the recent World Championships final – including the winner, Bohdan Bondarenko – will all compete at Letzigrund Stadium.
“We always want to present the best athletes of the world in all our events. And at this stage, it looks like we will manage to achieve our objective again this year,” said meeting director Patrick K Magyar. “The line-up is truly impressive. The athletes arriving from Moscow will carry a total of 56 medals in their luggage. And more than 50% of our cast finished in the top eight positions of their event at the championships.”
All stadium tickets for Weltklasse Zürich 2013 were sold several weeks ago with 25,000 spectators set to attend the first of two IAAF Diamond League final events. But a number of tickets have become available as a consequence of ticket contingent adjustments and will go on sale on 26 August.
Organisers for the IAAF
IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 10 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
New York, USA – 25 May
Eugene, USA – 1 Jun
Rome, ITA – 6 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 13 Jun
Birmingham, GBR – 30 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 4 Jul
Paris, FRA – 6 Jul
Monaco, MON – 19 Jul
London, GBR – 26-27 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 22 Aug
Zürich, SUI – 29 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 6 Sep
