News21 May 2019


Young stars set to shine in Oslo – IAAF Diamond League

FacebookTwitterEmail

USA's Sydney McLaughlin on the start line (© Getty Images)

Organisers of the Bislett Games have announced that three of the world’s most prodigious young athletics talents – all three of whom are among the IAAF's Gen 10 athletes for 2019 – will be at the IAAF Diamond League meeting on 13 June.

USA’s world U20 record-holder Sydney McLaughlin will line up for her first ever 400m hurdles race in the IAAF Diamond League.

Last year, at the age of 18, McLaughlin produced one of the greatest ever seasons by a US collegiate athlete, breaking her own world U20 400m hurdles record with 52.75, clocking 400m PBs of 50.07 outdoors and 50.36 indoors, and running 22.39 at 200m and a wind-assisted 11.07 for 100m.

Her first 400m hurdles race in Europe won’t be easy, though, as she’ll face Olympic Champion Dalilah Muhammad and European champion Lea Sprunger.

Another teenage sensation, Sweden’s 19-year-old Mondo Duplantis, heads a star-studded pole vault field. Duplantis, who recently cleared a season’s best of 6.00m, will be making his 2019 IAAF Diamond League debut in Oslo. The world U20 and European champion has a personal best of 6.05m, a height only one man in history has ever bettered outdoors.

Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen will also be making his international debut as a full-time professional athlete at the Oslo Bislett Games. The 18-year-old double European champion is currently finishing his high school exams, but will have completed them in time to contest the Dream Mile in Oslo.

Older brother Fillip, the 2016 European 1500m champion, will be among Jakob’s opponents in Oslo.

“We must continually invest in youth,” said meeting director Steinar Hoen. “They represent the building blocks that are the future of our sport.”

Organisers for the IAAF

Loading...