Sifan Hassan the all-rounder in the 5000m, a new clash in the 100m between Sha’Carri Richardson and Shericka Jackson, and Noah Lyles at the start of the 200m are among the expected highlights of the London meeting on Sunday, the last stopover of the Diamond League before the 2023 Worlds in Budapest (August 19-27).
Comfortable in the 1500m to the marathon – she won the very first one she ran at the end of April, in London precisely – Hassan herself cannot say what her favorite race is. “I don’t know,” she laughs when asked.
The unprecedented triple Olympic medalist from Tokyo (gold in the 5000m and 10,000m, plus bronze in the 1500m) tests herself on the intermediate distance, the 5000m, for her last race before the World Championships. What if she tries three again in the Hungarian capital in less than a month? “Maybe”, she makes the suspense last on the eve of the British meeting, back in London for the first time since 2019. “It does not scare me, I have already done it in Tokyo”, resumes Hassan, specifying that she will decide a few days before the deadline.
In the meantime, the 30-year-old Dutchwoman, so far undefeated this season, will have a lot to do on Sunday afternoon against the Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay and the Kenyan Beatrice Chebet, mounted on the first two steps of the world podium in 2022.
To follow in the 400m hurdles and 800m respectively, the Dutch Femke Bol and the Briton Keely Hodgkinson, each holder of the best world performance of the season (MPM). Rénelle Lamote, left ankle affected in May, continues her late recovery on the double lap.
Right a week after their clash in Chorzow (Poland) on the straight, and even for the third time of the summer season (with Doha in early May), Richardson and Jackson are doing it again in the London Olympic Stadium. The first two episodes turned in favor of the whimsical American.
Since then, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the five-time world champion in the 100m, has made her comeback, late because of a painful knee but convincing, on the queen race in 10 sec 82, which makes her the fourth best performer of the year. And the Jamaican rocket is expected in the evening in Madrid.
The three who are ahead of her in the 2023 balance sheets are measured on Sunday and have every interest in keeping up the pace: Jackson, holder of the MPM in 10 sec 65, and Richardson (10.71) therefore, as well as the Ivorian Marie-Josée Ta Lou (10.75). Both Fraser-Pryce and Jackson and Richardson are qualified in the 100m and 200m for the Worlds in Budapest.
Double reigning world champion in the 200m and holder of the MPM (19.67), Lyles has everything to stretch his invincibility started at the end of August 2021 over his favorite distance, especially since the competition has lightened since two other leading Americans, Erriyon Knighton and Fred Kerley, finally gave up lining up.
Invited to project himself on the upcoming Worlds, “to leave with three gold medals”, in the 100m, 200m and with the men’s 4x100m relay, “it’s a successful Budapest”, describes the 26-year-old sprinter. On 110 m hurdles, confrontation to follow in particular between the reigning Olympic champion, the Jamaican Hansle Parchment, and the reigning world champion, the American Grant Holloway.
Five years after his second world title on the same London track, and almost as much time after his serious right knee injury, will Wayde Van Niekerk go back for the first time under 44 seconds over 400m? The South African, 31 years old for a week, did not go far in Chorzow (44.08) last Sunday.
