A slew of high-profile clashes and star-studded fields &ndash; featuring 13 individual Olympic champions &ndash; are set to light up Hayward Field for the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene on Friday (27) and Saturday (28).
The best of the lot is probably the women&rsquo;s 100m, where Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica goes up against world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji, world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith and US star Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson, who has a best of 10.72.
Thompson-Herah has had a low-key start to her outdoor season, withdrawing from a planned appearance in Birmingham last weekend in favour of competing in Kingston, where she clocked an impressive 10.94 into a strong wind (-1.8m/s). Also in the line-up are Marie-Josee Ta Lou, the 2019 world 100m bronze medallist, and Shericka Jackson, who ran 10.76 to earn Olympic 100m bronze in Tokyo. The field is completed by US duo Teahna Daniels and Twanisha Terry along with Jamaica&rsquo;s Briana Williams.
The men&rsquo;s 100m is also loaded, with US stars Christian Coleman, Trayvon Bromell, Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley taking to their marks alongside Canada&rsquo;s Andre De Grasse, the Olympic 200m champion. Kerley, the Olympic 100m silver medallist, made a strong start to his season with a 9.92 (2.0m/s) 100m in Nairobi and a runner-up finish over 200m in Doha in 19.75 (2.1m/s). 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61217f33a710d5a66df158fa.jpg" alt="Noah Lyles on his way to a 19.52 200m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene" />
Noah Lyles on his way to a 19.52 200m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene (&copy; Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
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 Coleman, the world 100m champion, clocked 10.09 (0.1m/s) to win in Tokyo earlier this month and will likely go much quicker here. Bromell opened his season with a wind-assisted 9.75 (2.1m/s) 100m in Jacksonville last month and will be keen to put the disappointment of last weekend in Birmingham &ndash; where he false started &ndash; firmly behind him.
The presence of rising star Erriyon Knighton &ndash; who clocked an astonishing world U20 200m record of 19.49 last month &ndash; is also sure to draw many eyes as the 18-year-old seeks to break 10 seconds for the first time. Botswana&rsquo;s Letsile Tebogo, the world U20 champion, is another 18-year-old to watch, having clocked a world U20 record of 9.96 (1.9m/s) last month. Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenneth Bednarek is also in the field.&nbsp;
The women&rsquo;s 200m will throw up an intriguing clash as the brilliant Bahamian Shaunae Miller-Uibo takes on Jamaican star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and USA&rsquo;s Brittany Brown. Miller-Uibo was some way off her best when finishing third in 51.84 over 400m in Doha recently, though as a 21.74-second performer at her best, her opponents know all about her ability at the half-lap distance.
Fraser-Pryce is better known for her 100m brilliance, but the 35-year-old has a PB of 21.79 at this distance and was the world champion over it back in 2013. Her 10.67 (-0.4m/s) in Nairobi earlier this month proved she&rsquo;s in flying form as she sets out to win her sixth individual outdoor world title this summer. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/631637f0-a162-4af5-8edb-84a86eacd94b.jpg" alt="Shaunae Miller-Uibo wins the 400m at the USATF Grand Prix in Eugene" />
Shaunae Miller-Uibo wins the 400m at the USATF Grand Prix in Eugene (&copy; Getty Images)
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 Brown, meanwhile, is the world silver medallist over 200m and the US star clocked a wind-assisted 10.66 (3.2m/s) for 100m last month. Also in the line-up are USA&rsquo;s Jenna Prandini, Tamara Clark, Cambrea Sturgis, Dezerea Bryant, along with Anthonique Strachan of The Bahamas and Kambundji, who will be back on her marks just 60 minutes after the 100m.
The men&rsquo;s 400m will see Kirani James of Grenada, the Olympic bronze medallist in Tokyo, take on a formidable line-up of US athletes including Michael Cherry, Michael Norman, Vernon Norwood and Kahmari Montgomery. Cherry, who was fourth in the Olympic final in Tokyo, is the fastest of them this year with the 44.28 he ran in Walnut, USA. Also competing is world indoor 400m champion Jereem Richards, along with Botswana&rsquo;s Isaac Makwala and Britain&rsquo;s Matthew Hudson-Smith.
The men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles will see Brazil&rsquo;s Alison Dos Santos start as the heavy favourite. The 21-year-old, an Olympic bronze medallist in Tokyo, clocked a world-leading 47.24 in Doha earlier this month. Also in the field are 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Yasmani Copello and Tokyo Olympic finalist Rasmus Magi.
The women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles sees Puerto Rico&rsquo;s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn take on a typically formidable horde of US contenders that includes world record-holder Kendra Harrison, who followed Camacho-Quinn home in Tokyo last year, and Nia Ali, the world champion.
Camacho-Quinn went close to Harrison&rsquo;s world record of 12.20 in Tokyo last year, clocking a Games record of 12.26 in the Olympic semifinal, and the 25-year-old tops the 2022 world lists with the 12.39 (-0.1m/s) she ran in Gainesville last month.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
The middle-distance races will bring together a host of all-time greats, and it will be no surprise if world records fall on the first evening of competition on Friday.
Following the staging of two 10,000m races that are part of the US Championships &ndash; which will determine selection for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 &ndash; there will be a women&rsquo;s two miles, a women&rsquo;s 5000m and men&rsquo;s 5000m.
Joshua Cheptegei takes centre stage in the 5000m, a separate race to the Diamond League 5000m that will be held the following day. With a slew of top-level pacers enlisted, the 25-year-old Ugandan will attempt to break his world record of 12:35.36, which he ran in Monaco in August 2020. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6238b509f74fd745cca6c77b.jpg" alt="Joshua Cheptegei races at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic" />
Joshua Cheptegei races at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic (&copy; Getty Images)
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 On Saturday afternoon, the majority of the rivals Cheptegei beat to win Olympic 5000m gold in Tokyo last year will line up for the Diamond League 5000m, where Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega of Ethiopia, Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, Olympic 5000m silver medallist Mohammed Ahmed of Canada and two-time Olympic 5000m medallist Paul Chelimo of USA are the main contenders. Ethiopia&rsquo;s Getnet Wale and Berihiu Aregawi are also sure to feature.
All eyes will be on Ethiopia&rsquo;s Letesenbet Gidey on Friday night as the 24-year-old aims to lower the women&rsquo;s 5000m world record of 14:06.62 that she set in Valencia in October 2020. Gidey has since added the 10,000m (29:01.03) and half marathon (1:02:52) world records and her chief opposition is likely to be the clock as she chases another historic mark. Also in the field are Ethiopians Fantu Worku and Ejgayehu Taye, along with Kenya&rsquo;s Winny Chebet and Teresiah Muthoni Gateri.
Elsewhere on Friday, the women&rsquo;s two miles should throw up a riveting duel between Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi. Hassan, the Olympic champion at 5000m and 10,000m, has not raced since last September so her form is a mystery, though she will have to be near her best to repel Niyonsaba, who edged two-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon to victory over 3000m in Doha recently, clocking 8:37.70. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6120b4524175b85d3e2f8da2.jpg" alt="Sifan Hassan on her way to a 5000m win at the Wanda Diamond League in Eugene" />
Sifan Hassan on her way to a 5000m win at the Wanda Diamond League in Eugene (&copy; Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
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 The world best of 8:58.58, set by Ethiopia&rsquo;s Meseret Defar in 2007, is sure to be under threat. Also in the field are Germany&rsquo;s Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Kenyan duo Beatrice Chebet and Edinah Jebitok.
Saturday&rsquo;s middle-distance action will be highlighted by the clash of Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, who renew their rivalry in the Bowerman Mile. Ingebrigtsen beat Cheruiyot for the first time in the Olympic final in Tokyo last year but the Kenyan turned the tables a few weeks later to win over 1500m at the Diamond League final in Zurich.
Both men will need to be primed, however, to beat Kenya&rsquo;s Abel Kipsang, who out-kicked Cheruiyot to win in Doha recently and who backed it up with 1500m victory in Birmingham last Sunday. Also in the line-up are Australia&rsquo;s Ollie Hoare, USA&rsquo;s Cole Hocker and 2017 world bronze medallist Filip Ingebrigtsen.
Faith Kipyegon will take on long-time rivals Laura Muir and Gudaf Tsegay in the women&rsquo;s 1500m, her season debut at her specialist distance. The 28-year-old Kenyan has not been beaten over 1500m since getting outbattled by Sifan Hassan in Rome last June, but she reversed that result emphatically in the Olympic final. Muir was impressive when kicking away to win in Birmingham in a modest 4:02.81 last weekend while Tsegay, the world record-holder indoors at 1500m, has not raced since winning the world indoor title in March.
The women&rsquo;s 800m sees world indoor champion Ajee Wilson of USA take on Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson of Britain, the latter arriving in Eugene after a highly impressive victory in Birmingham, where she clocked 1:58.63.
Wilson was equally as peerless when kicking to gold in Belgrade in March, though she was not quite at her best when finishing sixth over 600m at the Penn Relays last month in 1:25.87. Also in the field are world silver medallist Raevyn Rogers, world champion Halimah Nakaayi and Olympic finalists Natoya Goule and Jemma Reekie.
The women&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase sees Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai of Uganda renew rivalry with the woman who chased her home in Tokyo &ndash; USA&rsquo;s Courtney Frerichs &ndash; while world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech and 2017 world champion Emma Coburn are also in the field.
The men&rsquo;s shot put is likely to prove the pick of the field events, featuring a reunion of the three Olympic medallists in Tokyo: Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs and Tom Walsh. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/612189517914b62dafa0ac71.jpg" alt="Ryan Crouser at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene" />
Ryan Crouser at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene (&copy; Getty Images)
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 Crouser, the two-time Olympic champion and world record-holder, is sure to be tough to stop in his native Oregon, and he looked to have shrugged off the injury issues that plagued his indoor season when throwing 22.75m in Ponce, Puerto Rico, a fortnight ago. Kovacs comes in in good form after throwing 22.46m in Nashville last month, while Walsh will be keen to improve on the 21.60m he opened his season with last weekend. Also in the field is Zane Weir, who threw an Italian indoor record of 21.67m in March.
Mondo Duplantis will be the star attraction in the men&rsquo;s pole vault, the superlative Swede extending his win streak to nine events when clearing 6.02m indoors in Doha earlier this month. Having cleared an outright world record of 6.20m to win the world indoor title in Belgrade back in March, it will not be a surprise if big heights are again scaled on Saturday, though the cool, damp conditions that are forecast could interfere with that. Also in the line-up are Olympic silver medallist Christopher Nilsen of USA and 2012 Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie.
US star Valarie Allman, the Olympic champion, is the favourite for the women&rsquo;s discus and she should prove a class apart if reproducing anything close to the North American record of 71.46m she launched in San Diego back in April. Germany&rsquo;s Kristin Pudenz, the Olympic silver medallist, and Croatia&rsquo;s Sandra Perkovic, the two-time Olympic champion, look set to provide her toughest opposition.
Olympic medallists Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine and Nicola Olyslagers (nee McDermott) of Australia are the star names in the women&rsquo;s high jump. This is Mahuchikh&rsquo;s first competition since she soared over 2.02m to win the world indoor title in Belgrade in March &ndash; a feat made even more impressive given the 20-year-old had fled her home country due to the outbreak of war in the weeks before.
Olyslagers, who earned Olympic silver ahead of Mahuchikh in Tokyo, has just one competition to her name this year &ndash; winning the Australian title with 1.94m in April. Ukraine&rsquo;s Yuliya Levchenko and USA&rsquo;s Vashti Cunningham are also in the field.
The women&rsquo;s long jump will see world indoor champion Ivana Vuleta of Serbia take on Olympic bronze medallist Ese Brume of Nigeria and US star Tara Davis, with triple jump queen Yulimar Rojas opening her outdoor season in an event where she has a PB of 6.88m.
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

Insanely deep fields assembled for the Prefontaine Classic

Quality clashes at every turn in Eugene

Damian Warner may have earned the biggest accolade in the sport with his Olympic decathlon title last year, but his reign as king of combined events began long before that with his historic streak of victories at the Hypo Meeting in G&ouml;tzis.
The Canadian all-rounder will return to the World Athletics Combined Events Tour Gold meeting this weekend (28-29) in pursuit of a record-extending seventh victory. He&rsquo;ll take on a strong field that includes world champion Niklas Kaul and rising Swiss star Simon Ehammer, who pushed Warner all the way at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 earlier this year.
World champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, meanwhile, leads the heptathlon field. The Briton faces Olympic silver medallist Anouk Vetter, world indoor bronze medallist Kendell Williams and the returning Laura Ikauniece, among others.
Warner will be contesting his first decathlon of the year, but the vastly experienced 32-year-old rarely shows any sign of early season rust. He went into the World Indoor Championships off the back of just one low-key hurdles race, yet emerged from Belgrade with the gold medal and a national record of 6489, elevating him to No.2 on the world indoor all-time list.
He opened his outdoor season last month with a 49.07m throw in the discus, one of the best marks of his career, and a wind-assisted 20.63 run over 200m, which suggests his form is as good as it has been in the past 12 months &ndash; the same form that carried him to a 8995 victory in G&ouml;tzis last year and a 9018 triumph at the Olympics, making him just the fourth man in history to surpass 9000 points in the decathlon.
There may not be anyone else in the field who can match that overall score, but there are several athletes who&rsquo;ll push Warner in each individual discipline. Ehammer, for example, broke Warner&rsquo;s world decathlon best in the long jump earlier this month, soaring out to 8.30m en route to his triumph in Ratingen. The 22-year-old is also a strong sprint hurdler, so will likely be close to Warner in that discipline too. And the strong line-up in G&ouml;tzis could be just what Ehammer needs to improve on his recent Swiss decathlon record of 8354.
Kaul hasn&rsquo;t quite regained the form he showed when winning the world title in 2019 with 8691, but the 24-year-old has come relatively close to his PBs in the 110m hurdles, pole vault and long jump so far this year. Given the strength of the field, this is about as good a test as he&rsquo;ll get ahead of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
His German compatriots Arthur Abele and Kai Kazmirek are very much in the same boat when it comes to trying to recapture their best form. Abele, the European champion, last completed a decathlon back in September 2018. Kazmirek didn&rsquo;t finish in Ratingen earlier this month or at the World Indoor Championships, but he was seventh in G&ouml;tzis last year and went on to place 14th at the Olympics.
Warner&rsquo;s strongest opposition this weekend could come from his fellow Canadian Pierce LePage. The 26-year-old placed fifth at the 2019 World Championships and at last year&rsquo;s Olympics, scoring a PB of 8604. LePage, who finished second to Warner in G&ouml;tzis last year, set a discus PB of 51.38m last month and an indoor shot put PB of 15.81m earlier in the year, so appears to be in top form.
World silver medallist Maicel Uibo of Estonia and Lindon Victor of Grenada, both vastly experienced and formidable competitors, should also be in the mix this weekend. Meanwhile, world U20 champion Frantisek Doubek of the Czech Republic will contest the first senior decathlon of his career.
A lot has happened since Johnson-Thompson won her second Hypo-Meeting title in 2019.
The Briton won the world title a few months later, battled injuries for much of 2020 and 2021 but made it to the startline of the Olympic heptathlon in Tokyo and was competitive in the first three events, only for another injury to strike at the mid-way point of the competition, forcing her to withdraw. Since then, she has also relocated to the US to join a new training group.
She accepted a wildcard invitation to compete at the World Indoor Championships but ultimately wasn&rsquo;t quite at a point where she was competitive and so withdrew before the 800m. Her early season results outdoors have been a bit more promising, including a wind-assisted 6.41m leap at the recent Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham.
This weekend the 29-year-old hopes to achieve her first completed heptathlon since her World Championships victory almost three years ago, and she&rsquo;ll face a strong field.
Dutch duo Anouk Vetter and Emma Oosterwegel will be formidable opponents. Vetter, the Olympic silver medallist, has shown strong form in individual disciplines already this year, including wind-assisted marks of 13.16 in the 100m hurdles and 6.58m in the long jump, plus a 15.24m throw in the shot put.
Olympic bronze medallist Oosterwegel, meanwhile, ran a wind-assisted 13.44 in the 100m hurdles and threw well beyond 50 metres in the javelin last weekend. No Dutch athlete has ever won in G&ouml;tzis, but there&rsquo;s a chance that drought could end this weekend.
Ikauniece will also be one to watch. The 2015 world bronze medallist finished second to Johnson-Thompson in G&ouml;tzis in 2019 but was then forced to withdraw from the World Championships due to injury. She hasn&rsquo;t started a heptathlon since June 2019, but she returned to competition this year and recently threw 13.90m in the shot and 52.14m in the javelin, suggesting she&rsquo;s in good form ahead of this weekend.
Cuba&rsquo;s Yorgelis Rodriguez, like Johnson-Thompson, also crashed out of the Olympic Games last year, but she&rsquo;s usually a strong opponent in any heptathlon.
Poland&rsquo;s Adrianna Sulek and USA&rsquo;s Kendell Williams, the world indoor silver and bronze medallists respectively, will also be in action this weekend. Sulek recently won in Bydgoszcz with 6290 but she hopes to get closer to &ndash; or even beyond &ndash; the World Championships qualifying standard of 6420 this weekend. Williams, as the winner of the 2021 Combined Events Tour, has already got a wildcard entry for the World Championships.
Others to look out for include recent Multistars winner Annik Kalin of Switzerland, world U20 champion Saga Vanninen of Finland, Ireland&rsquo;s Kate O&rsquo;Connor and Britain&rsquo;s Holly Mills.
<h3>Leading entries</h3>
Women Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) 6981 Laura Ikauniece (LAT) 6815 Yorgelis Rodriguez (CUB) 6742 Anouk Vetter (NED) 6689 Kendell Williams (USA) 6683 Emma Oosterwegel (NED) 6590 Annik Kalin (SUI) 6398 Ekaterina Voronina (UZB) 6346 Vanessa Grimm (GER) 6316 Adrianna Sulek (POL) 6315 Kate O&rsquo;Connor (IRL) 6297 Sophie Weissenberg (GER) 6293 Odile Ahouanwanou (BEN) 6274 Saga Vanninen (FIN) 6271
Men Damian Warner (CAN) 9018 Niklas Kaul (GER) 8691 Arthur Abele (GER) 8605 Pierce LePage (CAN) 8604 Maicel Uibo (EST) 8604 Kai Kazmirek (GER) 8580 Lindon Victor (GRN) 8539 Simon Ehammer (SUI) 8354 Pawel Wiesiolek (POL) 8333 Tim Nowak (GER) 8229 Niels Pittomvils (BEL) 8222 Joseph Delgado (USA) 8161 Risto Lillemets (EST) 8156 Rik Taam (NED) 8107

Olympic decathlon champion Damian Warner and world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson lead the competitive fields

Warner seeks seventh victory, while Johnson-Thompson returns to Götzis

The Gran Premio Cantones de La Coru&ntilde;a will boast its usual star-studded line-up on Saturday (28) to confirm that the World Athletics Race Walking Tour Gold event, held on a one-kilometre circuit, is one of the key 20km competitions of the season.
Local aces &Aacute;lvaro Mart&iacute;n and Diego Garc&iacute;a, the European gold and silver medallists respectively, are among the favourites in the men&rsquo;s race. Martin won in La Coru&ntilde;a back in 2017 while Garc&iacute;a is the defending champion.
The duo has shown fine form in recent months. Garc&iacute;a, who was sixth at the Olympics last year, finished second over 10km in Madrid two weeks ago in 38:42. Mart&iacute;n, who was fourth at the Tokyo Games, was a convincing winner at the Iberoamerican Games in La Nucia last weekend, clocking 39:24.20 for 10,000m on the track.
But winning won&rsquo;t come easy for the Spanish pair as the field also includes four other top-10 finishers from the Olympics: Germany's Christopher Linke, China&rsquo;s Wang Kaihua and Zhang Jun, plus Britain's Callum Wilkinson.
Linke is one of the most consistent 20km specialists, having placed in the top five at the past four global championships, topped by his fourth-place finish in Doha in 2019. The 33-year-old, whose PB of 1:18:42 was set in La Coru&ntilde;a three years ago, was ninth in Madrid over 10km earlier this month and will be eager to bounce back on Saturday over his preferred distance.
Zhang placed fourth in Madrid while Wang, whose Chinese record of 1:16:54 places him third on the world all-time list, was 14th in the Spanish capital. Wilkinson, meanwhile, underwent knee surgery in late February and will be competing for the first time this season.
The Ecuadorian duo of Brian Pintado and David Hurtado should also be in the hunt for a top place. Pintado won in Rio Maior but failed to finish in Madrid. Hurtado, the 2018 world U20 silver medallist, was disqualified in Madrid but this weekend will return to the scene of his 1:20:37 PB.
Watch out too for Brazil's Caio Bonfirm, as the in-form Brazilian set a season's best of 1:18:54 last month in Podebrady and made the podium in Madrid.
Other notable athletes on show will be Italy's Francesco Fortunato, Spain&rsquo;s world U20 bronze medallist Paul McGrath, world and Olympic 50km bronze medallist Evan Dunfee, Olympic 50km fourth-place finisher Marc Tur, and China's Cui Lihong.
Four of the top seven finishers from last year&rsquo;s Olympics will clash in the women&rsquo;s race. World silver medallist Qieyang Shenjie, the winner here in 2018, will start as the favourite. The 31-year-old Chinese race walker will be chasing her third win of the year, following commanding victories in Dudince over 35km (2:43:06) and in Madrid over 10km (43:07). The 2012 Olympic champion boasts the fourth-fastest ever time with her 1:24:45 clocking set last year in Huangshan.
Colombia&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist Sandra Arenas, who finished ahead of Qieyang at the Tokyo Games last year, is the defending champion in La Coruna and will be looking to bounce back after a 1:34:27 performance in Melbourne two weeks ago.
Australia&rsquo;s Jemima Montag, the convincing winner of that race in Melbourne, will be competing outside of Australia for the first time this season. The 24-year-old, who was sixth at last year&rsquo;s Olympics, remains unbeaten this year in six outings topped by a 20km lifetime best of 1:27:27 in Adelaide and a world-leading 42:39.2 over 10,000m in Canberra in January.
Local star Mar&iacute;a P&eacute;rez should also play a key role on Saturday. The 26-year-old European champion, who missed an Olympic medal by eight seconds, has shown strong form this year with a national 5000m record of 20:28.17. She will be joined by her in-form compatriot Laura Garc&iacute;a-Caro, the newly-minted Iberoamerican 10,000m champion (43:33.72). The Spaniard beat Peru's Kimberly Garc&iacute;a (43:41:50) on that occasion, gaining revenge from the Peruvian who had defeated her in Madrid over 10km. Garc&iacute;a will line up in La Coruna too.
The course records belong to the Chinese pair of Wang Zhen, who clocked 1:18:00 in 2015, and Liu Hong with her stunning performance of 1:24:38, a mark that stood as a world record for six years.
Weather forecasters are predicting a sunny day with a light breeze and temperatures in the 22-24C range at race time.
Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics

One of the biggest 20km races outside of major championships

World’s best race walkers gather in La Coruña

Eight years since her first &ndash; and, so far, only &ndash; appearance at the Golden Spike, legendary US sprinter Allyson Felix will return to the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava on 31 May.
The 11-time Olympic medallist, who earlier this year announced that 2022 would be her final season as an athlete, will contest the 200m in the Czech city. Back in 2014 Felix won the 200m in Ostrava in 22.75 and then went on to win the Diamond League title, clocking a world-leading 22.02. Already this year the 36-year-old has set a season&rsquo;s best of 22.40 over 200m.
Jamaica&rsquo;s Candice McLeod leads a strong 400m line-up. The Olympic 4x400m bronze medallist, who finished fifth in the individual 400m at the Tokyo Games, will take on 2018 European champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic and her fellow Polish Olympic relay medallists Anna Kielbasinska and Natalia Kaczmarek, as well as Lada Vondrova of the Czech Republic.
These leading sprinters join a long list of global stars already announced for the meeting, including Gianmarco Tamberi, Miltiadis Tentoglou, Joe Kovacs, Tom Walsh, Femke Bol, Johannes Vetter, Anderson Peters, Jakub Vadlejch, Megan Tapper, Patryk Dobek, Nijel Amos, Lamecha Girma, Barbora Spotakova, Sara Kolak and Maria Andrejczyk.
Organisers for World Athletics

Multiple world and Olympic champion will contest the 200m

Felix returns to Ostrava

Jakub Vadlejch may not be aware, but the Czech thrower played a big part in Anderson Peters&rsquo; monumental 93.07m throw at the Wanda Diamond League opener in Doha.
The duo had battled through the competition with Peters taking an early lead with 88.96m, then Vadlejch responding with 89.87m. Peters briefly regained the lead with 90.19m, only for Vadlejch to snatch it back with 90.88m.
It was then that Peters noticed something.
&ldquo;I was throwing my javelin a bit flat,&rdquo; said Peters. &ldquo;But then when I saw Jakub threw it higher and got 90 metres, I thought &lsquo;let me try throwing it high&rsquo;.&rdquo;
He did. And it worked.
The Grenadian launched his spear high up into the Doha night sky. An expectant gasp from the crowd was soon followed by rapturous applause as the javelin punctured the ground at the far end of the infield.
The distance &ndash; 93.07m &ndash; flashed up on the scoreboard and Peters broke out into a celebratory dance, his victory confirmed, along with his fifth-place position on the world all-time list. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62840335535288967fae2729.jpg" alt="Javelin thrower Anderson Peters" />
Javelin thrower Anderson Peters (&copy; Christel Saneh)
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 Before the competition, though, the strong winds in the Qatari capital had been a cause of concern for most of the throwers.
&ldquo;I was really worried about throwing at first because when I went to the stadium the day before the competition, we were throwing into a headwind,&rdquo; said Peters. &ldquo;Then during the competition warm-up the javelin was going crazy and all the throwers were pretty worried about it. But when we got to the stadium they had switched it around, so the wind was in our favour. That was really good of the organisers to do that; we loved it.&rdquo;
The conditions may have been useful for some, but not every javelin thrower produced big marks in Doha. Olympic bronze medallist Vitezslav Vesely, 2016 Olympic champion Thomas Rohler and Sweden&rsquo;s Kim Amb were all some way off 80 metres.
&ldquo;It depends on the kind of thrower you are,&rdquo; explains Peters. &ldquo;Most javelin throwers prefer a wind from behind. When the wind catches the javelin, it allows it to glide a bit further.&rdquo;
Regardless, throwing well is not all about catching a good wind. It comes down to force, angles, technique &ndash; and, in this case, responding well to a challenge.
&ldquo;When the competition started, I felt good and I told myself &lsquo;let&rsquo;s get it&rsquo;,&rdquo; says Peters. &ldquo;I started with 88 metres and felt comfortable, then Jakub came along and threw 89 metres and then I was like, &lsquo;okay, now I really have to bring it&rsquo;.
&ldquo;I use a lot of visualisation techniques,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;When I&rsquo;m on the runway, I visualise how I want the javelin to fly. I also put a lot of linear force into my throw. I try to make sure that when it starts dying, it&rsquo;s already past the 80-metre line. Whatever distance you get, you know it&rsquo;s going to be good.&rdquo;
<h2>All corners of the world</h2>
For a long time, the javelin was dominated by European throwers &ndash; specifically Finns, Germans and Brits.
In more recent years, though, the event has opened up to other nations. In 2012, Trinidad &amp; Tobago&rsquo;s Keshorn Walcott won the Olympic title. Three years later, Kenya&rsquo;s Julius Yego earned world gold in Beijing. Peters was the winner of the world title in 2019, and last year India&rsquo;s Neeraj Chopra struck gold at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
It is now arguably one of the most universal throwing disciplines. And it could all be thanks to YouTube.
Yego, Peters, Walcott and Chopra all became keen students of their sport by watching videos of javelin greats. They may not have had access to leading European coaches during their formative years, but they had an internet connection, a willingness to learn, and a desire to become a great thrower. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/5bf7ba76-ab46-4aee-a295-4c95420c2739.jpg" alt="Grenadian javelin thrower Anderson Peters" />
Grenadian javelin thrower Anderson Peters (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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 When asked about the global appeal of the javelin, Peters has a simple response: &ldquo;I think people just like to see stuff go far. When you become a javelin thrower, you get seriously attracted to trying to make that thing go far, and you do everything you can do to achieve that.
&ldquo;I used to watch YouTube videos of the all-time greats like Jan Zelezny and I wanted to be like them, so then I started really working hard,&rdquo; he added.
&ldquo;The 2016 World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz was also a turning point for me. I won a bronze medal there, finishing behind Neeraj Chopra. I saw him throw 86 metres there and I felt like I could also do that.&rdquo;
Chopra, who achieved sporting superstardom and all-time great status after winning the Olympic title in Tokyo, now features in many online videos. Peters hopes that he, too, will start to enter the conversation.
&ldquo;I still watch videos on YouTube of the all-time best javelin throws and I&rsquo;ve always wanted to be part of it,&rdquo; says Peters. &ldquo;So now that I&rsquo;m fifth on the world all-time list, hopefully I&rsquo;ll start to feature in some of those videos.&rdquo;
<h2>Preparing for world title defence</h2>
Peters&rsquo; performance at the Olympic Games still weighs heavy on his mind.
An 80.42m throw in qualifying placed him 15th overall, not enough to advance to the final. Although he knew he wasn&rsquo;t at his best following prolonged rehab from knee surgery, Peters &ndash; as world champion &ndash; was hoping for much more.
And while he is very much focused on future goals, one of Peters&rsquo; first thoughts following his performance at the recent Diamond League meeting in Doha was one of &lsquo;what if&rsquo;.
&ldquo;My first throw here (in Doha) would have won Olympic gold in Tokyo, but I didn&rsquo;t even make the final there; I finished 15th,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I was really pissed. It motivated me a lot.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/5b24cb89-1a0b-45cb-895b-e1440b3f99ca.jpg" alt="Anderson Peters, world javelin throw champion at the IAAF World Championships Doha 2019" />
Anderson Peters, world javelin throw champion at the IAAF World Championships Doha 2019 (&copy; Getty Images)
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 His first goal was to get fully fit. Just 11 days after he won the world title in 2019, Peters underwent surgery on his knee. Part of the bone near to his kneecap was aggravating his IT band, so he had it operated on. Although the cause of the problem was rectified, his knee still wasn&rsquo;t at full strength for the whole of 2021.
&ldquo;But when I started training again in November last year,&rdquo; Peters says, &ldquo;it actually felt pretty good. And as soon as we got to January, I could feel it was finally back to normal again.&rdquo;
Since then, Peters has been training well back in Grenada with his long-term coach Paul Phillip.
&ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t expect things to be clicking immediately, but the hard work has already started to pay off,&rdquo; says Peters. &ldquo;I spoke to my coach after the competition (in Doha) and he wasn&rsquo;t expecting me to throw any farther than 89 metres. He was expecting 87-88 metres.&rdquo;
Peters will compete in a few more Wanda Diamond League and Continental Tour Gold meetings &ndash; including the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on 31 May &ndash; in the lead-up to the World Championships. His main goal, though, is to win at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m trying not to put myself under pressure,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There aren&rsquo;t many javelin throwers who have successfully defended their world title, so I&rsquo;m trying to become one of the few who has actually retained it.&rdquo; 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zjWv_R-RW14" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 Still only 24 years of age, Peters knows he&rsquo;ll have many more opportunities to compete at global championships. His Czech rivals Vadlejch and Vesely &ndash; and their coach Zelezny, the world record-holder &ndash; have shown that, with smart training, javelin throwers can enjoy a long and successful career.
&ldquo;Jakub is way older than I am, and he&rsquo;s still throwing far,&rdquo; said Peters. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s coached by Jan Zelezny and I respect him and Vitezslav as throwers; at championships you cannot count out these guys. At championships they go crazy, they&rsquo;re really good throwers. They&rsquo;re getting older, but it also seems like they&rsquo;re getting better.
&ldquo;Zelezny threw 85 metres at 40 years old. That&rsquo;s crazy. Jakub and Vitezslav (who threw 85.44m at age 38 to earn bronze in Tokyo) may even do better than that.
&ldquo;I know the potential is there to have a long successful career,&rdquo; adds Peters. &ldquo;The important thing is to stay healthy and stay focused.&rdquo;
When Peters won the world title back in 2019, some viewed it as something of a surprise &ndash; despite the fact that he had been undefeated for the whole year. He has started 2022 in much the same way, with a string of four victories so far.
Whether he maintains that streak up to and including the World Championships is of no real concern to Peters. He simply wants to make sure he advances to the final and then wins gold.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t care too much if people described me as a surprise winner back in 2019,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I went that whole year undefeated and threw a PB of 87.31m &ndash; that distance would have got me a gold medal at most major championships over the years.
&ldquo;It all comes down to what you can bring to the table on the day of the championships final. It doesn&rsquo;t matter what you did in qualification or earlier in the season; it&rsquo;s all down to what happens that day.
&ldquo;Everybody starts that day equal,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And the best on that day is going to win.&rdquo;
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

Anderson Peters is delighted to move to fifth on the world all-time list, but his main goal is to win gold in Oregon

One big throw for Peters, one small step towards Oregon

Valarie Allman has thrown the discus farther than any other woman in the past 30 years, but she is still taking her new fame out for a spin.
&ldquo;When I come to a meet and there&rsquo;s people that want to take pictures and I hear on the public address system, &lsquo;Olympic champion,&rsquo; then it really hits me,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Being an introvert, it&rsquo;s definitely a bit of a shock, but I feel like I&rsquo;m slowly starting to get the hang of it and figure it out.&rdquo;
The 27-year-old USA thrower added: &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s always going to feel like new territory.&rdquo;
Allman has been covering new ground in her sport since turning pro in 2019, a year that she said was &ldquo;kind of exploratory &mdash; faking it until you make it.&rdquo;
After placing seventh at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Allman set her first US record in August 2020 with a throw of 70.15m. She has since extended it twice, while also becoming the area record-holder and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist. Allman has posted 12 of the top 13 marks in US history in the past two years. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/613e5b2d201f7451b581d3cf.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman celebrates her winning throw at the ISTAF Meeting in Berlin" />
Valarie Allman celebrates her winning throw at the ISTAF Meeting in Berlin (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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In early April, the three-time national champion unleashed a toss of 71.46m, an improvement of 30cm over her personal best from last September. Allman has now thrown 5cm farther than two-time Olympic gold medallist Sandra Perkovic of Croatia did in 2017 and is the No.15 performer on the all-time list.
&ldquo;I think for a long time I kind of viewed myself as the workhorse, that when it came to training it was all about, &lsquo;How do I get the most out of it?&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s about being more like a racehorse. &lsquo;When I&rsquo;m in the ring, how do I execute at the best of my ability?&rsquo;&rdquo;
A former dancer who was lured into trying the discus by the promise of a spaghetti dinner at her Colorado high school, Allman is not shy about expressing her joy in her performances. She smiles, claps and jumps up and down after good throws.
Undefeated this season, Allman followed up her record throw eight days later by winning the USATF Golden Games at Mt SAC in California, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting. She had a stellar series, with her best toss of 69.46m on her fourth attempt, but didn&rsquo;t quite adjust to the wind. Allman went back to work knowing &ldquo;there&rsquo;s a lot more in the tank.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We know it&rsquo;s really close to something amazing,&rdquo; said her coach, Zebulon Sion, who was encouraged by her progress in April.
At the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on Saturday (21), Allman trailed Perkovic after the first throw. She then spun a 67.85m toss on her second attempt to pull ahead, although the Croatian came close with 67.26m on her final try.
&ldquo;In my trajectory over the past 10 years, I&rsquo;ve really looked up to Sandra Perkovic,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;She was the one that held that accolade for a long time of really resetting boundaries that hadn&rsquo;t been seen in decades. And to be in her company, someone that I&rsquo;ve looked to as a strong, competent, dominant female, it&rsquo;s quite special.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628cbc671a33bb84ae183f31.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman, Yaime Perez and Sandra Perkovic at the 2021 Diamond League meeting in Brussels" />
Valarie Allman, Yaime Perez and Sandra Perkovic at the 2021 Diamond League meeting in Brussels (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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They will face off again at the Prefontaine Classic this Saturday (28) in Eugene, Oregon, the site of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in July. Allman has two Diamond League meetings scheduled for June &mdash; Oslo and Paris &mdash; plus the US Championships, the qualifying meeting for the World Championships.
&ldquo;My biggest goal for this season is just really making Team USA proud at the World Championships when they&rsquo;re here in the United States,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;That would be a crowning achievement if I could bring home the gold, especially in front of my family on home soil.&rdquo;
But she won&rsquo;t stop there. Allman said the date marking 800 days to the 2024 Paris Games &ldquo;gave me goosebumps thinking that another Olympics is that close.&rdquo;
Just three years ago, imagining herself in this position &mdash; a medal favourite who is slightly disappointed whenever she doesn&rsquo;t top 70m &mdash; would have been &ldquo;crazy,&rdquo; Allman said.
&ldquo;Even seeing pictures of myself from my first year as pro in 2019, it&rsquo;s hard to recognise the same person that I see now and then,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a combination of all the adversity, the accolades, the hardships and the bond I&rsquo;ve built with Zebulon has really led to being able to step into a version of myself that I carry with a lot of pride.&rdquo;
Sion, who trains Allman in Austin, Texas, said the Stanford graduate is now an &ldquo;absolutely strong, fierce competitive, powerful woman&rdquo; compared to one who was &ldquo;a little more unsure in her skin and where she stacked up relative to those more dominant people at the time.&rdquo;
Their strategy was to normalise her rivals by facing them as often as possible. Allman gradually gained the same composure and poise she saw in them.
In 2021, Allman went into the Olympic Games with the second-best mark in the world of 70.01m behind Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands.
In Tokyo, Allman produced a prodigious opening throw of 68.98m, executing a strategy of dialling into her technique early that she and Sion had spent &ldquo;years in the making.&rdquo; That mark held up in the rain-marred competition for the victory. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610816980d0ccbdb8aada2cd.jpg" alt="Discus winner Valarie Allman at the Tokyo Olympic Games" />
Discus winner Valarie Allman at the Tokyo Olympic Games (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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While the Olympic gold medal obviously gave her confidence, Sion said Allman truly began to trust in herself and their training on the post-Olympic circuit, where she clinched the Diamond League title.
Knowing she thrived on routine when it came to nutrition, sleep and training, Allman felt anxious going into the European tour. &ldquo;To be able to produce some of my best throws that late in the season when the variables weren&rsquo;t quite as controlled definitely gave me a tonne of confidence about being able to head into new opportunities,&rdquo; Allman said, &ldquo;and knowing when adversity strikes that I have the tools to be able to handle it and perform well.&rdquo;
And yet even with so many accomplishments, Allman said one of her greatest strengths as an athlete is continuing to view herself as a novice. &ldquo;I definitely don&rsquo;t feel like the Olympic champion when we&rsquo;re out training,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m always chasing improvement.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We by no means as a team feel like we have everything figured out,&rdquo; Sion added.
They&rsquo;re both chasing something else, too. &ldquo;That big one,&rdquo; Allman said.
The world record of 76.80m was set by Gabriele Reinsch of East Germany in 1988. The top 54 throws in history are from the 1980s, a time now viewed with suspicion because of revelations about systematic doping in East Germany.
&ldquo;Any female that has thrown the discus over 70 metres, regardless of time period, takes intense focus and discipline and execution to be able to do it,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;I would never want to discredit anyone and assume that they were not a clean athlete, but based off the data that we know and the time period and the stories that we&rsquo;ve heard, I think we are doing something that&rsquo;s really special.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to keep trying to just get better and throw as far as I can so there never is a debate about clean and dirty. It&rsquo;s just one record that people really do respect at the end of the day.&rdquo;
However, to move up the world list Allman knows she needs a perfect throw.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the throw that everything has to come together on the right day and in the right environment to be able to make happen,&rdquo; she said. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61080f8dbf4f52b8b5bb648e.jpg" alt="Valarie Allman celebrates her discus win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games" />
Valarie Allman celebrates her discus win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (&copy; Getty Images)
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To this point, Allman and Sion haven&rsquo;t tried to focus on meetings known for windy conditions to enhance their chances. They&rsquo;ve opted for competitions where Allman can be pushed instead by great athletes.
&ldquo;I feel like honestly we&rsquo;re just getting started with the things that we think can continue to rewire the modern discus throw and the distance that yields,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;We really focus on power and speed and technique. To really work on continuing to climb up those record books, it&rsquo;s having all three of those things come together. You can&rsquo;t rely on one more than the other. It&rsquo;s having all three be at peak. It&rsquo;s definitely motivating.&rdquo;
Allman is also keen on rewiring the stereotype of women in her event and being a good role model.
&ldquo;When I was in high school and I joined the track team and first tried throwing, my friends couldn&rsquo;t help but make teasing remarks,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;As a female, it&rsquo;s tough to be pegged as doing something very masculine, especially when you are in a more adolescent phase. And there haven&rsquo;t been that many women who have really embraced their femininity in the sport on a big stage.
&ldquo;I fully support however anyone wants to come across and express their sexuality, express their confidence, express however they see themselves fit, but I think for me as a discus thrower there&rsquo;s something really elegant and graceful that I&rsquo;m hoping people can see in my technique &mdash; that you don&rsquo;t have to be that stereotype of bigger or heavyset to be able to have success. There are a lot of different body styles and technical models that can yield really great results.&rdquo; 
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 And Allman continues working on not getting thrown for a loop by fame. She&rsquo;s still incredulous about an incident from last summer. After winning the Olympic gold medal, Allman was able to chat with her family on camera through an NBC television connection. Her mother held up Allman&rsquo;s miniature Australian shepherd &mdash; named Oly, naturally &mdash; and using the dog&rsquo;s nickname said, &ldquo;Sugarbutt misses you.&rdquo;
When Allman arrived home from Tokyo, her family and Oly were waiting at the airport. &ldquo;Someone walked by and they go, &lsquo;Oh my gosh, is that Sugarbutt?&rsquo;&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;Someone recognised my dog and that took the cake.&rdquo;
A world title this year in Oregon, though, would be the icing.
Karen Rosen for World Athletics

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

Valarie Allman has thrown the discus farther than any other woman in the past 30 years, but she is still taking her new fame out for a spin.

After launching to new territory, Allman aims for more in Oregon

World 400m hurdles record-holder Karsten Warholm is to start his season at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rabat on 5 June.
The Norwegian last competed in September, at the end of a year that saw him win Olympic gold in a world record of 45.94 in Tokyo and claim the Diamond League title in Zurich.
The two-time world champion is now working towards a third consecutive crown at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in July and the next chapter begins at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athletisme de Rabat.
Warholm &ndash; who also claimed the Diamond League title in 2019 &ndash; decided not to compete in the Diamond League season opener in Doha, but is due to line up at his home meeting in Oslo on 16 June.&nbsp;
<h2>Thompson-Herah returns in top 100m field</h2>
After blazing a 10.54 100m at the Prefontaine Classic last year, Jamaica&rsquo;s five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah is to return to Eugene&rsquo;s Hayward Field as part of a stacked 100m line-up on Saturday (28). 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/612187db4c5a7049da430eb2.jpg" alt="Elaine Thompson-Herah runs a 10.54 100m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene" />
Elaine Thompson-Herah runs a 10.54 100m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Britain&rsquo;s world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith and Jamaica&rsquo;s Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson went head-to-head at last weekend&rsquo;s Birmingham Diamond League and will face each other again as they look to challenge Thompson-Herah in Eugene.
USA&rsquo;s Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson, who ran a 10.72 PB last year, also returns and they will be joined by multiple world medallist Marie-Josee Ta Lou, world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji, Briana Williams, Teahna Daniels and Twanisha Terry.
Kambundji will also be competing in the 200m, where she lines up alongside Thompson-Herah&rsquo;s fellow Jamaican sprint superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and two-time Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas.
After racing in Eugene, Fraser-Pryce will take to the Charlety Stadium track on 18 June where she will go up against Kambundji, Ta Lou and Dutch two-time world champion Dafne Schippers in the 100m at the Meeting de Paris.
Already announced for the event, which is the seventh stop in this season&rsquo;s Diamond League season, are Miller-Uibo and her fellow Bahamian Olympic 400m champion Steven Gardiner.
<h2>Jacobs heads to Oslo&nbsp;</h2>
Warholm will be joined by his fellow Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs when the Diamond League heads to Oslo's Bislett Games on 16 June.
The Italian has been announced for the 100m &ndash; the event in which he claimed Olympic gold in Tokyo last year &ndash; following his appearance at the Rome Diamond League a week earlier.
Entry lists for the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala in Rome have <a href="https://www.fidal.it/content/Jacobs-Oro-Puro-%E2%80%9CRoma-mi-%C3%A8-entrata-nel-cuore!%E2%80%9D/140639" target="_blank" rel="noopener">also been published</a>, with highlights including Gianmarco Tamberi against his fellow Olympic gold medallist Mutaz Barshim in the high jump, Jacobs in the 100m and Asher-Smith against Miller-Uibo in the 200m.

Top action in store as the Diamond League season continues to pick up pace

Warholm starts season in Rabat, Eugene names fierce 100m field

A javelin head-to-head between Johannes Vetter and Anderson Peters is among the top-class clashes announced for the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meetings in Hengelo and Turku next month.
Germany&rsquo;s 2017 world champion Vetter threw 97.76m in Chorzow in 2020 to record the second-best ever throw behind world record-holder Jan Zelezny&rsquo;s 98.48m from 1996. Grenada&rsquo;s 2019 world gold medallist Peters, meanwhile, threw 93.07m in Doha earlier this month to launch himself to fifth on the world all-time list.
After doing battle at the Golden Spike Ostrava on 31 May, the pair will meet again on 6 June at the FBK Games in Hengelo, where the meeting record of 83.90m looks set to fall.
Vetter and Peters have already been announced for the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku on 14 June, when they will also clash with India&rsquo;s Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra plus Germany&rsquo;s Andreas Hofmann and Julian Weber.
There will be some fierce action on the track in Hengelo, too, as Canada&rsquo;s Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse goes up against Jamaica&rsquo;s 2011 world 100m champion Yohan Blake in the shorter sprint.
In the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles, Dutch record-holder Nadine Visser will take on USA&rsquo;s world champion Nia Ali, while the women&rsquo;s 800m will feature a clash of global champions as Kenya&rsquo;s Olympic 1500m gold medallist Faith Kipyegon faces Uganda&rsquo;s world 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi.
As well as these stars, the FBK Games has already announced Dafne Schippers (100m), Femke Bol (400m hurdles), Lieke Klaver (400m), Liemarvin Bonevacia (400m) and world pole vault record-holder Mondo Duplantis.
Along with its world-class javelin contest, the Paavo Nurmi Games will feature a strong women&rsquo;s high jump field. Australia's Olympic silver medallist Nicola Dermott will jump against her compatriot Eleanor Patterson, plus Ukraine&rsquo;s Yuliya Levchenko and Iryna Gerashchenko and Finland&rsquo;s Ella Junnila.
In the women&rsquo;s pole vault, Finland&rsquo;s Wilma Murto competes on home soil against Ukraine&rsquo;s Maryna Kylypko and Yana Hladiychuk.

Top-class clashes have been announced for the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meetings in Hengelo and Turku next month.

Vetter and Peters to go head-to-head in Hengelo

Maybe you never noticed him before, but chances are you&rsquo;ve seen him &ndash; pitched in among the world&rsquo;s best marathoners, fighting against outrageous odds.&nbsp;
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir of Mongolia has never won a world or Olympic medal. He&rsquo;s never broken 2:08 for the marathon. He&rsquo;s never made the top 15 at a global championships.&nbsp;
But enough about what he&nbsp;hasn&rsquo;t&nbsp;done. Because what the 40-year-old&nbsp;has&nbsp;done is far more significant.&nbsp;
Since the 2003 World Athletics Championships, he&rsquo;s been ever-present at major championship marathons, 14 of them in total: Paris (63rd); Athens (74th); Helsinki (61st); Osaka (55th); Beijing (52nd); Berlin (29th); Daegu (19th); London (51st); Moscow (35th); Beijing (38th); Rio (91st); London (48th); Doha (54th) and Tokyo (DNF).&nbsp;
That last one &ndash; and those three dreaded letters &ndash; hurt like a stab wound, which is appropriate given what Bat-Ochir resorted to during the race (more on that later).
But what that disappointment in Sapporo &ndash; which he says sparked two months of depression &ndash; ultimately led to was a fresh resolve: to become the first athlete in history to contest six Olympic marathons if he can make it to Paris in 2024.&nbsp;
Bat-Ochir has run 74 marathons to date &ndash; he thinks &ndash; but he continues to epitomise the mantra made famous by former Boston Marathon champion Desiree Linden: keep showing up.&nbsp; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628b7a1c810ee419b954a0f0.jpg" alt="Ser-Od Bat-Ochir at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha" />
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha (&copy; Getty Images)
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At the&nbsp;World Athletics Championships Oregon22, he will show up for his 10th straight World Championships marathon. No one in his event has come close to that record, while across the entire sport only two race walkers &ndash; Portugal&rsquo;s Joao Vieira (11) and Spain&rsquo;s Jesus Angel Garcia (13) &ndash; have surpassed it.&nbsp;
But in the marathon, this most attritional of events, how has Bat-Ochir not burnt out after a period of world-class racing &ndash; 20 years &ndash; that forces so many others to fade away?
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s two things,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;One: I love to run, it&rsquo;s a real source of enjoyment. When I run long, I am happiest. The other is having my wife there with me. She&rsquo;s been acting as a functional coach for 17 years. Having her watching me, having my back, makes it all worthwhile.&rdquo;
If Mongolia seems like a place that doesn&rsquo;t produce many world-class distance runners, well, there&rsquo;s a good reason. In winter, temperatures might rise to&nbsp;-15&deg;C/5&deg;F on a good day. At night, they can drop to -40&deg;C/-40&deg;F.
For Bat-Ochir, the only way to train for much of the year was by doing long, steady runs, with interval training impossible given the conditions. In those icy months, he&rsquo;d cover himself in four or five layers and head out on the freezing roads, arriving back to his car an hour or two later &ndash; the engine left running to ensure an immediate source of warmth.&nbsp; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628b7ae2ab0172d6004d188a.jpg" alt="Mongolia's Ser-Od Bat-Ochir carries his country's flag at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London" />
Mongolia's Ser-Od Bat-Ochir carries his country's flag at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London (&copy; Getty Images)
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He grew up in&nbsp;Govi-Altai&nbsp;&ndash; a region in the west of Mongolia that sits at about 2000m of altitude &ndash; and his family moved to the capital, Ulaanbaatar, when he was 12.&nbsp;
Bat-Ochir discovered running in elementary school, winning his first race at a sports day. &ldquo;Ever since then, it&rsquo;s what I wanted to do,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;
He took the sport seriously from the age of 14, competing in middle-distance races on the track (which was a 400m oval with a hard, paved surface).&nbsp;
&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t very good but during the Sydney Olympics, I watched the marathon and I really liked running long,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So I said I&rsquo;d target the marathon in the next Olympics.&rdquo;
He made his marathon debut in 2002. A year later, he lined up at the World Championships in Paris, clocking 2:26:39 to hack 10 minutes off the Mongolian record. Given where he came from, there was no real template for what he was doing, Bat-Ochir just figuring it out as he went along.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know how to train,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When I started, there wasn&rsquo;t much history but once I ran some marathons I started thinking: &lsquo;How can I take the next step to move up?&rsquo;&rdquo;
He competed at his first Olympics in Athens in 2004, clocking 2:33:24 to finish 74th, but getting to a second Games in Beijing required a significant improvement.
&ldquo;The qualifying time was around 2:14 and everybody was telling me, &lsquo;Mongolians can&rsquo;t run marathons; you can&rsquo;t run that time.&rsquo; Paula Radcliffe ran 2:15 a few years before and everyone was telling me: &lsquo;You can&rsquo;t even run what the women are running. How are you going to run 2:14?&rsquo; But I kept working on it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
He ran 2:14:15 in 2008 to qualify for the Games, then lowered his national record to 2:12:35 in 2010 and 2:11:35 in 2011. At the Daegu World Championships in 2011, he produced his best ever finish at global level, 19th, and the following year he took the national record down to 2:11:05.&nbsp; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628b7c67ab0172d6004d1890.jpg" alt="Ser-Od Bat-Ochir in the 2012 Olympic Games marathon in London" />
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir in the 2012 Olympic Games marathon in London (&copy; Getty Images)
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Between 2009 and 2012, Bat-Ochir spent much of his time in the UK, where his wife&rsquo;s sister and her husband lived. Keen to find a training group, he reached out to Morpeth Harriers, where he earned the nickname &lsquo;Ziggy&rsquo; &ndash; an Anglicised, pop-culture take on his Mongolian nickname &ndash; which was coined by club secretary Mike Bateman.&nbsp;
In 2014 he moved to Japan, starting a new chapter by running professionally for the NTN Corporate Team. In December that year, he lowered the Mongolian record to 2:08:50 and in the years that followed he kept showing up at every major championship &ndash; no matter what came his way in preparation.
He had injury issues before the Rio Games in 2016, which worsened in 2018 and 2019, the problems stemming from the training he was doing at the insistence of his corporate team coach.&nbsp;
He qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a 2:09:26 clocking in Lake Biwa in February last year, and Bat-Ochir was in flying form ahead of the Games. His last training camp was in&nbsp;Chitose, Japan,&nbsp;but that was where things went downhill.&nbsp;
Bat-Ochir was staying in an old hotel with air conditioning that he couldn&rsquo;t control, its sporadic nature meaning the room temperature alternated between flaming and freezing throughout the night. He soon came down with an infection, which led to a fever that lasted three days.&nbsp;
&ldquo;When I recovered, I just didn&rsquo;t feel right,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;All my strength, all my power, was gone.&rdquo;
He had to try, though.&nbsp;
In the Olympic marathon in Sapporo Bat-Ochir set off strongly, but after 14km he felt his quads stiffen, which led him to seek an unusual, don&rsquo;t-try-this-at-home solution. &nbsp;
&ldquo;I was having trouble lifting my legs and so I took one of the safety pins off my bib and poked or stabbed my quad muscles with it two or three times on each leg,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;That actually served to loosen up the muscles and I was able to keep going.
&ldquo;But by the time I got to 30km I was completely dead and couldn&rsquo;t keep going at all. That was where my Olympics came to an end.&rdquo;
He went through a dark period in the months after, but it was his wife,&nbsp;Oyuntuya, who pulled him out of it.&nbsp;
&ldquo;She told me: &lsquo;You have to turn this around, to set the next goal. It&rsquo;s not over yet.&rsquo; I made the decision to go for the Paris Olympics, to renew everything and work towards it.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628b7c4dab0172d6004d188d.jpg" alt="Ser-Od Bat-Ochir competes at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing" />
Ser-Od Bat-Ochir competes at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing (&copy; Getty Images)
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With his NTN contract at an end, Bat-Ochir sought the help of his representative, Brett Larner, in finding a new sponsor. Larner knows the Japanese running scene as well as anyone, and he linked him up with a friend of a friend who ran a solar panel installation company,&nbsp;Shin Nihon Jusetsu Co., Ltd, which was expanding its sponsorship of athletes.&nbsp;
The company will now support him all the way to the Paris Olympics, giving Bat-Ochir &ndash; who has four children:&nbsp;Jambaldorj (19), Nomin-Od (12), Naran-Od (6) and Uran-Od (2)&nbsp;&ndash; the backing to keep chasing his dream.&nbsp;
He&rsquo;s currently logging 150-200km per week as he prepares for his next major championships, and his goal in Eugene is to surpass his 19th-place finish in Daegu.&nbsp;
Whenever his competitive days are done, Bat-Ochir plans to transition into coaching in the Japanese corporate system, but right now that day seems far away.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Even when I can&rsquo;t be competitive, I&rsquo;ll keep running as an amateur,&rdquo; he says.
And the reasons he&rsquo;ll run for then will be the same reasons he ran for in the beginning &ndash; when he was a child in western Mongolia, willing to set off on a road less travelled.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll run for my own enjoyment, health and peace of mind,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll keep doing whatever I can, as long as I can.&rdquo;
Cathal&nbsp;Dennehy for World Athletics

Since the 2003 World Championships, Ser-Od Bat-Ochir has been ever-present at major championship marathons.

Mongolia's marathon stalwart Bat-Ochir remains in it for the long run

Polish middle-distance runner Marcin Lewandowski has announced his retirement from athletics.
The 34-year-old won 10 medals at world and continental level across a span of 12 years. His collection includes the 2010 European 800m title and the 2019 world 1500m bronze medal.
Lewandowski posted the news on his Instagram account earlier this week, explaining that a disrupted build-up to his outdoor season meant he was not in shape to challenge for medals at this year&rsquo;s major championships.
&ldquo;After my daughter's accident during her rhythmic gymnastics class [just before the World Indoors], I decided to stay at home until Midia was fully recovered,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;Due to the fact I did not have the opportunity to train abroad, I was not able to prepare properly to defend my bronze medal from the World Championships and my silver from the European Championships and I am not interested in places outside the podium.
&ldquo;Was it a difficult decision? I didn't even think for a second because family is the priority. It was the same when I pulled out of the World Indoor Championships even though I was in great shape.
&ldquo;It was a beautiful 16 years of running &ndash; an amazing adventure that is now over. Something ends and something begins because in November I will become a dad again.&rdquo;
Lewandowski first made a name for himself as an 800m runner, placing fourth at the 2006 World U20 Championships and then winning the 2007 European U20 title. He reached the Olympic semifinals in his first year as a senior athlete in 2008, then made it to the World Championships final in 2009.
He landed European gold in 2010, following it with silver at the 2011 European Indoor Championships and fourth-place finishes at the 2011 and 2013 World Championships. After winning the 2015 European indoor 800m title, Lewandowski earned European silver in 2016 and went on to place sixth at the Olympic Games later that year, but then started to switch his focus to the 1500m.
His tactical prowess and strong finishing speed meant he was a formidable opponent at major championships. He won the 2017 European indoor title, then placed sixth in the 1500m at the 2017 World Championships later that year. In 2018 he won his first global medal when taking 1500m silver at the World Indoor Championships. He earned the same colour medal at the 2018 European Championships.
Lewandowski retained his European indoor 1500m title in 2019, then went on to earn his first and only outdoor global medal in 2019, placing third at the World Championships in Doha. His most recent podium finish was his 1500m silver at the 2021 European Indoor Championships.
Although best known as a championship performer, Lewandowski clocked several speedy performances throughout his career. He holds the Polish indoor and outdoor records for 1000m (2:14.30 / 2:17.67), 1500m (3:30.42 / 3:35.71) and the mile (3:49.11 / 3:56.41).

The 34-year-old won 10 medals at world and continental level across a span of 12 years

Two-time global medallist and four-time continental champion Lewandowski retires

USA&rsquo;s Janee Kassanavoid moved up to sixth on the world all-time list after winning the hammer with 78.00m at the USATF Throws Fest &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting &ndash; in Tucson on Saturday (21).
The 27-year-old led from the outset, but was pushed all the way by US compatriot Brooke Anderson. Kassanavoid opened with 74.88m, then improved to a PB of 77.17 in round two. Anderson started with a foul, but threw 75.25m in the second round. Kassanavoid, keeping composed under pressure, then sent her hammer out to 78.00m in the third round. Andersen followed it with 77.75m just minutes later.
Neither athlete improved in the final three rounds, though Kassanavoid produced a 75.01m effort in round five. Andersen&rsquo;s 77.75m is the best ever mark for a runner-up place in a women&rsquo;s hammer competition.
As well as moving to sixth on the world all-time list, Kassanavoid climbs to third on the US all-time list behind world champion DeAnna Price (80.31m) and Andersen (79.02m). It also means the USA could potentially send three 78-metre throwers to the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 &ndash; depth that no other country has so far been able to manage in this event.
The men&rsquo;s hammer in Tucson was similarly competitive with US champion Rudy Winkler winning with 78.51m from Mexico&rsquo;s Diego del Real (78.26m) and USA&rsquo;s Daniel Haugh (77.94m).
In a close women&rsquo;s shot put competition, world silver medallist Danniel Thomas-Dodd threw 19.53m in round four to move from third place to first, overtaking Canada&rsquo;s Sarah Mitton (19.47m) and US champion Jessica Ramsey (19.38m).
Elsewhere in Tucson, 2017 world champion Tom Walsh won the men&rsquo;s shot put with 21.60m, Sam Mattis took the men&rsquo;s discus with 68.69m, and Olympic silver medallist Chris Nilsen topped the pole vault with 5.80m.
<h2>Seville sizzles 9.86</h2>
It takes a lot to steal the headlines from Jamaica&rsquo;s triple Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah on home soil, but Oblique Seville&rsquo;s 9.86 run in the men&rsquo;s 100m at the Jubilee Series in Kingston outshone his compatriot&rsquo;s sprint double.
Seville, who earlier this month set a 100m PB of 10.00, ran a controlled-looking 10.40 into a -3.1m/s headwind in his heat. The wind had settled to a far kinder 0.2m/s wind for the final and Seville made the most of it, charging away from his rivals to win in 9.86. Conroy Jones was a distant second in 10.14.
Seville now moves to equal 24th on the world all-time list &ndash; tied with the likes of Carl Lewis, Frank Fredericks and Ato Boldon &ndash; and sixth on the Jamaican all-time list.
Thompson-Herah, who had withdrawn from the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham as a precaution, made a last-minute decision to compete and showed no sign of injury niggles when winning the 100m in 10.94 into a -1.8m/s headwind. She followed it with a comfortable 22.55 (-0.7m/s) win in the 200m.
Elsewhere in the Jamaican capital, Candice McLeod won the 400m in 50.58 and Rasheed Broadbell took the men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles in 13.36 (0.4m/s).
<h2>Obiri runs 30:15 in Manchester</h2>
Kenya's two-time world 5000m champion Hellen Obiri won the Great Manchester Run 10km in 30:15 on Sunday (22), while Britain's Eilish McColgan broke&nbsp;Paula Radcliffe's long-standing European record with&nbsp;30:19.
Obiri improved her PB by 29 seconds with the mark, which is faster than the ratified women-only world record of 30:29 set by Morocco&rsquo;s Asmae Leghzaoui in 2002. However, there is a women-only world 10km record of 30:01 achieved by the late Agnes Tirop last September that is pending ratification.
McColgan's&nbsp;30:19 for second place in Manchester takes two seconds off the ratified outright women's European record, which was a world record when Radcliffe set it in 2003.
Kenya's world marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich finished third in a PB of 30:29.
New Zealand's Jake Robertson won the men's race in 28:06 ahead of Australia's Jack Rayner (28:16) and Spain's Antonio Abadia (28:22).

Oblique Seville runs 9.86 in Kingston

Kassanavoid climbs to No.6 all time with 78.00m hammer throw

Kristjan Ceh and Malaika Mihambo led some fierce field performances at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on Saturday (21), while some top track battles also set the tone for the season ahead.
Four meeting records fell and six world leads were set on a busy afternoon of action at the newly renovated Alexander Stadium, which will welcome fans again later this year for the Commonwealth Games.
All three Tokyo medallists were in action in the men&rsquo;s discus but it was Slovenia&rsquo;s Ceh who stole the spotlight this time. The 23-year-old had a breakthrough 2021, improving his PB to 70.35m and finishing fifth on his Olympic debut. But the European U23 champion started another chapter in his success story in Birmingham, launching the implement 71.27m to improve his best by almost a metre and move to 10th on the world all-time list.
That world-leading third-round throw broke the Diamond League record and Ceh's&nbsp;own Slovenian record to cap an impressive series that also featured marks of 69.33m, 69.10m, 66.77m, 65.28m and 63.11m. Four of his top throws would have been enough to win in a contest that saw Lithuania&rsquo;s 2017 world champion Andrius Gudzius secure the runner-up spot with 66.40m and Sweden&rsquo;s Olympic and world champion Daniel Stahl finish third with 65.97m.
"Well, that was totally unexpected," said Ceh. "To get a world lead, national record, meeting record and Diamond League record is amazing. To get a PB was my first goal of the season, so now I need to raise the bar of my goals."
Mihambo enjoyed a similarly dominant performance in the women&rsquo;s long jump, soaring a world-leading meeting record of 7.09m (0.0m/s) to start her season in style and finish top in a world-class field. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62891d5c305a457f070b8ae2.jpg" alt="Malaika Mihambo in the long jump at the Wanda Diamond League in Birmingham" />
Malaika Mihambo in the long jump at the Wanda Diamond League in Birmingham (&copy; Diamond League AG)
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Germany&rsquo;s Olympic, world and European champion spent the winter working on her speed and it seems to have paid off as she achieved her furthest leap since 2019 &ndash; the year she set her PB of 7.30m when winning world gold in Doha.
She will now look to build on that in a season where she has the chance to defend her world crown in Oregon in July and European title on home soil in Munich in August.
Mihambo&rsquo;s 7.09m came in the fourth round of the competition and she backed it up with a wind-assisted 7.06m (3.0m/s), plus jumps of 6.78m and 6.56m. Ukraine&rsquo;s world silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk was back in long jump action after claiming triple jump silver at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade and then finishing second in that discipline at the Diamond League opener in Doha. She again secured the runner-up spot, jumping 6.66m (0.8m/s), while Britain&rsquo;s world indoor bronze medallist Lorraine Ugen was third with 6.65m (1.4m/s).
Valarie Allman was another Tokyo Olympic champion to finish on top in Birmingham, winning an exciting women&rsquo;s discus contest. After claiming her Olympic crown last year, the US thrower has picked up from where she left off in 2022 and continued her strong start to the season on Saturday.
The 27-year-old threw 71.46m in San Diego last month to add 30 centimetres to her own North American record and move to 15th on the world all-time list. She followed that with 69.46m a week later in California and in Birmingham she triumphed with her second-round throw of 67.85m.
Her unbeaten season looked like it may be under threat when Croatia&rsquo;s Sandra Perkovic responded strongly in the final round, but it wasn&rsquo;t quite enough to pip Allman. The multiple global gold medallist recorded 67.26m to comfortably secure the runner-up spot ahead of USA&rsquo;s Laulauga Tausaga with 60.80m.
Field event drama also featured in the women's pole vault, where a last-gasp clearance of 4.73m saw USA&rsquo;s Sandi Morris improve her own world lead by a centimetre. The two-time world indoor champion needed two attempts at 4.45m, 4.55m and 4.65m but triumphed when she soared clear at 4.73m at the last time of asking. Rio Olympic gold medallist Katerina Stefanidi of Greece and Slovenia's world indoor bronze medallist Tina Sutej both managed 4.65m on their first try but finished joint second when they were unable to make it over the eventual winning height.
The men's high jump ended in delight for&nbsp;Canada&rsquo;s Commonwealth bronze medallist Django Lovett, as he saw off the challenge of Italy&rsquo;s Olympic gold medallist Gianmarco Tamberi. Lovett cleared 2.28m on his first attempt, while Tamberi took second place on countback when he leapt 2.25m, the same height as Poland&rsquo;s Norbert Kobielski. 
<h2>Parchment prospers</h2>
Hansle Parchment has been encouraged by his coach to target the Commonwealth Games in August and should he follow that plan then he will return to the Alexander Stadium with some happy memories.
Going head-to-head with his Jamaican compatriot and fellow Olympic gold medallist Omar McLeod, the Tokyo champion ran a world lead of 13.09 (0.2m/s), with Rio Olympics winner McLeod second in 13.17. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62891dbc293c18734b3085e1.jpg" alt="Omar McLeod battles with eventual winner Hansle Parchment in the 110m hurdles in Birmingham" />
Omar McLeod battles with eventual winner Hansle Parchment in the 110m hurdles in Birmingham (&copy; Getty Images)
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&ldquo;I am pleased with a world lead, but it is very early in the season so you can&rsquo;t read too much into it at the moment,&rdquo; said Parchment. &ldquo;It was a great turnout here, more than I expected, and there will be even more here at the Commonwealth Games with perhaps more Jamaicans making some noise and bringing their own vibes!&rdquo;
There was certainly lots of noise for the women&rsquo;s 100m, with home star Dina Asher-Smith taking to the track. Lining up as part of a strong field, the British record-holder delighted the fans with her win, but it was close. Running 11.11 (01.m/s) in her first 100m since September&rsquo;s Diamond League final in Zurich, she pipped Jamaica&rsquo;s Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson by 0.01.
Asher-Smith&rsquo;s British Tokyo Olympic bronze medal-winning 4x100m teammate Daryll Neita was third, just another 0.02 behind.
&ldquo;Being British, I wanted to come to Birmingham in this beautiful new stadium and put on a show,&rdquo; said Asher-Smith. &ldquo;There was a very strong field. I could have done a few things differently if I am being picky, but I'm very happy to win in this temperature and against this field.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62891de9293c18734b3085e4.jpg" alt="100m winner Dina Asher-Smith in Birmingham" />
100m winner Dina Asher-Smith in Birmingham (&copy; Getty Images)
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Asher-Smith and Neita returned to the track an hour and a half later to form part of Britain&rsquo;s meeting record-breaking 4x100m team. Combining with Beth Dobbin and Imani Lansiquot, they clocked a world lead of 42.29, while the men&rsquo;s relay was won by Canada in 38.31.
That Canadian 4x100m team featured Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney and Andre De Grasse and it capped a busy but successful afternoon for Brown, who finished second in the B 100m before winning the A race and then the relay.
After his 10.23 in the B race, Brown ran 10.13 (-0.2m/s) to win an A race missing USA&rsquo;s 2016 world indoor 60m champion Trayvon Bromell and Britain&rsquo;s Zharnel Hughes through false starts. Jamaica&rsquo;s Yohan Blake was second in 10.18, Blake third in 10.20 and Olympic 200m champion De Grasse fourth in 10.24.
&ldquo;Originally I was just coming to do the relay and then it just so happened I asked to get in the 100m and they put me in the B race,&rdquo; said Brown. &ldquo;Then the A race opened up so I did all three and it paid off.&rdquo;
In a 400m hurdles clash featuring five of the Tokyo Olympic finalists it was USA&rsquo;s silver medallist Dalilah Muhammad who cruised to victory.
The world champion and former world record-holder opened her season in her specialist event with 53.88 in Des Moines at the end of April but this time it was all about getting the win. Edging ahead early on, the 32-year-old continued to move away from her rivals and crossed the finish line for victory in 54.54.
Ukraine&rsquo;s Olympic sixth placer Viktoriya Tkachuk secured second in 55.25, just ahead of her compatriot Anna Ryzhykova, the Olympic fifth-place finisher.
Like Asher-Smith in the women&rsquo;s 100m, local favourite Matthew Hudson-Smith was also hoping to put on a good show for the home fans. The European champion, who runs for the host club Birchfield Harriers, did just that by winning the 400m in 45.32 ahead of USA&rsquo;s Bryce Deadmon (45.51). 
<h2>Home wins for Hodgkinson and Muir, meeting record for Seyaum</h2>
All eyes were on Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson in the 800m as she returned to action for the first time since withdrawing from the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade through injury.
The British record-holder claimed a winning comeback, clocking 1:58.63 as she led from start to finish and won ahead of Renelle Lamote of France, competing for the first time since the Tokyo Games. Lamote also dipped under two minutes with 1:59.53, while Jamaica&rsquo;s Natoya Goule was third in 2:00.13.
Hodgkinson will next compete at Saturday's Diamond League meeting in Eugene, where she will go head-to-head with USA's Olympic champion Athing Mu.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62891d7f305a457f070b8ae5.jpg" alt="Keely Hodgkinson on her way to 800m victory in Birmingham" />
Keely Hodgkinson on her way to 800m victory in Birmingham (&copy; Diamond League AG)
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Laura Muir was also roared to a win on home soil in the women&rsquo;s 1500m, Britain&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist clocking 4:02.81 to hold off the challenge of Australia&rsquo;s Jessica Hull.
Pacemaker Ellie Sanford led the field through 400m in 1:04.66 and 800m in 2:09.64, with Muir and Hull right behind her. Muir forged ahead as Sanford left the track, with Hull on her shoulder. But Muir kicked with 150m to go to secure victory as she returned to 1500m racing for the first time since the Prefontaine Classic last August.
Hull, also making her season debut in the 1500m, ran 4:03.42 to finish two seconds ahead of Kenya&rsquo;s Winny Chebet (4:05.56).
The meeting record fell in the women&rsquo;s 5000m, the 2016 world indoor 1500m silver medallist Dawit Seyaum leading an Ethiopian top three with her world-leading time of 14:47.55 ahead of Hawi Feysa (14:48.94) and Fantu Worku (14:49.64).
The field followed the pacemaker through the first kilometre mark in 2:56.85 and&nbsp;Worku led through 3000m in 9:02.90. She remained to the fore until the final lap when&nbsp;Seyaum kicked away to win in her first ever track 5000m.
Kenya&rsquo;s Abel Kipsang went into the men's 1500m as the world leader and he proved the best in Birmingham, too, running 3:35.15 to triumph ahead of Spain&rsquo;s Mohamed Katir (3:35.62) and Australia&rsquo;s Ollie Hoare (3:35.76). It continues&nbsp;Kipsang's unbeaten season, following his 3:31.01 win in Nairobi and victory in Doha.
It was Canada&rsquo;s Marco Arop who kicked to victory in the men&rsquo;s 800m, to defeat a field featuring two Tokyo Olympic medallists. The world finalist had followed the pack through 400m in 50.49 and then made a move with 200m to go, surging ahead to win in 1:45.41.
Benjamin Robert of France won the fierce battle for the runner-up spot, clocking 1:46.22 just ahead of USA&rsquo;s Bryce Hoppel (1:46.33), Britain&rsquo;s Jake Wightman (1:46.39), Poland&rsquo;s Olympic bronze medallist Patryk Dobek (1:46.63) and Kenya&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist Ferguson Rotich (1:46.64).
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Kristjan Ceh and Malaika Mihambo led some fierce field performances, while some top track battles also set the tone for the season ahead.