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St Lucia’s sprint queen Julien Alfred, her American rival Sha’Carri Richardson and Olympic men’s 200m champion Letsile Tebogo headline a star-studded line-up of Paris Games stars at Thursday’s Diamond League meeting in Zurich.
This meeting is the last before the final which will take place on September 13 and 14 in Brussels.
AFP Sport looks back at five key events as athletes seek to book their place in these finals.
100m women
Julien Alfred won the first ever Olympic medal for his tiny Caribbean island homeland by claiming victory in the premier event in Paris, beating world champion Sha’Carri Richardson to silver.
Alfred, who won the world indoor 60m title in Glasgow in March, then won silver in the 200m to cement his place in sprinting legend.
Other favourites include Mujinga Kambundji, sixth in the Olympic final, and Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, who failed to qualify for the quarter-finals in the French capital.
200m men
Letsile Tebogo, 21, replicated Alfred’s 100m feat by winning Olympic gold in the men’s 200m.
It was the first victory by an African in the event and Botswana’s first Olympic gold medal, with Tebogo returning home to a rousing welcome that also presented him with two houses.
Tebogo, already ranked fifth in the all-time 200m rankings, will face American pair Kenny Bednarek and Fred Kerley in Zurich, each looking to add a Weltklasse victory to their Olympic silver and bronze medals.
5000m women
Beatrice Chebet made athletics history in Paris. In her Olympic debut, she became the only athlete to win gold in two individual events (5,000m and 10,000m) and the first Kenyan to win the longest track race.
A two-time Olympic champion, cross-country world champion and 5km road world champion, Chebet also holds the world records for the 10,000m and 5km road race.
In Zurich, Chebet will be able to count on pacemakers, Wavelight technology and a Letzigrund stadium filled to 30,000 seats, which should guarantee a very fast race.
1500m men
The men’s 1500m field is breathtaking, with the fastest and most successful runners of the season competing.
American Cole Hocker surprised everyone by winning gold in Paris, with the highly praised Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen paying the price for his suicidal early pace.
Ingebrigtsen eventually finished fourth, with world champion Josh Kerr taking silver and American Yared Nuguse taking bronze in a titanic race.
All four will be on show in Zurich, with Ingebrigtsen hoping to continue his momentum in Lausanne, where he won ahead of Hocker.
Men’s pole vault
You never say never with Armand Duplantis. The American-born Swede, better known by his nickname “Mondo,” is a totally dominant figure in the world of men’s pole vaulting.
After retaining his Olympic title in Paris with a world record, Duplantis improved that mark for a 10th time to 6.26 metres at the Diamond League meeting in Silesia last month.
The Swede will face the next four best jumpers of the season: Olympic silver medalists Christopher Nilsen (USA, 2021) and Sam Kendricks (USA, 2024), Asian champion Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines and Frenchman Thibaut Collet.
It is fair to say, however, that we will not be talking about Duplantis’ opponents, but rather about the Swede’s ability to go higher.
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