Alkass Digital
Zurich - Mutaz Essa Barshim will be back to the high jump competition at the 11th Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season at Weltklasse Zurich on Thursday , August 31, aiming to return to top form ahead of the Asian Games.
The thrice world champion and Olympic champion Qatari, who settled for a silver at the recent World Championships in Budapest, will renew his rivalry with Gianmarco Tamberi. The Italian Tamberi found his best form of the year at exactly the right time in Budapest and will take that momentum into Zurich.
Barshim won the Diamond League event in Poland recently after the Doha leg in May earlier this year, and finished second in London.
Barshim has won the Diamond League trophy three times and will look to further his good run this season.
Speaking at the press conference on the eve of Zurich meet, Tamberi said, “We are all here to perform at our best but for me it’s not easy because it’s difficult to sleep after you won a gold medal in the World Championships because I am not used to win at World Championships. Mutaz, probably, can win the day after because he has like thousands medal, not me.”
Another who has the knack of finding his best form when it matters most, India’s world and Olympic javelin champion Neeraj Chopra, will also return fresh from his triumph in Budapest, and will face bronze medallist Jakub Vadlejch and fourth-place fi nisher Julian Weber.
World 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson will go up against Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Dina Asher-Smith.
Fresh from her gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, US sprint star Sha’Carri Richardson will be out to cement her status as the queen of the 100m when she takes on the best of the rest at the Wanda Diamond League Zurich later this month.
Richardson, who claimed her first global title with a championship record 10.65 in Hungary on Monday, will face her fellow medallists Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson at Weltklasse Zurich as she bids to secure qualification to the series final with a second win of the season.
After her victory at the opening meeting of the season in Doha, Richardson has slipped down the standings to fifth, but will be firm favourite at the Letzigrund Stadium after her show-stopping victory in Budapest.
Reigning champions Fraser-Pryce and Jackson will be out for revenge, though it is the former who will be feeling the heat most as she too bids to climb up the rankings and secure a spot in the series final.
Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, who is currently a whisker away from qualification in third, will also be in the blocks in Switzerland.
There will also be plenty of World Championship pedigree in the men’s 200m, with both the gold and silver medallists over 100m on the startlists. Noah Lyles, who won 100m gold on Sunday, is aiming for a second 200m win in a row in the Diamond League as he eyes a sixth career title in 2023.
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, who claimed silver behind Lyles in Zurich, as will bronze medallist Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain. They will line up in a field which includes 2021 Wanda Diamond League champion Kenny Bednarek and Olympic champion Andre De Grasse.
The Wanda Diamond League is the premier one-day meeting series in athletics. It comprises 14 of the most prestigious events in global track and field. Athletes compete for points at the 13 series meetings in a bid to qualify for the two-day Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene on 16th-17th September.