Kenya’s Olympic and world 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, world champion Lilian Odira and world 3000m steeplechase champion Faith Cherotich will lead the African challenge when the Wanda Diamond League resumes in Lausanne this week.
The Athletissima meeting will be held at the Pontaise Olympic Stadium on Friday, bringing together some of the biggest names in world athletics. Thursday’s city event on the shores of Lake Geneva will provide an opening spectacle.
Wanyonyi returns to the scene of one of the finest performances of his career. The Olympic and world 800m champion clocked 1:41.11 in Lausanne in 2024, a time that ranks joint second on the world all-time list.
The Kenyan will be chasing his first Diamond League 800m victory of the year. He arrives in Switzerland in impressive form after setting a world 1000m record of 2:11.83 in Monaco last month.
Wanyonyi faces a formidable field that includes Canada’s world leader Marco Arop, who won the Paris Diamond League in 1:41.84, and American Brandon Miller, the London Diamond League winner.
Odira will line up in a highly anticipated women’s 800m contest against Swiss star Audrey Werro and Dutch athlete Femke Bol.
Werro has enjoyed a spectacular season, running 1:53.98 in Stockholm before improving to 1:53.80 in Paris to move to third on the world all-time list. She then claimed European gold in Birmingham.
The Swiss star will renew her rivalry with Bol in Lausanne, while Odira, the world champion and winner of the Diamond League meeting in Eugene, adds another major threat to the race.
Cherotich will carry Kenya’s hopes in the 3000m steeplechase, where she faces Olympic champion Winfred Yavi.
The two have both clocked 8:51 this season, setting up another potentially thrilling battle between the reigning world and Olympic champions.
The Lausanne meeting will also feature a strong African presence beyond the Kenyan trio.
In the men’s 200m, Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo headlines a high-quality field that includes Puerto Rico’s José Figueroa and South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile. All three have broken 19.85 this season.
World pole vault record-holder Mondo Duplantis will headline Thursday’s city event before returning to the spotlight at the main meeting.
The Swede is making his eighth appearance in Lausanne after clearing a championship-record 6.15m to win his fourth successive European title in Birmingham. The mark is also the Athletissima meeting record, set by Duplantis in 2024.
He will again face Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, the European silver medallist, and Australia’s Kurtis Marschall, who ended Duplantis’s almost three-year unbeaten run in Stockholm in June.
Elsewhere, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will feature in the men’s javelin contest alongside Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage and Germany’s Julian Weber, both of whom have surpassed 90 metres this season.
The women’s 100m hurdles will see Olympic champion Masai Russell take on world champion Ditaji Kambundji, while Jamaica’s two-time world 200m champion Shericka Jackson leads the women’s sprint field.
With the Diamond League Final in Brussels approaching, Lausanne presents athletes with a crucial opportunity to collect points and strengthen their claims for qualification.