Any track fan who tuned in to the Zurich Diamond League meeting on Thursday will have been entertained and left wanting more after watching history unfold, not once but twice. Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos smashed the previous men’s 400m hurdles world record with an electric 45.80, and moments later in the women’s 100m hurdles, the U.S.’s Masai Russell ran a dominant 12.08 to claim the world mark she had been chasing all season.
While those performances were the headlines of the meet, every race before, after and in between was just as exciting, producing countless PBs, national records, meet records and world leads as the best in the world battled it out. The Diamond League format has been around for only 17 years, and very few meets have produced results like Zurich’s.
Bye-bye meeting records
Of course, Dos Santos and Russell now own meeting records in their respective events, records that are likely to stand for a long time, but a few other performers also shocked the crowd.
The 3,000m isn’t a regularly contested event on the Diamond League circuit, but Thursday’s race made a case for it to appear more often. The men’s race produced eight PBs, led by a surprise win from the U.S.’s Parker Wolfe, who set a meeting record in 7:27.43. In a closely contested race featuring stars, such as the U.S.’s Grant Fisher and Australia’s Cam Myers, few viewers would have expected the young athlete to take the win, but Wolfe is quietly having a fantastic season. This was his second Diamond League win of the season (and his career), and he has set six PBs this year, showcasing rapid growth as the season winds down.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, a meeting record was expected, but not from the U.S.’s Olympic silver medallist Anna Cockrell, who dominated the race and finished in a world-leading 52.13. Czechia’s Emma Zapletalová entered the race undefeated on the season and was the favourite; she and Cockrell were neck and neck until Zapletalová stumbled on the ninth hurdle down the home stretch, falling to sixth, in 54.07.
Anna Cockrell and Femke Broeders-Bol at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Photo: Kevin Morris
Cockrell and Zapletalová have both been making a case as the woman to beat in the one-lap hurdles since Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands stepped up to the 800m and world-record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone took the season off to have a child. Their matchup at the Diamond League Finals in Brussels on Sept. 4 will be a highly anticipated showdown.
More world leads
In both the men’s and women’s 800m races, the pace light was set to world-record pace, and though neither leader reached the record, both races produced world-leading times and showed what the fields were capable of. In the women’s race, Switzerland’s Audrey Werro continued to tease the world record, finishing in 1:53.70 to set another Diamond League, national and meeting record, while beating her own No. 2 all-time mark. The 22-year-old finished the season undefeated. Right behind her was Broeders-Bol, who set her third straight national record in the 800m in 1:54.71, as she continues to improve at the distance.
The men’s 800m may not have been a Diamond League event, but it was one of the most entertaining races of the meet, with Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi narrowly outdipping Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati. Wanyonyi’s winning time set a new world lead in 1:41.76, while Sedjati ran a season’s best 1:41.83. Wanyonyi and Canada’s Marco Arop have been hinting at a world record all year, and with the two stars racing in the Diamond League final, we may finally see it.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Marco Arop at 2025 Zurich Diamond League meeting. Photo: Diamond League AG
The U.S.’s Kenny Bednarek dominated the men’s 200m to set another world-leading time of 19.62, despite running into a headwind. Canada’s Andre De Grasse finished third in 20.03 after easing off in the final metres.