Diamond League Zurich Preview: So Much On The Line Ahead Of The Final

All eyes will be on the men’s 1,500m, which could feature a time of 3:26 or even 3:25. From there, we'll witness Sha'Carrie Richardson's return and more.

Sep 3, 2024 by Tim O'Hearn

Diamond League Zurich Preview: So Much On The Line Ahead Of The Final

The penultimate Diamond League meeting of the 2024 season takes place in Zurich, Switzerland on Thursday.

It will feature some promising late-season matchups as athletes shoot for personal bests and, perhaps, all-time bests.

One item of intrigue is that this is the last meet for Diamond League Final qualifying, so athletes who are on the cusp of having enough points to make the final will have something to lose here if they don’t perform.

All eyes will be on the men’s 1,500m, which could feature a time of 3:26 or even 3:25. Beyond that, Sha’Carri Richardson's return to racing will be exciting, while American Addy Wiley is one race away from establishing herself as an 800m medal contender heading into 2025.

Warholm vs Dos Santos Headline the 400m Hurdles

To open the television window, world record-holder Karsten Warholm will line up against longtime rival Alison Dos Santos. Olympic champion Rai Benjamin won’t be joining them, but four other men from the Paris final will be there: Clement Ducos (fourth), Abderrahman Samba (sixth), Rasmus Mägi (seventh), and Roshawn Clarke.

The “big three” are still head and shoulders above the rest of the world, but Warholm and Dos Santos need to run fast here to prove that they are still in the same league as Benjamin.

Grant Holloway Must Avenge His 110m Hurdle Loss from Lausanne

In Lausanne, newly-crowned Olympic champion Grant Holloway suffered a surprise defeat in the 110m hurdles.

Holloway has dominated the high hurdles indoors since the beginning of time. He’ll team up with Freddie Crittenden and Daniel Roberts here in an attempt to sweep the podium and make up for the blemish in Lausanne.

Another loss would push a narrative of post-Olympic sloppiness.

Addy Wiley’s Big Shot

The 20-year-old American Addy Wiley has been setting the track on fire since failing to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team. Over the last week, she’s run 1:56.83 in the 800m and 2:31 in the 1,000m (a new American record) at low-key European meets.

She’ll enter this race against eight women who have broken 1:58 this season.

Wiley finally will get to dance with some threats.

Mary Moraa isn’t ready to step aside, as she just broke the world record in the 600m, running 1:21.63 in Berlin. Jemma Reekie has the absolute best PR in the race and she may be the favorite in absence of fellow UK athlete Keely Hodgkinson.

Georgia Bell, also representing Team Great Britain, is having an unbelievable season and has the opportunity to eke out a win here. The women’s 800m promises to be a close race with major implications heading into Brussels and the 2025 season.

Men’s 200m is America vs Tebogo, Again

Letsile Tebogo’s star is rising following a dominant 100m performance at the Lausanne Diamond League.

The combo sprinter from Botswana is set to line up against four Americans and Joseph Fahnbulleh (an American dual-national who competes for Liberia) as he attempts to embellish his claim as the best 200m runner on the circuit this year.

Noah Lyles won’t be present to challenge him, but Fred Kerley, Kenny Bednarek, and Erriyon Knighton will all be capable of running 19.8 for the win.

Considering his form in Lausanne, Tebogo could do something wild here. The next barrier for him would be ascending the all-time rankings list, which would require breaking Michael Johnson’s 19.32 or Noah Lyles’ 19.31.

Sha’Carri Richardson and Julien Alfred Rematch in the 100m

Richardson's poor starts and sluggish reaction times in Paris likely cost her the gold medal.

Julien Alfred, from St. Lucia, is the reigning gold medalist and will look to once again prove that she’s the fastest woman in the world. This race has innate drama stemming from Richardson's presence in the first season of Netflix’s Sprint documentary.

Though she did rally to drag the US to a 4x100m relay gold, she’ll come to Zurich without much fanfare.

The Men’s 1,500m Could Be the Big One

Jakob Ingebrigtsen has been the talk of the track world this season. Though he placed fourth in the 1,500m final in Paris, he stormed back to win the 5,000m. A few weeks later, he beat Olympic 1,500m gold medalist Cole Hocker and then proceeded to annihilate the long-standing 3,000m world record, running 7:17.55.

Ingebrigtsen excels in time-trial style races, but he will come to Zurich to chase the world record in the 1,500m, which stands at 3:26.00. Though this race could be billed as some type of Olympic replay, it isn’t. It’s a race for history, a legendary matchup of talents at the end of an Olympic year.

The field features most of the men from the Paris 1,500m final: Hocker (first), Josh Kerr (second), Yared Nuguse (third), Ingebrigtsen (fourth), Niels Laros (sixth), Narve Nordås (seventh), Stefan Nillsen (ninth), Neil Gourley (10th) and Timothy Cheriyuout (11th).

They’ll be paced by Zan Rudolf and Jochem Vermeulen, a 3:31 1500m runner.

Going into this race, everyone will be thinking the same thing: a 3:29 victory for the win will mean relatively little. The wavelights will almost certainly be set to 3:26.00 and it will be a battle of attrition to see if anyone can gut out a record-breaking performance.

If fans are lucky enough to witness a 3:25, the man who accomplishes the feat will be immortalized.

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