Diamond League Stockholm Guide: Second meeting of the year

After this week's start of the Continental Tour Gold in Székesfehérvár (Hungary), the Diamond League is back in its second date of the year. The competition travels from Monaco to Stockholm this Sunday, August 23^rd. More than a hundred athletes meet again or debut at the seventeen events hold into the Olympic Stadium at 15:00h.

Among these athletes, Bruno Hortelano's return to competition after two years of retirement due to the accident stands out. The Spanish athlete, who returned to the track last August 10 beating the Spanish record of 150m, will be in the Olympic Stadium to compete in the 200m race.

This time, unlike Monaco, there will be no audience at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium. However, to save that lack of fan ambiance, the organization decided to create an audio system with effects that mimic the real conditions of an athletic competition with the public included.  Furthermore, people who wanted to attend the competition bought a sit at the stadium. These seats will be occupied by cardboard with their faces and wearing a national Swedish t-shirt.

The Bauhaus Galan meeting is very close and these are the events, athletes, and expectations that are expected to be seen in the Olympic Stadium this Sunday, August 23rd:

POLE VAULT: MEN'S AND WOMEN'S (15:05h)

The pole vault will be held in its two modalities: the female and the male one.

On the one hand, the men's competition will finally be composed of seven jumpers after the last-minute drop of the bronze medalist in Doha, Piotr Lisek (28). The Pole did not finish last Wednesday's competition. He was preparing to jump 5.90, but in the middle of the race, he threw the pole vault and grabbed his thigh. Luckily, according to Lisek for the onet newspaper, it is nothing serious that will make him miss the rest of the competitions of the season.

The men's pole vault will feature the other two medalists at the 2019 World Championships. On the one hand the winner, Sam Kendricks (27). After the incident in Monaco of the lost poles, they have finally reached their destination and the American will be able to duel again with the world runner-up, European champion, and current world record holder, Mondo Duplantis (20). The Swede, in Monaco, managed to improve his season's record outdoors by reaching 6 meters and tried to beat Sergei Bubka by jumping 6.15, but everything was left to chance. This Sunday he has a new opportunity

The German Ben Broeders (25), who finished second in Monaco, will also stand out in this competition, as well as the additions of Glasgow 2019 bronze medallist Melker Svärd Jacobsson (26) or the debutants Pål Haugen Lillefosse (19) (who was already in the Oslo Impossible Games) or Sondre Guttormsen (21).

In the women's pole vault, six athletes will start the season. With a personal best of 4.83 comes Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou (34), a veteran pole vaulter with European indoor and outdoor medals and a victory in 2015 in the Diamond League; and also Sweden's Michaela Meijer (27), who has cleared the same mark this season. 

We will also have to pay attention to the performances of the also double European medalist Holly Bradshaw (28), with 4.81 as personal best and 4.73 as best of the season, and of the Swedish Angelica Bengtsson, third in Belgrade 2017 and sixth in Doha, whose image went around the world when she broke in the middle of a jump in the final.

WOMEN'S HIGH JUMP (15:09h)

After Monaco, eyes are once again on the two Ukrainian athletes in the event: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (18), who won the meeting beating 1.98, and Yuliya Levchenko (22), who finished second but has recently cleared 2 meters this season.

 
Also important will be the performances of the veteran Mirela Demireva (30), who finished fourth in Monaco, and the last-minute incorporation of Levern Spencer (36), multiple medalists in the Commonwealth Games and the Pan American Games.

MEN'S LONG JUMP (15:14h)

The sandpit is open again in the Diamond League. First, it will be for the men's long jump, which will have eight athletes competing. The focus is on London 2017 bronze medallist Ruswahl Samaai (29), whose personal best stands at 8.49. He is followed by Finland's Kristian Pulli, who has clocked 8.27 this season. Also important will be the intervention of Swedish Thobias Montler (24), silver medalist in the 2019 Glasgow indoor championship.

WOMEN'S 100M HURDLES (15:25h)

The first race on the track will be a hurdle race and will be female. The winner of the European Team Championships in 2019, Luminosa Bogliolo (25), arrives in Stockholm with a personal best of 12.78 which she has been very close to beat again this season. Her two most important opponents, depending on her personal best and the season, could be Finland's Lotta Harala (28) and the world champion in women's heptathlon, Katarina Johnson - Thompson (27). As the combined events cannot be held this season, Johnson - Thompson will be joined in this race by heptathletes Lovisa Karlsson (20), Mari Klaup-McColl (30), and Malin Skogström (25).

WOMEN'S 400M HURDLES (15:25h)

Half an hour later the hurdles will be put back up for the female athletes around the track. The veteran Zuzana Hejnová (33), bronze medalist at the London Olympics and gold at Beijing 2015, arrives in Stockholm with a great personal best. However, her season record is surpassed by double European champion Léa Sprunger (30) and the young Femke Bol, who makes her debut with 53.79 in the Diamond League. The focus is also on Danish Sara Slott Petersen (33), Olympic runner-up and gold medalist at Amsterdam 2016, and 2019 Pan American Games champion Sage Watson (26).

MEN'S 400M HURDLES (16:03h)

And the hurdles will not be removed because, minutes later, it will be the same event for the male athletes. After World champion Karsten Warholm's (24) great race in Monaco, the eyes are still on him in case he will be able to beat his personal best. He will compete against Rasmus Mägi (28), who finished third in Monaco, and Constantin Preis (22) and Ludvy Vaillant (25), fourth and fifth respectively.

WOMEN'S 100M (16:17h)

After Ajla Del Ponte's (24) victory in Monaco, eyes are once again on her. However, the three best marks under 11 seconds may be their biggest rivals this Sunday: on one side Gina Lückenkemper (23), who finished third at the Stade Louis II, and Marie-Josée Ta Lou (31), who finished fourth. Also joining the event the multiple European medalists, Ivet Lalova-Collio (36).

MEN'S 800M (16:27h)

No doubt the race, as in Monaco, will maybe for world champion Donovan Brazier (23), but he has other opponents. Marco Arop (21), who came third or Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich (26) or Amel Tuka, who came eighth and ninth, respectively, in the Monaco race. In addition to this race in Stockholm, European runner-up Andreas Kramer (23) and Pan-American runner-up Wesley Vázquez (26) will also be competing.

MEN'S DISCUS (16:37h)

On Sunday, there will be double world champion Andrius Gudzius (29), fourth-place European champion Simon Petterson (26), who arrives with his personal best recently beaten, and current world champion and European runner-up Daniel Ståhl (28). 
Also in the news is the return of Olympic athlete and current British national record holder Lawrence Okoye, who has been playing as an NFL football player for the past few years.

WOMEN'S LONG JUMP (16:42h)

The pit will be used later by female athletes. Great stars of the women's long jump will gather in the Olympic Stadium: European and world runner-up Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (25) and European bronze medalist Shara Proctor (32), whose personal best over 7 meters was set at Beijing 2015. 

Of course, the veteran Caterine Ibargüen (36) stands out, who in her more than twenty years of career, keeps a silver medal in London 2012, another one in London 2017, a World Championships in 2015 and in Doha she finished in third place. Other top athletes are Katarina Johnson - Thompson (27), who will compete on the sand after the 100m race, and Sweden's Khaddi Sagnia (26), who arrives in Stockholm with the season's best among her teammates.

WOMEN'S 400M (16:44h)

The women's 400m race repeats with second place in Monaco, Wadeline Jonathas (22), and fifth place, Lada Vondrová (29). The first one has the personal best and the second one the best mark of the season. 

WOMEN'S 1500M (16:55h)

With personal best under three minutes are Winny Chebet (30), who did not finish the 5000m race in Monaco; double Diamond winner and double European champion Laura Muir (27), who finished second in Monaco at the 1000m, setting her personal best and breaking the British record for the event; Hellen Obiri (31), who won the 5000m and broke the Kenyan national record; and Shannon Rowbury (36), who came fifth in the 5000m and arrives with the season's best in this event.

With personal records very close to the 4 minutes, Jessica Hull (24), fourth in Monaco at the 5000, beating personal mark and Australian national record; Ciara Mageean (28), third at the 1000m of Monaco, beating also both records; Eilish McColgan (29), seventh at the 5000m; and the European bronze medalist, Laura Weightman (29), third in the 5000m of Monaco.

MEN'S 200M (17:10H)

In the 200m for men, the big news is the return to competition of the European champion in Amsterdam, Bruno Hortelano (29). After the accident in 2018, the Spaniard returns to the track and to the Diamond League this Sunday. He will compete against Adam Gemili (27), who finished fourth in Monaco last week. 

WOMEN'S 800M (17:20h)

The best marks in this event are the double indoor champion Selina Büchel (29) and Raevyn Rogers (24), world runner-up in Doha. On the other hand, the season's best marks are also big stars in this event: Norway's Hedda Hynne (30) and double European champion Renelle Lamote (27).

MEN'S 400M (17:37h)

MEN'S 1500M (17:51h)

Once again, the 1500-meter duel is between Timothy Cheruiyot (25) and Jakob Ingebrigtsen (19). Eyes are on both of them after the race in Monaco which was a great success. The African won in a race that seemed to be his own, but Jakob Ingebrigtsen tried to beat him in the last meters. That caused the Norwegian to break the European record in this race last week. 

The Diamond League arrives in Stockholm this Sunday at the Olympic Stadium. A hundred athletes and all the athletics back on track. Without an audience, but with all the excitement of this sport.