Thompson-Herah headlines raft of stars for Diamond League finale

NAMPA-AFP Jamaican sprint queen Elaine Thompson-Herah will be one of 19 Olympic champions vying for prize money and glory in the Diamond League final in Zurich, just a month after the end of the Tokyo Games.Thompson-Herah picked up three golds in the Japanese capital in the 100m, 200m and sprint relay, and will not have to face her compatriot and great rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.The Olympic champion timed the second fastest 100m ever run in Eugene last month, her time of 10.54 seconds just five-hundredths short of the record set by American Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.Action at the bumper season finale got under way yesterday afternoon, with the shot put, long jump, men's and women's 5 000m and women's high jump finals all to be held at the Sechselaeutenplatz square on the shores of Lake Zurich.All 25 other finals are slated for today at the iconic Letzigrund Stadium, where more than 20 000 spectators traditionally create a raucous atmosphere.The winner in each discipline at the final receives the equivalent of N$447 000 and a Diamond League trophy.Record settersNorwegian Karsten Warholm will take to the track for the first time in the 400m hurdles since setting a sensational world record of 45.94 when winning Olympic gold. His American rival Rai Benjamin is absent, but Olympic bronze medallist Alison Dos Santos of Brazil will offer some competition.Venezuela's Yulimar Rojas, another world record setter in Tokyo, will be in Zurich and is seemingly in good enough form to challenge the 15.67m mark she set in the triple jump.Also present will be Sweden's Armand Duplantis, at 21 already the dominant force in men's pole vaulting.A Diamond League winner at both Paris when he cleared 6.01m and Brussels (6.05m), the US-born vaulter tried on both occasions to get over 6.19m to better his own world record. He was not far away and it is surely now just a matter of time before he sets a new benchmark.Take heartMeanwhile, Ethiopian-born Dutch runner Sifan Hassan, who won two golds and a bronze in an unprecedented distance showing in Tokyo, will race in the 1 500m.The men's 100m will feature a stellar field, albeit without Italy's surprise Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who called an end to his season after the Games.But American Fred Kerley and Canada's Andre De Grasse, the silver and bronze medallists in Tokyo, and fourth-placed Akani Simbine of South Africa will be on the starting line.Also present will be American Trayvon Bromell, who owns the fastest time of the year of 9.77 but failed to make it past the semi-finals at the Olympics.Bromell will take heart from finishing second behind Kerley at Brussels last week when all-rounder Kerley's victory made him the first sprinter to win 100, 200 and 400m races in the Diamond League.

Thompson-Herah headlines raft of stars for Diamond League finale

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Namibian Sun 2026-08-13

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Thompson-Herah headlines raft of stars for Diamond League finale

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Namibian Sun 2026-08-13

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