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≡ DIAMOND LEAGUE HEATS UP ≡
The qualification deadline for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September is 24 August 2025, with one exception.
Winner of the 2025 Diamond League.
So, those athletes who are on the outside looking in – like men’s 1,500 m Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse, fifth at the U.S. nationals – are trying to muscle their way into the Diamond League Final in Zurich on 27-28 August and then trying to win there to claim the last “wild card” spots at the Tokyo Worlds.
Nuguse helped his cause by holding on down the final straight to win the 1,500 m at the Silesia Diamond League meet on Saturday in 3:33.19. And he’s full of confidence:
“My plan today was not to take the lead, just wait for my time, the last 300 m. I felt really good on the last 300 m and the kick came.
“I will race in Brussels and Zurich. I won in Zurich in 2023 and 2024 and I hope to win a third time this year there. My season is developing really well, but the best part is still to come.”
He’s in good position, standing fourth in the Diamond League 1,500 standings, with one more race available – at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels (BEL), one of two Diamond League meets this week:
● 20 August/Tuesday: Athletissima in Lausanne (SUI)
A city-center men’s vault will be held on Tuesday, then the main meet on Wednesday, with the main program from 2-4 p.m. Eastern time.
Paris Olympic men’s 100 m champ Noah Lyles says he needs more races, so he’s in the 100 here against countryman Courtney Lindsey and Jamaicans Ackeem Blake and Oblique Seville, both of whom are faster in 2025 than Lyles.
Olympic 800 m champ Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN) leads a great field, including 2023 World Champion Marco Arop (CAN), world leader Cordell Tinch of the U.S. in the 110 hurdles and double Olympic champ Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) heads the long jump.
Gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson (GBR) ran her first race since the Paris Olympic Games in Poland (due to injury) and scored a world-leading win in 1:54.74 and she is back for more. Same for American Masai Russell, the Paris winner but now having run 12.17 and 12.19 this season in the 100 m hurdles. Paris winner and world-record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) headlines the women’s high jump.
And after two runner-up finishes in the 5,000 and 10,000 m at the U.S. Nationals, Grant Fisher is in the men’s 5,000 against an enormous and talented field.
● 23 August/Saturday: Van Damme Memorial in Brussels (BEL)
This is annually one of the best meets of the year, including the men’s 1,500 m and a chance for Nuguse to clinch his spot at the Diamond League Final, in front of an expected 35,000 fans at the King Baudouin Stadium.
The main program is again from 8-10 p.m. local time, which is 2-4 p.m. Eastern, including eight Paris winners: men’s high jump victor Hamish Kerr (NZL), discus champ Roje Stona (JAM), American women’s 4×100 m relay golden girls Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Sha’Carri Richardson, steeple champ Winfred Yavi (BRN), triple jump winner Thea LaFond (DMA), shot put victor Yemisi Ogunleye (GER), and most importantly for Belgian fans, heptathlon star Nafi Thiam (BEL).
Kenyan Agnes Ngetich will try for a world record in the women’s 5,000 m; she’s no. 3 all-time from her 14:01.29 from the Pre Classic in July.
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It’s a busy time for track & field, but also the start of the last of the cycling Grand Tours for 2025, the Vuelta a Espana.
Danish star Jonas Vingegaard, the two-time Tour de France winner who was second to Slovenian star Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France, is the favorite, supported by American teammate Sepp Kuss, who won this race in 2023 (with Vingegaard second).
Prime competitors will be Joao Almeida (POR), who abandoned the Tour after eight stages, but won the Itzulia Basque Country, Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse earlier. Last year’s runner-up, Ben O’Connor (AUS) is back and what kind of shape is Juan Ayuso (ESP) in; he won Tirreno-Adriatico in March, but left the Giro d’Italia during the 18th stage.
The 21-stage race will conclude on 14 September.
There are also three world championships on this week:
● 20-24 August: ICF Sprint World Championships in Milan (ITA).
● 20-24 August: FIG Rhythmic World Championships in Rio de Janeiro (BRA)
● 22 August on: FIVB Women’s World Championship in Thailand
In canoeing, the legendary New Zealand star Lisa Carrington has entered at the last moment as a replacement; she won three golds in the K-1, K-2 and K-4 races in Paris in 2024.
The Rhythmic Worlds had 10 straight Russian All-Around winners from 2009-2021, but have been banned since. A limited number of “neutrals” have been approved now and will face 2022 A-A winner Sofia Raffaeli (ITA) and 2023 champ Darya Varfolomeev (GER).
Serbia has won the last two women’s Volleyball Worlds, over Italy and Brazil in 2018 and 2022, but Olympic champ Italy, Paris bronzer Brazil and the Paris runner-up U.S. are the top three seeds. The tournament will continue to 7 September.
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