Lyles and Richardson headline Diamond League final

 

World 100m champions Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson headline on home ground as the Diamond League final takes place in Oregon this weekend.

Hodgkinson faces another 800m showdown with Mary Moraa and Athing Mu in the latest chapter of the trio’s rivalry.

Laura Muir, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita are also set to compete, with Faith Kipyegon, Shericka Jackson, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Armand Duplantis among the global stars present.

The action starts at 19:00 BST on Saturday and 19:30 on Sunday, with live coverage on BBC Three and the BBC website and app from 20:00 on both days.

Here is everything you need to know as athletics’ biggest names collide again, less than three weeks after the conclusion of a thrilling World Championships in Budapest.

What is the Diamond League final?

While the World Championships was the headline athletics competition of 2023, throughout the season the world’s best have contested 13 Diamond League meets.

At those one-day events, held across the globe with stops including London, Paris, Doha and the Chinese city of Xiamen, athletes have – in addition to prize money – competed for points to qualify for the US finale.

In Eugene, 32 Diamond League champions – that’s one man and one woman in each of the 16 disciplines – will be crowned over two days.

This year the final is being held as part of the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field, the venue which hosted the 2022 World Championships.

There, with points irrelevant in a winner-takes-all final format, the diamond trophies will be handed out – along with $30,000 (£24,000) prize money for the overall winners.

There is $12,000 (£9,600) available to the runner-up, with prize money filtering down to the lower positions.

Hodgkinson and Richardson aim for statement victories

In another enthralling battle between the ‘big three’ of women’s 800m running, it was Moraa who prevailed over Hodgkinson in Budapest as defending champion Mu finished third.

It meant Hodgkinson, claiming her third global medal aged 21, was again made to settle for silver after finishing runner-up to Mu at the Worlds and Tokyo Olympics.

Moraa, who also beat Hodgkinson to Commonwealth gold last summer, will set off as marginal favourite after triumphing in a personal best time 21 days ago.

But Hodgkinson will be keen to prove she can beat both her main rivals as attention turns to the Paris 2024 Games, and Jemma Reekie will aim to close the gap.

Hudson-Smith will also target Olympic glory next year and, in the absence of world 400m champion Antonio Watson in Eugene, will seek Diamond League success.

The women’s 100m was among the most eagerly anticipated events at this summer’s championships, and it did not fail to deliver.

American Richardson will aim to follow up her stunning breakthrough global victory by beating another stellar line-up which includes world silver medallist Jackson and two-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah.

Asher-Smith will hope to show a return to form and British team-mate Imani-Lara Lansiquot will be full of confidence after running under 11 seconds for the first time. Meanwhile, compatriot Neita will test herself against champion Jackson over 200m.

Among Lyles’ three golds in Budapest was a first global men’s 100m triumph for the 200m specialist, and he will focus on the shorter distance in Eugene.

The five-time Diamond League champion will face competition from Botswana’s runner-up Letsile Tebogo and fellow American Christian Coleman, who equalled Lyles and Britain’s Zharnel Hughes as the fastest runner this year with 9.83 seconds in Xiamen two weeks ago.

Elsewhere, Kipyegon will look to cap a remarkable season, in which she set three world records and completed a 1500m and 5,000m double at the Worlds, with victory over the shorter distance.

Britain’s Muir, who fell short of a World Championships medal following an unsettled year away from the track, has since recorded Diamond League victories in Zurich and Brussels and is joined in the 1500m by Melissa Courtney-Bryant.

The in-form George Mills and Elliot Giles are Britain’s representatives in the men’s mile, where they face 5,000m world champion and 2,000m world record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who is also set to contest the 3,000m a day later.

In the field events, Sawyers will seek an improved performance after missing out on the long jump world final, while Morgan Lake contests the high jump and Lawrence Okoye is in discus action.

Joint pole vault world champions Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon are reunited after agreeing to share gold in August, while Armand Duplantis could make his latest world record attempt in the men’s event after being frustrated in his pursuit of 6.23m so far in 2023.

Diamond League final schedule

Selected Diamond League final events, all times BST:

Saturday, 16 September

20:04 – men’s 400m hurdles (Karsten Warholm)

20:16 – men’s 400m (Matthew Hudson-Smith)

20:26 – women’s pole vault (Nina Kennedy, Katie Moon)

20:51 – women’s 1500m (Laura Muir, Melissa Courtney-Bryant, Faith Kipyegon)

21:07 – men’s 100m (Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo, Christian Coleman, Yohan Blake)

21:40 – women’s 100m (Dina Asher-Smith, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson, Elaine Thompson-Herah)

21:50 – men’s mile (George Mills, Elliot Giles, Jakob Ingebrigtsen)

Sunday, 17 September

19:30 – women’s high jump (Morgan Lake)

19:40 – men’s discus (Lawrence Okoye)

20:04 – men’s 800m (Daniel Rowden)

20:57 – men’s pole vault (Armand Duplantis)

21:04 – women’s 400m hurdles (Femke Bol)

21:17 – men’s 3,000m (Jakob Ingebrigtsen)

21:37 – women’s 400m (Victoria Ohuruogu)

21:42 – women’s long jump (Jazmin Sawyers)

22:19 – women’s 800m (Keely Hodgkinson, Jemma Reekie, Athing Mu, Mary Moraa)

22:36 – men’s 200m (Erriyon Knighton, Letsile Tebogo)

22:49 – women’s 200m (Daryll Neita, Shericka Jackson)