Athletics fans will be excited to cheer the crème de la crème of athletics during their competitions at Letzigrund Stadium on Thursday night and at Weltklasse Zürich at Zurich Main Station on Wednesday. The line-ups for all events resemble those of the championship finals in Moscow
All in all, 15 reigning Olympic champions and 17 new world champions will be competing at this year’s edition of the meeting. The two superstars of sprint, Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce even scored two individual championship titles. In addition, the start lists include as many as five current world record holders: Usain Bolt, Aries Merritt (USA/110m h), Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH/5000m), Meseret Defar (ETH/5000m indoor und 3000m indoor), and Jennifer Suhr (USA/pole vault indoor).
“We always want to present the best athletes of the world in all our events. And we will achieve this goal again this year,” Meeting Direktor Patrick K. Magyar explained. “The line-up is truly impressive. The athletes competing at Letzigrund Stadium have won a total of 49 medals at the recent world championships.”
Defar vs. Dibaba – a rare clash of the two queens of long-distance running
The 2013 meeting will offer a whole series of highlights. On top of the list of special treats will be the sprint events and the men’s high jump. Meeting Director Patrick K. Magyar is particularly looking forward to the women’s 5000m and the clash of the two best female long-distance runners of our time, Meseret Defar (ETH, Olympic and world champion 5000m) and Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH, Olympic and world champion 10000m): “A great duel, and a very rare scenario,” he commented. And indeed, their few encounters were mostly championship races. It has been seven years since they raced each other at a meeting.
High jump show with all eight Moscow finalists
Sometimes, the Weltklasse Zürich fields are even “better” than world championship finals: In the men’s 100m race, the top six athletes of the Moscow final will run against Walter Dix (USA), who had missed the championships because of an injury, and against the best European sprinter, Adam Gemili (GBR), who placed fifth in the championships’ 200m final. In the 110m h, former world record holder Dayron Robles (CUB) will challenge the seven fastest hurdlers of the Moscow final. And finally, the field for the men’s high jump is a promise for an exciting, suspense-packed competition: Seven athletes of the memorable championship final will compete at Letzigrund Stadium, including the event’s high flyer, Bohdan Bondarenko (UKR).
Six Swiss athletes and a women’s relay race in the international programme
Six Swiss athletes will try to prevail in the prestigious fields: World championship competitor Mujinga Kambundji (200m), U23 European championship bronze medallist Selina Büchel (800 m), and long jumper Yves Zellweger will make their Weltklasse Zürich debut this year. In addition, local pole vault heroes Nicole Büchler and Anna Katharina Schmid, as well as long jumper Irene Pusterla will be facing the world’s athletics elite.
The seventh Zürich Trophy will be a women’s 4x100m relay race – and another Swiss highlight. After six successful performances of the national men’s relay team, the country’s fastest female sprinters will get an opportunity to run in the exciting race, which traditionally wraps up the programme of events. The Swiss quartet had approached the 43-second barrier with their race in Moscow (43.21). On Thursday, they will be running against the world champions of Jamaica (incl. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce), as well as the teams of the USA, the Netherlands, of Ukraine, Germany, and Italy.
Marcel Hug: a home win for the five-time world champion?
Many Swiss athletes will compete in the Young Diamonds Challenge – the national programme of events. An early highlight of the meeting will be the men’s 1500m wheelchair race in which Marcel Hug, who took five titles at the world championships in Lyon this year, will challenge international top athletes.
New Leadership with a Guarantee of Continuity
The Board of the Weltklasse Zürich supporting association (Verein für Grossveranstaltungen LCZ) has made its decision with regard to a new leadership team. Meeting Director Patrick K. Magyar, who has presided over Weltklasse Zürich for seven years, will resign after the 2014 edition of the meeting. As of 2015, Andreas Hediger and Christoph Joho will team up to act as co-Meeting Directors, in order to meet the growing challenges in the area of marketing (Joho) and competition/athletes’ liaison (Hediger).
Andreas Hediger will take over from Patrick K. Magyar with regard to all matters related to athletes in 2014. Magyar, who is also the CEO for Zürich 2014, will remain in office until after the meeting in 2014.
Andreas Hediger and Christoph Joho have both been members of the Weltklasse Zürich team for many years. Joho is the current Marketing Director (since 2006), and Hediger has started his work in the organising committee in 1991 (Technical Director since 2001).
Media Relations
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Champions of the Moscow World Championships at Weltklasse Zürich (as at 28 August 2013)
- Usain Bolt (JAM/100m and 200m; to run the men’s 100m in Zurich)
- LaShawn Merritt (USA/400m)
- Asbel Kiprop (KEN/1500m)
- Ezekiel Kemboi (KEN/3000m SC)
- David Oliver (USA/110m h)
- Bohdan Bondarenko (UKR/high jump)
- Aleksandr Menkov (RUS/long jump)
- David Storl (GER/shot put; at Weltklasse Zürich at Zurich Main Station on Wednesday)
- Robert Harting (GER/discus throw)
- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM/100m und 200m; to run the women‘s 200m and the 4x100m relay race in Zurich)
- Eunice Jepkoech Sum (KEN/800m)
- Meseret Defar (ETH, 5000m)
- Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH/10000 m; to run the women’s 5000m in Zurich)
- Zuzana Hejnova (CZE/400m h)
- Brittney Reese (USA/long jump)
- Valerie Adams (NZL/shot put; at Weltklasse Zürich at Zurich Main Station on Wednesday)
- Christina Obergföll (GER/javelin throw)
28 August, 2013
