They are the fastest 400m hurdlers of all times: Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm (NOR/45.94), reigning world champion and 2023 Wanda Diamond League champion Alison dos Santos (BRA/46.29), and Olympic and world championship silver medallist Rai Benjamin (USA/46.17). On Thursday, 31 August, the three hurdling giants will clash in Weltklasse Zürich race that could be a remake of one of the craziest 2021 Olympic finals.
The world’s finest middle- and long-distancers will be lining up again in Zurich. Among them Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR/3:27.14), Olympic champion and European record holder in the 1500m and 5000m world and European champion. In the 1500m, he is the current world leader and has yet to be beaten this year. In Zurich, he will be facing as many as nine runners with sub-3:30 results on their record, including former world champion Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN), North American record holder Yared Nuguse (USA), and 5000m European record holder Mohamed Katir (ESP).
In the men’s 5000m, an exciting showdown awaits between newly crowned 3000m SC world record holder Lamecha Girma (ETH), his fellow countrymen Yomif Kejelcha, Hagos Gebrhiwet, Telahun Haile Bekele, and reigning 10,000m Olympic champion Selemon Barega, who all have run sub 12:45 races, is on the cards.
The line-up for the race also includes local heroes Dominic Lobalu and Jonas Raess, who both competed in Weltklasse Zürich races on Sechseläutenplatz in past years. Just as Tom Elmer in the 1500m, they are eyeing new personal bests.
Long jump: Simon Ehammer to challenge Olympic and world champions
Simon Ehammer was the first male Swiss athlete to win an event at a Wanda Diamond League meeting when he triumphed in Oslo in June. He and other Swiss athletics stars will meet for the national championships in Bellinzona this weekend (29 and 30 July) and then travel on to Budapest to compete in the world championships, before returning to Switzerland for this year’s showdown in Zurich.
When returning to Zurich, former UBS Kids Cup finalist Simon Ehammer, European championship silver medallist in the decathlon and long jump world championship bronze medallist, will again try to outwit long jump greats, such as Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) and world champion Jianan Wang (CHN) in front of his home crowd.
"Where it says world class on it, there is world class in it," says Co-Meeting Director Andreas Hediger. "With the athletes now confirmed, we will see the best that athletics has to offer at Weltklasse Zürich 2023 and can look forward to fantastic competitions."
