100m World Champs' duel & Wanyonyi WR attempt headline Monaco Diamond League

The Diamond League season continues on Friday in Monaco, where the running track in particular has brought plenty of memorable moments in previous years. For the 2026 edition the most interesting discipline looks to be the rarely ran 1000 meters, where the goal is to break the 27-year old World Record 2:11,96 by Noah Ngeny.

This season's Diamond League is made up of 15 meets, and we'll have our DL winners for each discipline at the Diamond League finals in Brussles on the 28th of August. In addition to Monaco and Brussels, athletes are still to make trips to London, Lausanne, Zurich and Silesia.

The rules remain the same from previous seasons. Every single event rewards athletes with points in correspondence to their finishing position. At the end of the season, the 6 best athletes from each discipline earn a spot for the two-day finals.

The Monaco Diamond League meet, also known as the Herculis EBS meet starts with the women's pole vault at 17.15, with the night culminating at 20.51 with the men's 100 meters. Etusuora provides you with full previews of the 5 most interesting disciplines.

Wanyonyi attempting to steal his countryman's World Record

July brings with it at least two world record attempts, as the London Diamond League will see Great Britain's Josh Kerr take on the 1 mile world record, while here in Monaco it will be Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi doing his best to better the rarely run 1000m record.

Fellow Kenyan Noah Ngeny holds the current world record in the kilometer dash, and his time of 2:11,96 has stayed in the history books for an impressive 27 years. However, this is finally the time when that record is under significant threat.

Reigning world champion Wanyonyi has been in strong form to start the season, running the 800m in Oslo to an impressive time of 1:42,09. A dark horse for the race is Spaniard Mohamed Attaoui, who's shone particularly in the 1500 meters this campaign. Polish pacesetter Patryk Siedrazki has done stellar work previously, so the world record attempt definitely has more than a leg to stand on.

World Champions Seville and Jordan battle in the 100 meters

The men's 100m race is looking like a real treat, but sadly this season's top runner (albeit in not acceptable wind conditions) Lament Marcell Jacobs of Italy was forced to not compete due to a muscle injury. Losing a 9,67 SB runner would usually impact a competition's credibility significantly, but this is not the case in Monaco.

There's plenty of quality in the field, as Tokyo's world champion Oblique Seville from Jamaica will be facing off against Anthony Jordan from the United States, who took victory in the indoor World Championships earlier in the year.

Seville is the clear favourite to take victory, as he holds the world leading time of 9,82 in acceptable conditions. The Jamaican sprint star has raced six times this season, and only once have the clocks stopped over 10 seconds. His American challenger hasn't quite managed to pick up where he left off in the indoor season, with his season's best being just a 9,91.

Long Jump promising to be a titanic tussle

Switzerland's Simon Ehammer is an athletics talent of the most versatile variety, who's managed to find success in the long jump despite his primary discipline being the decathlon. In this season's European Championships Ehammer will be focusing entirely on the long jump, looking to add to his solitary bronze at the European level after jumping 851 earlier this season.

There's plenty of competition for the Swiss Star in Monaco, as there's five athletes who have gone over 820 this season waiting to take his scalp. Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece is always dangerous, and Cuba's Jorge Hodelin also has a real shot at victory. Italy's young star Mattia Furlani is making a return to competing after a small injury, so he's form is still a bit of a question mark.

Who will triumph in the highly competed hurdle jungle?

The woman's 100m hurdles are in something of a golden age as of late, and every single Diamond League meet seems to have a strong possibility of a world record. Masai Russell of the United States already came close to Tobi Amusan's world record in May, and the American star has kept her form up for the duration of the summer.

Monaco's entry list bares seven names from the top 10 runners of the season, and all 8 hurdles present in the principality are separated by just 39 hundredths of a second. Out of the European track stars the Dutch Nadine Visser (12,41) and Poland's Pia Skryzszowska (12,44) are the highest hopes to upset the duo of Russell and Amusan.

Will the whole track be covered in under 44 seconds?

The Paris Diamond League a few weeks ago showed some staggering pace on the 400 meters, as two men managed to get under the 44 second mark. The duo of Collen Kebinatshipi of Botswana and South Africa's Zakithi Nene will be joining the fold in Monaco as well, so fireworks are to be expected.

Kebinatshipi has been in top form recently, and he might have his eyes on Wayde van Niekerk's Monaco Diamond League record of 43,74, which the South African legend ran in 2017.

In terms of the Athletics European Championships later in the summer, Great Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith and Hungary's Attila Molnar are also interesting names, as both currently occupy a spot in the top 3 of the European Rankings.