Having celebrated Usain Bolt one last time and borne witness to five of the top performances in the world, three competition records and one Diamond League record in 2017, naturally the Monaco meeting would be hard pushed to ease off the throttle in 2018.
And that’s an understatement, given the latest crop of athletes to have confirmed their participation, who are set to rock the very core of the discipline on Friday 20 July, on the Rock of Monaco. Let the duelling commence.
In the sprint first of all. Among the male contingent, the big sensation from the start of the season is the young American Noah Lyles, recent winner of the 100m at the American championships, who will have to stave off the competition in the 200m from the likes of Turkish athlete Ramil Guliyev, reigning World champion, and Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, as well as Filippo Tortu, who recently took the credit for being the first Italian to run a sub-10'' time.
Among the female athletes, in the 100m, Marie-José Ta Lou from the Ivory Coast, world number two in the 100 and 200m, is ready and waiting for a line-up worthy of a world final. She will be up against Dafné Schippers, double reigning world champion, her compatriot Muriel Ahouré and Aleia Hobbs, who was recently crowned US champion in the 100m.
The 110m hurdles is also set to be quick. On the start line, we’ll find the Russian athlete Sergey Shubenkov, the only athlete to have run a sub-13'' this year. He’ll notably be up against the Jamaican Omar McLeod, reigning World and Olympic champion. We’ll also find Aries Merritt, world record holder, and Devon Allen, the recent American champion.
In the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, the ambiance will primarily be coloured by revenge and supremacy: the Kenyans Hyvin Kiyeng, Olympic number two, and Beatrice Chepkoech, who remained at the foot of the podium at the London Worlds last year, will be keen to prove to the American Emma Coburn, the surprise World champion of 2017, that the steeplechase is still their private preserve…
In the men’s triple jump, Christian Taylor, triple World champion and double Olympic champion, has every intention of posting a stand-out performance and securing another season’s best in the world. However, he’ll be up against some fine competition from the likes of Nelson Evora and Alexis Copello, author of a jump of 17m24 this season.
A stellar cast and some striking performances in prospect then! See you on 20 July 2018 at the Louis II Stadium in Monaco...
