This is Stuart Weir’s review of the Weltklasse match in Zurich 2024 at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich, Switzerland on 4-5 September 2024.
A world class overview
Weltklasse means world class and the Zurich Diamond League always lives up to its name. The weather didn’t get the memo this year and the usual late summer sunshine was replaced by rain, making the track and tracks very wet.
Mondo Duplantis was recognized as a double winner. Sure enough, he won the pole vault in 5.82 just 24 hours after winning the Nordic 100 against Carsten Warholm. Do you remember when Mondo wanted Shelly-Ann in the Brussels Diamond League a few years ago?
Mondo won the sprint and the loser had to race the next day in the national colors of the winning nation. It’s been afin the race, it might have been, but it was accomplished at considerable cost to both athletes. Mondo explained that he left the pole vault with a 5.82 because “my body felt sank after yesterday’s race. Also, the weather was freezing. So it was a bad combination. Yesterday’s sprint was very impressive. It was a great experience for both of us. It was super amazing. I think we have built a super event. it was very new and innovative. And just to be a preview show for today. I don’t see why there couldn’t be more events like this.”
Hercules EBS
July 21, 2023, Monaco, photo by Kevin Morris
Warholm, wearing his obligatory Swedish shirt, announced his withdrawal from 400h. “I would really like to be in the 400 tonight, but I felt my hamstring a little bit after the race yesterday. I tried to do a little warm up today, but I didn’t have a proper sprint, so it wasn’t worth the risk. I hope the bet is done now. I will wear this Swedish jersey and people will take pictures and make fun of me. But I hope I can put it behind me because I don’t want to make a fool of myself twice.”
Hercules EBS
July 21, 2023, Monaco, photo by Kevin Morris
Beatrice Chebet, 5000m and 10000m Olympic champion, Won the 5k comfortably but fell just short of her world record attempt, settling for a world-leading 14:09.52 and the meet record by some distance, beating compatriot Vivian Cheruiot’s 14:30.10 in 2011. Chebet said: I really wanted to set the world record, but the pacemaker dropped out earlier than planned. It was not easy after that.”
Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo completed another barnstorming finish to overtake Kenny Bednarek to win. by 0.02 in 19.55, although Bednarek posted a PR of 19.57.
The men’s sprint hurdles proved to be the most predictable of the events and, as expected, Grant Holloway won in 12.99, which I’m told was a record 12.th sub 13 second run. If the men’s race is predictable, the women’s race is anything but. Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won in Zurich in 12.36, Sirena Samba-Mayela was second (12.40) and Olympic champion Masai Russell was third (12.47).
World champion Sha Kari Richardson (10.84) won the 100m from Olympic champion Julien Alfred (10.88). In the men’s 400h, Roshawn Clarke won in 47.49 minutes after Alison Dos Santos failed to finish the race.
In the men’s shot, Ryan Kruser won with four throws beyond the 22m line and a best of 22.66m. The men’s long jump saw Miltiadis Tentoglu’s first loss of the year, while Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock was second in Paris, jumping 8.18m.
