The organizers reached an agreement with the French authorities on holding the meeting in an adapted format.
The Paris Diamond League will go ahead as planned this Sunday (June 28) after organizers and authorities agreed a series of measures to protect public health and safety.
As the historical heat continues to engulf France. Paris hit a June record high of 40.9C on Wednesday, with police in the capital earlier today asking for the cancellation of large-scale weekend events, including the Pride march, the Solidays festival and sporting events such as the Diamond League.
Organizers had already announced on Thursday that measures had been put in place to mitigate the heat, including providing enough drinking water, increasing medical care available to athletes, broadcasting regular heat safety messages through the stadium and providing cooling vests for athletes.
They also added that there is a prefectural exemption, meaning professional athletes can still compete. Therefore, non-elite athletics events, which take place before the start of television, have been canceled.
Police said this morning that despite organizers’ efforts to increase domestic first aid capacity, the influx of thousands of spectators posed too great a risk to an already overstretched health system.
The prefecture has warned it will be forced to comply with the order if a voluntary agreement is not reached.
Organizers have since updated some events, including pushing back the opening of the stadium gates to the public by 45 minutes to 4.15pm (local time). Today they announced that the Diamond League will go ahead as planned.
Paris is the eighth round of this year’s competition, and some of the star names on the show include the likes of Noah Lyles, Mondo Duplantis, Audrey Verreau and Femke Broders-Bohl.
READ MORE. Extreme heat disrupts UK athletics events
The Brits will be interested in the 1500m, with both Georgia Hunter Bell and Katie Snowden competing, while Ben Pattison runs over 800m and Jeremiah Azu over the 100m.
