Diamond League Goes to Paris For Final Regular Season Meeting

By Adam Kopet

The Diamond League is headed Saturday to Paris for the 12th stop on this year's tour and the final regular-season meet before the Diamond League finals in Zurich and Brussels.

Grant Holloway and Daniel Roberts are familiar opponents. They have raced multiple times this year, including three championship races over the 110-meter hurdles. They will compete head to head once again this year in Paris.

ENTRIES

The rivalry between the former Florida and Kentucky athletes is new this year. Holloway has been one of the best hurdlers in the United States since his freshman season at Florida. Roberts has made huge improvements over the past two years to make Holloway-Roberts races competitive.

In those three championship races, at the SEC Outdoor Championships, NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships and the USATF Outdoor Championships, Roberts has won twice over Holloway. Holloway, however, won the NCAA title in a collegiate record 12.98. In each of those three races, Holloway and Roberts finished first and second, regardless of order.

Now, the rivalry is headed to Europe. Roberts has twice made trips to compete in Europe, earning a best finish of second at the Lausanne Diamond League meeting. More recently, Roberts finished fourth at last week's Birmingham Diamond League meeting.

For Holloway, this will be his first Diamond League appearance. He did make his European debut earlier this year with a win in Hungary, but this will be his first time on the Diamond League circuit, making this his only chance to qualify for the Diamond League finals. Holloway has not raced since his runner-up finish at the USATF Outdoor Championships.

Also competing in the 110-meter hurdles are Spain's Orlando Ortega and the Authorized Neutral Athlete Sergey Shubenkov.

The women's 800 meters could prove to be an interesting race to follow. Ajee' Wilson is not set to appear, leaving the door open for a trio of Americans to take her place. Raevyn Rogers, Hanna Green and Kate Grace have run well this season and will be looking to use the Paris race as a springboard into the final stretch of the season.

It will not just be an American show in the 800. Jamaica's Natoya Goule, Bahrain's Nelly Jepkosgei and Uganda's Winnie Nanyondo will be formidable as they challenge for the win.

Noah Lyles is set to race for the first time since he won the 200 meters at the USATF Outdoor Championships. He will once again run the 200, an event in which he is the world leader at 19.50. That also ranks him fourth on the all-time performer list.

With Christian Coleman's season in doubt due to missed drug tests, the sprint interests of fans around the world will have their eyes on Lyles. As a showman, Lyles will certainly provide entertainment to go along with the fast times he can run.

The women's sprint fields in Paris are strong this year. The women's 400 meters might not feature Shaunae Miller-Uibo or Salwa Eid Naser, it does include Shakima Wimbley and Kendall Ellis, who finished first and second at the USATF Outdoor Championships. Adding firepower to the race is the reigning world champion Phyllis Francis.

In the 100 meters, Teahna Daniels and Aleia Hobbs are set to take on some of the world's best sprinters in Dafne Schippers of The Netherlands, Marie-Josee' Ta Lou of The Ivory Coast and Elaine Thompson of Jamaica.

The 3,000-meter steeplechase could prove interesting as the reigning world and Olympic champion, Conseslus Kipruto of Kenya, will be making his outdoor debut. Kipruto's last race was a third-place finish at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

Also in the race are Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali and the Kenyan duo of Benjamin Kigen and Abraham Kibiwot. All three men have run 8:05 this season or better. Andy Bayer and Stanley Kebenei are the two Americans set to race.

Both the men's and women's pole vault could be highlights of the meet, should conditions be favorable. The men's competition, which is not a Diamond League event, will see Americans Sam Kendricks, Chris Nilsen and Cole Walsh take on the home-crowd favorite Renaud Lavillenie, as well as Greek vaulter Konstantinos Filippidis.

The women's competition features an all-star field that includes Americans Sandi Morris, Katie Nageotte and Jenn Suhr. They will be challenged by reigning world and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi of Greece, Alysha Newman of Canada, Yarisley Silva of Cuba and the Authorized Neutral Athlete Anzhelika Sidorova. New Zealand's Eliza McCartney, the Olympic bronze medalist from Rio, is set to compete for the first time since February.

Kevin Mayer, the reigning world champion and world record holder in the decathlon from France, is set to compete in three events in Paris. A special triathlon is being held that will see Mayer in the shot put, long jump and 110-meter hurdles competitions. Devon Williams is also set to compete in all three events.