There will be no Nigerian athlete present when the sixth instalment of the 2025 Diamond League makes its scheduled stop in the city of Oslo, Norway on Thursday.
The event, which will hold at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, will see a stellar line-up of track and field stars as they continue preparations ahead of the World Athletics Championships set to hold in Tokyo, Japan in September. There will be as many as nine Olympic champions from the Paris 2024 Games, who will compete in several disciplines in an evening of elite action.
Nigeria’s queen of the hurdles Tobi Amusan will be a notable absentee, as the women’s 100m hurdles is not included amongst the line-up of disciplines in Oslo, same as Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, who will not be present as the men’s shot put event will not be conducted in the Bislett Games. Amusan recently found joy during the fourth stop of the Diamond League in Rabat, Morocco, where she stormed to victory in her favoured 100m, whilst setting a new meet record and a season’s best time of 12.45s ahead of Dutchwoman Nadine Visser and Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland, who finished second and third respectively. Enekwechi also featured at the Rabat leg of the Diamond League, finishing seventh with a throw of 21.38m and he took part in the fifth instalment held in Rome, Italy last week where he placed eighth with a throw of 21.31m.
As the Oslo Diamond League draws close, American Rai Benjamin, Norway’s Karsten Warholm, and Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos who are the current Olympic medallists in the men’s 400m hurdles event, will face off for the first time since that epic final of the last year, in a special 300m hurdles race at the Bislett Games. Another event to look out for is the men’s pole vault, where world record holder and reigning Olympic champion Armand Mondo Duplantis of Sweden will lead a star-studded cast.
The biggest name arguably on the tracks will be reigning Olympic women’s 100m champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia, who is making her first appearance and is all set for the two Scandinavian stops of the Diamond League. She is the top pick for the women’s 100m discipline both in Oslo and when the next event takes place three days later in the city of Stockholm in Sweden. Alfred will go head-to-head with British sprinter Dina-Asher Smith, African legend Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of the Ivory Coast, and Italian double European medallist Zaynab Dosso. The women’s triple jump event will feature all six medallists from the Paris Olympics and Nanjing World Indoor Championships in Thea LaFond, Shanieka Ricketts, Jasmine Moore, Leyanis Perez Hernandez, Liadagmis Povea and Ana Peleteiro-Compaore.
The women’s steeplechase will also add another Olympic feel in Oslo, with Paris 2024 star Winfred Yavi of Bahrain going head-on with Kenya’s Faith Cherotich, who won their last duel in the Doha leg of the Diamond League. Poland’s world and Olympic medallist Natalia Bukowiecka leads the 400m field and she takes on Rhasidat Adeleke, Sada Williams, Lieke Klaver and Henriette Jæger, while Canada’s Andre De Grasse will clash with Aaron Brown, Kyree King, Joseph Fahnbulleh and Reynier Mena in the men’s 200m event.
There will be a total of 14 events at the Diamond League meet in Oslo, Norway on Thursday.
