All-Star Cast for Zurich

With eight days to go before the first Samsung Diamond League final, the impressive line-ups for the events at Weltklasse Zürich have been announced. Once again, the meeting will more than likely present the best fields of the season worldwide. In addition to the international athletics star cast, the meeting will offer a number of Swiss highlights, including a lap of honour by European Champion Viktor Röthlin. Tomorrow (Friday), as of 10 a.m., the very last stadium tickets will be on sale.

The athletics stars of the world will meet at Letzigrund Stadium on 19 August: The prestigious Weltklasse Zürich start lists include 15 world leaders, 10 Olympic champions, 12 world champions, and 16 European champions this year. Meeting Director Patrick K. Magyar is proud to be able to present such star-studded fields again: “The athletes competing in Zurich next week combine as many as 173 European, world championship and Olympic game medals. The fans will be able to enjoy athletics at its best and will witness the impressive gathering of a tremendous amount of stars.”

Strongest Fields Worldwide
Once again, the Zurich promoters expect to present the strongest fields of the season worldwide. “We never concentrate on just one name or one event. Our philosophy is to invite the best athletes in each and every event,” Patrick K. Magyar explained. “This has been a very successful approach, and has been particularly important whenever some stars are not able to compete, as is the case with Usain Bolt, Kenenisa Bekele, and Yelena Isinbayeva this year.” When superstars have to cancel, others sometimes take the opportunity to shine. They step out of the shadows of dominating competitors and rise to the occasion. The outcome of the competitions becomes very open, offering a lot of athletics excitement. Meeting Director Magyar pointed out, “In the men’s 5000m, for instance, there will be 18 athletes who are able to run under 13 minutes. At least 12 of them have the potential to actually win the race. The final kilometre of the race will be a true athletics treat.”

Swiss Highlights: Relay, Pusterla, Urech – and Röthlin
The Swiss fans will be delighted to see some of the young Swiss talents in the international programme of the meeting. The relay team is the seventh fastest 4x100m national relay team of the year. A great performance and a bit of luck might even earn the motivated sprinters a spot on the podium. Long jumper Irena Pusterla will have her first appearance in a world-class field, and high hurdler Lisa Urech will face an extraordinary competition: She will line up against the two fastest athletes of the year, Lolo Jones and Priscilla Lopes, as well as seven Barcelona finalists. Finally, Viktor Röthlin’s European championship triumph will be celebrated: “I was not able to run a lap of honour in Barcelona, as the finishing line was outside the stadium,” the marathon star explained. He is looking forward to meet his Swiss fans during such a lap of honour at Letzigrund Stadium next week.

Friday, 10 a.m.: Last-Minute Tickets
As in the past, Letzigrund Stadium has long been sold out. However, there is one last opportunity to order tickets online (www.weltklassezuerich.ch) tomorrow, as of 10 a.m. “Every year, some of the tickets are being returned,” Patrick K. Magyar explained. “In addition, we know the exact number of tickets for the standing area only after the final preparations for the various camera positions. This year, there have been quite a number of changes. Therefore, some dozens of tickets for both the seating and the standing areas will be on sale tomorrow. Some of them are located just above the finishing line.”

Provisional Timetable