{"id":1880,"date":"2023-08-29T20:53:07","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T20:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/2023\/08\/29\/weltklasse-zurich-features-superb-swiss-athletes\/"},"modified":"2023-08-29T20:53:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T20:53:07","slug":"weltklasse-zurich-features-superb-swiss-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/weltklasse-zurich-features-superb-swiss-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Weltklasse Z\u00fcrich features superb Swiss athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The signature Letzigrund Stadium atmosphere tends to give them wings. And the number of Swiss athletes who are lining up next to international stars has been on the rise, not least thanks to the sustained support provided by Weltklasse Z\u00fcrich. The trend underlines the positive development in Swiss athletics.<\/p>\n

Swiss highlights in sprint races<\/strong><\/p>\n

A highlight of the national programme of events (which features a number of international competitors), European indoor champion and world championship finalist Jason Joseph would like to make his mark in the 110m hurdles. His opponents include his training partner Finley Gaio and European U23 champion Sasha Zhoya (FRA). And whenever Joseph steps on the track these days, there is the question of whether he might improve his own national record (13.10).<\/p>\n

Joseph\u2019s female counterpart is Ditaji Kambundji. The Bernese obliterated the national record in the 100mh when she ran 12.47 this year. The result made her a serious opponent for the world championship medallists Danielle Williams (JAM), Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (PRI), and Kendra \u201cKeni\u201d Harrison (USA).<\/p>\n

Ditaji\u2019s big sister and 60m world champion Mujinga will try to make things as difficult as possible for new world champion Sha\u2019Carri Richardson and Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah. Due to health issues, the season has been difficult for the Swiss national record holder. Her primary goal is to end the summer on a positive note.<\/p>\n

The final of event of the night, the Z\u00fcrich Trophy, will feature two teams in the 4x100m relay race.<\/p>\n

Consolation for Simon Ehammer? Local fans will be excited to see Simon Ehammer again. He and Mujinga Kambundji are the only two active Swiss world championship medallists at this time. Decathlete Ehammer, who has extraordinary long jumping skills, was able to secure the bronze medal at the Eugene world championships last year. In Budapest, however, he unfortunately dropped out in the final, and is no doubt determined to wipe out this most recent experience by competing well against Olympic, world, and European champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE).<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s 400m, Giulia Senn and Julia Niederberger, two local heroes who both have already run sub-52-second races this summer, will challenge one the sport\u2019s greats: Two-time Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH), who returned to competing in Budapest after a four-month baby break, will be lining up at Letzigrund Stadium, as well.<\/p>\n

Several Swiss athletes in middle- and long-distance races<\/strong><\/p>\n

Audrey Werro and Lore Hoffmann are facing as many as five world championship finalists in the 800m. Two-time European U20 champion Werro and Hoffmann, who placed fourth at the European championships will try and challenge the likes of Halimah Nakaayi (UGA), the 2019 world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Reavyn Rogers (USA).<\/p>\n

In the men\u2019s races Tom Elmer, a member of the Zurich athletics club LCZ and a world championship semi-finalist, will compete in the 1500m, his preferred event. And Zurich\u2019s Jonas Raess is getting ready to challenge many international stars and Switzerland-based refugee Dominic Lobalo.<\/p>\n

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An emotional farewell? <\/strong><\/p>\n

For one Swiss athlete, competing in this year\u2019s meeting will be a farewell appearance. After dealing with injuries for quite some time, and to be able to concentrate on his accounting career, high jumper Lo\u00efc Gasch competes for the final time on Thursday night. The Romandy native celebrated his biggest success in 2022, when he won a world indoor championship silver medal.<\/p>\n

Swiss Starts at Weltklasse Z\u00fcrich:<\/strong><\/p>\n

100m Women: Mujinga Kambundji
200m Men: William Reais
800m Women: Lore Hoffmann, Audrey Werro
1500m Men: Tom Elmer
5000m Men: Jonas Raess, Dominic Lobalu (LC Br\u00fchl)
100m Hurdles Women: Ditaji Kambundj
400m Hurdles Men: Julien Bonvin
High Jump Men: Lo\u00efc Gasch
Long Jump Men: Simon Ehammer
4x100m Women: Swiss National Relay Team, Swiss National Relay Team U23<\/p>\n

Pre-programme<\/strong><\/p>\n

100m Women: G\u00e9raldine Frey, Salom\u00e9 Kora, Melissa Gutschmidt, Natacha Kouni, Lena Weiss, C\u00e9line B\u00fcrgi
400m Women: Julia Niederberger, Giulia Senn
400m Men: Ricky Petrucciani, Lionel Spitz
110m Hurdles: Jason Joseph, Finley Gaio
1500m Wheelchair Women: Catherine Debrunner, Patricia Eachus, Manuel Sch\u00e4r
1500m Wheelchar Men: Marcel Hug<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To the Swiss stars of athletics, Weltklasse Z\u00fcrich is a highlight of their outdoor season, in...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zurich"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}