Kirani James<\/b> (GRN) and LaShawn Merritt<\/b> (USA) have both won world championship and Olympic titles before. And they are the most frequently mentioned contenders for more triumph \u2013 both in the Beijing final and in Zurich \u2013 again this year. Winning the two races may not be a matter between the two of them, however: Isaac Makwala<\/b> (BOT) and South Africa\u2018s Wayde van Niekerk<\/b> (RSA) will not make it easy for them. The two co-favourites will be happy to return to Switzerland: Makwala ran an African record and world leading time (43.72) in La Chaux-de-Fonds earlier this year, and van Niekerk broke the 20-second barrier (19.94) in the 200m in Lucerne only a few days later. <\/p>\n800m men: Rudisha, Aman, Kszczot, Makhloufi<\/h2>\n
With Olympic champion and world record holder David Rudisha<\/b>, 2013 world champion M<\/b>ohammed Aman<\/b> (ETH), and European champion Adam Kszczot<\/b> (POL) on the entry list, the 800m have all the makings for an extraordinary highlight. And as 1500m Olympic gold winner Toufik Makhloufi<\/b> (ALG) has also confirmed his appearance, two reigning Olympic champions will clash in the race. Swiss champion Hugo Santacruz<\/b> has secured a spot in the prestigious event, as well.<\/p>\n1500m men: Souleiman, Kiplagat, and Kiprop are the three contenders for this year\u2019s Diamond Trophy<\/h2>\n
As the overall scores of three athletes leading the Diamond Race are a mere three points apart, the series\u2019 last race of the season will be an exciting final spurt for the Diamond Trophy. Ayanleh Souleiman<\/b> (DJI) leads the Diamond Race with 11 points, ahead of Silas Kiplagat<\/b> (KEN\/10 points), and Asbel Kiprop<\/b> (KEN\/9 points). As current world leader, two-time world champion (2011\/2013), and former Olympic champion (2008), Kiprop is considered the main favourite \u2013 both for the Beijing and the IAAF Diamond League finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two weeks prior to the annual gathering of athletics stars at Letzigrund Stadium, Weltklasse...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[36,37,38],"city":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zurich","tag-keyword1","tag-keyword2","tag-keyword3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","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=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurich.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}