Stockholm\u2019s 1912 Olympic stadium is set to greet the world\u2019s finest track and field athletes to the eleventh leg of the IAAF Diamond League on Thursday evening, as the Swedish capital welcomes world-class athletics to the DN Galan meeting once again. <\/p>\n
Following a five-week break, the IAAF Diamond League continues its season-long run as no less than 18 newly crowned continental champions are set to compete in the Stockholm stadium which holds the world record for the arena with the most world records at 83.<\/p>\n
Long distance athlete, Galen Rupp<\/strong> and 3,000m steeplechase duo, Emma Coburn<\/strong> and Charlotta Fougberg<\/strong> met the world\u2019s media this afternoon to discuss their summers so far and their aspirations for the event.<\/p>\n USA\u2019s Rupp \u2013 the 28-year-old Olympic 10,000m silver medallist \u2013 clocked a fine 26:44.36 American 10,000m record in Eugene earlier this season and the world fourth placer had a 13:00.99 season\u2019s best to his name.<\/p>\n \u201cMy season started out really well when I set the American record and I had solid runs in Oslo and Paris, then I went back home to get some training in so I\u2019m excited to race in Stockholm,\u201d Rupp explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI surprised myself at Pre (in Eugene) \u2013 I knew I was in good shape and my main goal was to work on winning, I felt comfortable and relaxed and I made it a long drive for home from 800m to go. It\u2019s all about committing and I learned a lot tactically from Paris \u2013 you can learn that in training.\u201d<\/p>\n On his racing break and the recent new additions to his family, Rupp continued:<\/p>\n \u201cThe break worked out well, as it was a good chance to get some solid volume in and rest from competition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve just been high-altitude training in St Moritz \u2013 I hope the race is quick but I really want to work on my tactics to win, that\u2019s my primary goal. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely in shape to break the American record but it\u2019s all about winning. I\u2019m glad all of my races this season have been tactical as it\u2019s like that in major championships so it\u2019s good to prepare. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a big change having two babies at home and it was the best moment of my life when they were born. You definitely need to make sacrifices but I\u2019ve talked a lot with my wife, it\u2019s a balancing act but my family is my first priority. There are a lot of times I have to leave them but we\u2019ll try to make it work the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n Coburn, meanwhile is enjoying the form of her life in a superb breakthrough campaign which has seen the 23-year-old American record four lifetime bests including her latest, a 9:11.42 US record in Glasgow. <\/p>\n The winner in Shanghai and runner-up in Paris and Glasgow, Coburn revealed:<\/p>\n \u201cGlasgow was a really fun race, I just try to run hard and it was great to get the record. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a great crowd and track here and it will be a fun race. It\u2019s always great to get the opportunity to travel and race the best from around the world \u2013 we\u2019re all at the top of our game and are ready to run fast so it\u2019s always enjoyable racing them. <\/p>\n \u201cI hope to run another personal best or get close to it. I underperformed when I was last here in 2012 as I was sick but I love visiting beautiful cities. <\/p>\n \u201cI hope we have good conditions, I\u2019m really looking forward to seeing what I can do. I\u2019d love to win here or in Zurich next week \u2013 I\u2019ve been second a few times this year.\u201d<\/p>\n On her improvement in 2014, the Olympic finalist explained:<\/p>\n \u201cI was injured last year and nothing\u2019s dramatically shifted in my training this year. I\u2019m training with Jenny Simpson (the world 1500m silver medallist) and I\u2019ve had more fire in my belly this year. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve achieved my goals this season so it\u2019s just about having fun now and trying to end the season on a high note. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are very few race scenarios that are intimidating to me now as I\u2019ve faced them all. There\u2019s little pressure and it\u2019s encouraging to keep getting faster.\u201d<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s Fougberg claimed the European silver medal last week, which followed her 9:23.96 national record in Glasgow, and the 29-year-old European Team Championships winner said:<\/p>\n \u201cI was very happy with the silver medal, it\u2019s a very big medal for me so I\u2019ve been happy every second since the race. I was in the lead until the final barrier which was so bad but I\u2019m still happy.<\/p>\n \u201cI had some calm days and then a really good session yesterday, and it\u2019s so nice that people are now saying nice things about me \u2013 they didn\u2019t talk to me very much before. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to racing in what\u2019s almost like my home town and I\u2019m just focusing on doing a fast race by trying to stick with Emma.\u201d Stockholm\u2019s 1912 Olympic stadium is set to greet the world\u2019s finest track and field athletes...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stockholm"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1536"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Nicola Bamford<\/em> for the DN Galan organisers, Stockholm. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"