The Swedish capital of Stockholm greets the world\u2019s finest athletes to the DN Galan meeting tomorrow evening for the eleventh stage of the IAAF Diamond League at the city\u2019s 1912 Olympic stadium.<\/p>\n
After a five-week break, the IAAF Diamond League arrives at the venue which holds the world record for the arena with the most world records at 83, as no less than 18 newly crowned continental champions are set to compete.<\/p>\n
The cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of women\u2019s 200m sprinting, women\u2019s 1500m running and of the men\u2019s 800m gathered in front of the world\u2019s media earlier today to speak of their hopes for Thursday.<\/p>\n
Three-time world champion and Olympic champion, Allyson Felix<\/strong> continues her return from injury and the 28-year-old American has a fine 22.34 season\u2019s best. The winner in Oslo explained:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun to compete here so I\u2019m happy to be back \u2013 I have fond memories of competing here, the crowd is always amazing. There\u2019s a great energy here so I\u2019m excited to return.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year was difficult coming off an injury but I\u2019m not pushing more than necessary in this non-championships year in order to come back in top form next summer. <\/p>\n \u201cThe training break went well \u2013 I got more under my belt having played catch-up all season and I hope to have made solid progress.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next three years are intense but my motivation and passion is still there so I\u2019m looking forward to explore which events I\u2019ll focus on, I\u2019m still thoroughly enjoying myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Her US team-mate, Tori Bowie,<\/strong> meanwhile has enjoyed a breakthrough summer with superb 10.80 100m and 22.18 clockings in addition to impressive wins in Eugene over the half-lap and Rome, New York and Monaco in the shorter sprint.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old revealed:<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing, it\u2019s been a fun year and I\u2019m enjoying every moment and I\u2019m using this season to prepare for next year. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any plans or expectations right now, I just go out and execute \u2013 I\u2019m still learning how to run correctly, that\u2019s the main focus.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowie \u2013 who explained that her improvement is related to switching coaches and moving to Florida \u2013 announced that she will aim to compete in the long jump, 100m and 200m in next summer\u2019s IAAF World Championships.<\/p>\n 17-year-old Irene Ekelund<\/strong> of Sweden claimed the IAAF World Junior Championships silver medal earlier this season and the world youth champion goes into the competition with a 23.26 season\u2019s best.<\/p>\n \u201cZurich (the European Championships last week) went great, I was so very was happy with the 200m and we didn\u2019t think we\u2019d make the final of the 4x100m relay but we did.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a lot of good girls to run against, a lot of hard competition and I just tried my best and followed their lead. I just want to run fast and have fun tomorrow night.\u201d <\/p>\n The women\u2019s 1500m is loaded with talent and four of the main protagonists met this morning to discuss the metric mile event.<\/p>\n Newly crowned European champion, Sifan Hassan<\/strong> arrives following a silver medal over 5,000m in Zurich and the 21-year-old Netherlands athlete boasts a 3:57.00 national record from her Paris victory last month in addition to a 14:59.23 personal best in May.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very happy for my 1500m and 5,000m, I\u2019m getting better in every meeting. Meraf Bahta and I train together as our coaches are friends, I\u2019 happy because we push each other and I\u2019m happy for her 5,000m success in Zurich. I think it will be a very good race tomorrow,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s world indoor and outdoor champion, Abeba Aregawi<\/strong> claimed the 1500m runner-up position in the continental championship and the 24-year-old European indoor champion admitted:<\/p>\n \u201cHere in my home country, I\u2019m happy to be running. I\u2019m not running well these days so I hope to do better here.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy it\u2019s going good for them (her rivals) \u2013 I had a good time and now they\u2019re coming up, I was a role model.<\/p>\n The USA\u2019s 2011 world champion and 2013 world silver medallist, Jennifer Simpson<\/strong> registered an impressive 3:57.22 lifetime best for second place in Paris and the 27-year-old revealed:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really happy to be here, Stockholm is a special place to compete – it\u2019s exciting to run here. <\/p>\n \u201cI had time to go home and reflect on my effort in Paris and just train for four weeks \u2013 it presented a good opportunity and also a unique challenge as I was just watching the Commonwealth Games and the European and African Championships. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a high-level field so it\u2019s difficult to choose the winner, as we all bring different strengths to the table. It will be a fun and exciting race for the spectators, the stadium record could potentially go. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of momentum in the women\u2019s 1500m this season so it\u2019s an exciting event with a great depth of talent. It makes the sport fun as there\u2019s no strong favourite so it\u2019s really hard for us.\u201d<\/p>\n European 5,000m champion, Meraf Bahta<\/strong> of Sweden clocked a 4:03.16 personal best in June, following her 14:59.49 national record in May and the 25-year-old said:<\/p>\n \u201cI was happy to win the gold medal and I look forward to competing with these girls tomorrow. I\u2019ve been training with the guys in St Moritz before coming here to get strong."<\/p>\n \u201cI want to run both the 1500m and 5,000m next year, it\u2019s a good combination for me. I also want to run under or close to four minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n The men\u2019s 800m offers a mouth-watering clash between Poland\u2019s Adam Kszczot<\/strong> and Ayanleh Souleiman<\/strong> of Djibouti.<\/p>\n Two-time European indoor champion, Kszczot has a swift 1:44.15 season\u2019s best and the 24-year-old world indoor runner-up is aiming for a fast race:<\/p>\n \u201cI was sure I was going for gold (in Zurich) as I prepared specifically and I ran the second lap of the Polish Championships in 51 seconds on my own. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was great for Poland to also take the silver medal behind me, I was really surprised when I saw my big lead on the screen, I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, I will try to get my personal best, we will see what happens tomorrow. The training plan was to start the season easy and now I try to find races to go for 1:43.50 and lower.\u201d<\/p>\n Souleiman \u2013 the world indoor 1500m champion and world 800m bronze medallist \u2013 has focused more on the 1500m and mile events this summer but the 21-year-old has a blistering 1:43.69 season\u2019s best:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m lucky I won the African Championships and I\u2019m in good shape – I\u2019m happy with my season,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cI like to change my training between the 800m, 1500m and 3,000m \u2013 it\u2019s like food, it depends on what I feel like.\u201d<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s 19-year-old world junior bronze medallist, Andreas Almgren<\/strong> reached the semi-final stage in Zurich and set a 1:45.65 national junior record in July.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a very special atmosphere here, the crowd goes crazy \u2013 it gives me goose-bumps all around my body,\u201d Almgren recalled.<\/p>\n \u201cMy goal was to get the bronze medal in Zurich but I did not think I would go sub-1:46 – that was a big surprise to me. I\u2019m just going to try to keep with the pace tomorrow night, anything\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Nicola Bamford<\/em> for the organisers of the DN Galan meeting, Stockholm.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo: Deca Text & Bild<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1537","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\/1537","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=1537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stockholm.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}