Zurich (AFP)

The Zurich meeting hosts the Diamond League finals on Wednesday and Thursday and their procession of stars (Warholm, Thompson-Herah, Duplantis, Rojas ...) for the last big meeting of the athletics season, one month after the Tokyo Olympics.

Nineteen Olympic champions will be divided between the pre-meeting held on Wednesday on the "Sechseläutenplatz" on the shores of Lake Zurich (high jump women, weight men and women, length men and women, 5,000 m men and women), then the hearty main program Thursday (25 events) at the Letzigrund stadium in front of more than 20,000 spectators.

- Warholm, back to the hurdles -

Karsten Warholm is back in the 400m hurdles, more than a month after his feat at the Tokyo Games where he smashed the world record (45 sec 94).

The Norwegian has not returned to his favorite race since, completing only one outing on 400 m flat in Lausanne, concluded in very average time (45 sec 51) on August 26.

Will he have enough energy to hit a big time at the end of the season?

The American Rai Benjamin absent, he should not have an opponent to his measure despite the presence of the bronze medalist of the Olympic Games, the Brazilian Alison Dos Santos.

Norwegian Karsen Warhlolm, in the 400m hurdles final, August 3, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Andrej ISAKOVIC AFP / Archives

- Royal casting over 100m, but without Jacobs -

Apart from the Italian Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who ended his season after the Games, all the top sprinters are present in the 100m, in particular the American Fred Kerley and the Canadian André De Grasse, 2nd and 3rd in Tokyo. Trayvon Bromell, the fastest man of the year (9 sec 77) but great disappointment of the Olympics (elimination in the semi-finals), will also be present, as well as the South African Akani Simbine, at the foot of the podium in Japan (4th). Bromell recovered by taking 2nd place in the 100m at the Brussels meeting on Friday, behind Kerley, who will also line up for 200m, just like the Olympic gold medalist in the distance, André De Grasse .

The American Fred Kerley and the Canadian Andre De Grasse, during the 100m semi-final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, on August 1, 2021 at the Jewel Olympic Stadium SAMAD AFP / Archives

- Thompson-Herah will be alone -

Queen of the Tokyo Olympics with three coronations (100 m, 200 m, 4x100 m), Elaine Thompson-Herah will have to do without her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, her great rival on the straight line.

The Jamaican has not really decompressed since her exploits at the Games since she signed the second fastest time in history on August 21 in Eugene (10 sec 54), only five hundredths behind the sulphurous world record of the American Florence Griffith-Joyner (10 sec 49 in 1988), before running in 10 sec 64 in Lausanne then in 10 sec 72 in Paris, on August 28.

The joy of Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah, Olympic champion in the 100m in front of her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, July 31, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Odd ANDERSEN AFP / Archives

- Duplantis and Rojas are almost there -

Just crowned with his first Olympic title, Armand Duplantis would like to embellish it with a new pole vault world record (6.18 m) before offering himself a well-deserved vacation.

Winner in Paris (6.01 m) then in Brussels (6.05 m), the Swedish prodigy (21) tried both times a bar at 6.19 m and did not seem very far from the goal in Belgium .

Will he be more successful at the Letzigrund in Zurich?

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, during the Memorial Van Damme meeting counting for the Diamond League, September 3, 2021 in Brussels JOHN THYS AFP / Archives

In the women's triple jump, Yulimar Rojas is also so easy and so above her opponents that she seems perfectly capable of improving her mark of 15.67m at the Tokyo Olympics.

- Mboma, the scarecrow -

A specialist in the 400m but forced to move towards the 200m because of the regulations on hyperandrogenic athletes, Christine Mboma never ceases to amaze.

In the space of five months, the 18-year-old Namibian, who this year became the 7th all-time performer on the lap, metamorphosed into a 200m shoe with an Olympic silver medal in a canon time (21 sec 81).

Despite a start and a technique that could still be improved, Mboma will be the favorite in Zurich, on the half-lap.

© 2021 AFP