Noah Lyles to open 200m season against Letsile Tebogo in Monaco
Letsile Tebogo after crossing the line to win gold ahead of silver medallist Kenneth Bednarek and bronze medallist Noah Lyles at the Paris Olympics.
MONACO – Noah Lyles makes his much-anticipated return to elite competition when he competes in the 200m at the Diamond League meet in Monaco on Friday.
As athletes continue to fine-tune their form ahead of September's World Championships in Tokyo, the American will line up against Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo.
Here are four stand-out disciplines at the 10th meeting of the 15-event Diamond League at the Stade Louis II.
1. Men's 200m
Olympic 100m champion Lyles makes his return to action in the 200m on a track where his one previous appearance, in 2020, saw him clock a sensational 19.46 seconds.
The 27-year-old ran a 400m in Atlanta in April, but is yet to compete over the 100 or 200m this season.
Lyles' season and European debut in the half-lap race will see him line up against Botswana's Olympic 200m champion Tebogo.
It will be the duo's first race since that final in Paris last summer when a Covid-struck Lyles claimed bronze.
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Tebogo heads to Monaco as the sprinter to beat. He set the fastest time of the season over 200m in Eugene on Saturday, in 19.76sec, having recovered from a poor start to the season.
'For me, this is the tip of an iceberg,' said Tebogo. 'The 19.7 is a shock to me because we just recovered from an injury which took a lot of weeks of training, so I'm happy with how I performed.'
2. Women's 400m hurdles
Femke Bol, the world champion, double European champion and four-time Olympic medallist, boasts an incredible streak of 25 consecutive victories in the Diamond League since 2021, including four final wins.
She first competed in Monaco in 2020, finishing third in the 400m flat on her Diamond League debut.
'I've trained well this year. Monaco is one of the meetings I haven't won yet and I would love to change that this year,' said the Dutchwoman.
'I hope to run a great race and fully enjoy the atmosphere.'
Bol will have some serious competition from Dalilah Muhammad and fellow American Anna Cockrell, Olympic silver medallist in Paris.
3. Men's pole vault
Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis again headlines the pole vault competition, the US-born Swede fresh from another victory last weekend in Eugene.
The two-time Olympic champion won that with a vault of 6.00m, comfortably ahead of Americans Sam Kendricks and Austin Miller.
The question on everyone's lips whenever Duplantis takes to the field is whether everything aligns for him to have another pitch at bettering his own world record.
That currently stands at 6.28m, which he set in Stockholm three weeks ago, the 12th time he has improved the world record.
At the Stade Louis II, he will seek to erase the blip of 2023 when he finished fourth with 5.72m, far from his usual standards.
4. Women's 100m
Olympic champion Julien Alfred saw her winning streak ended by in-form American Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in Eugene.
Saint Lucia's Alfred, whose gold in Paris was the first-ever for her tiny Caribbean island nation, finished second in 10.77, two-hundredths off the American and her own fastest time of the season.
In Monaco, Alfred will be up against the Jamaican Clayton twins, Tia and Tina, New Zealander Zoe Hobbs and a US trio in the form of Aleia Hobbs, Jacious Sears and Maia McCoy.
Could the meeting record of 10.72sec set by Marion Jones in 1998 be under threat? AFP
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