PREVIEW | Stockholm Diamond League

The historic site of the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm is the home to leg eight of the Diamond League, with 11 Australians set to feature throughout the night headlined by the return of established duo Eleanor Patterson and Stewart McSweyn.

Six Australians will compete in Diamond League events televised on Fox Sports / Kayo from 4:00am AEST (Friday July 1), while five others will feature outside of the main program.

Read our preview of all the action below.

Women’s High Jump (3:26am AEST):

After a short break due to injury, Eleanor Patterson (Alex Stewart) returns to the top level to resume her international campaign against a star-studded European line-up at Stockholm.

The World Athletics Indoor Championships silver medallist and only the second woman to clear two-metres in Australian history has based herself overseas in preparation for the international opportunities of 2022, but is yet to jump competitively since that historic night in Belgrade.

World Indoor champion Yaroslava Mahukchikh (Ukraine) has stamped her authority on the event to date this year as the only woman to clear two-metres outdoors – last week recording a seasons best of 2.03m.

Men’s 100m (4:15am AEST):

It’s Diamond League number two of 2022 for Rohan Browning (Andrew Murphy), and what better way to prepare for the World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games than by taking on the world’s fastest man – Marcell Lamont Jacobs (Italy).

Browning is yet to find the maximum velocity during 2022 that saw him become a national icon at the Tokyo Olympics, but for an athlete of his class it appears only a matter of time before one swift run reignites discussions of the elusive 10-second barrier.

The 24-year-old enters off recent runs of 10.28 (+0.5) in Oslo and 10.32 (-0.4) at the Italian national championships, finding himself a suitable race at Stockholm with Reece Prescod (Great Britain) the only man in the field of eight to have broken 10-seconds this year with a 9.93 performance.

Women’s 800m (4:29am AEST):

Demanding a high standard of herself, Catriona Bisset (Ned Brophy-Williams) is determined to lower her 1:58.09 national record imminently.

The 28-year-old has been left unsatisfied by her 2022 Diamond League series to date, with results of 1:59.73 and 1:59.42 in Rome and Oslo respectively for a pair of seventh place finishes. The latter of those runs showed improvement which she will be looking to build on in Stockholm, with the race almost certain to be fast in the presence of Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson (Great Britain).

With Hodgkinson the outlier, Bisset finds a competitive race in which producing her best would likely reap a podium finish and turn in form on the eve of the World Athletics Championships.

Fellow Australian Sarah Billings (Nic Bideau) will get the field moving as the assigned pacemaker.

Men’s 3000m (4:39am AEST):

The Melbourne Track Club duo of Stewart McSweyn (Nic Bideau) and Jack Rayner (Nic Bideau) will toe the line in the Men’s 3000m affair, entering the contest with similar intentions despite their contrasting preparations.

Rayner has enjoyed a rich vein of form that first witnessed him shatter the national 10,000m record with a run of 27:15.35 in March, before returning in June with a sparkling 13:06.00 over 5000m to propel himself to third on the Australian all-time list. Barring disaster, the moustached Australian will lower his official 3000m personal best of 7:52.70 – and likely by a significant margin having paced 3000m through 7:41 recently.

McSweyn’s struggles with COVID-19 have been well-documented, but the Australian record holder appears set to run himself into form ahead of the World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games, having spent a long stint at altitude in Saint Moritz. Unseen since May 21, the King Island product is likely to test the waters of his health status the only way he knows how – hard and fast.

7:26.64-man Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) will line-up as the man to beat.  

Men’s Discus (4:53am AEST):

It has been a rough run for Matthew Denny (Ben Thomson) since throwing a personal best of 67.07m in Rabat, with a bout of food poisoning followed by COVID-19 slamming the brakes on his preparations, but the 26-year-old is eager to return to the circle in Stockholm.

Stating his obvious intentions to peak for the World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games, the looming arrival of those competitions suggests Denny will only build on his career-best form as he targets a crescendo in the form of global medals.  

The world-leading duo of Daniel Stahl (Sweden) and Kristian Cej (Slovenia) headline the encounter with marks of 71.47m and 71.27m sitting neatly next to their respective names.

Non Diamond League Events

Men’s 1500m (3:31am AEST):

Fresh off his maiden Commonwealth Games selection, Matthew Ramsden (Nic Bideau) will be out to assert his presence in a moderate 1500m affair, with the classy Western Australian’s 3:34.08 career-best the second fastest in the field.

The smooth-mover has demonstrated his versatility in 2022 with strong showings of 13:17.11 over 5000m and a 12^th place finish in the 3000m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships, but the 1500m has historically been where Ramsden is at his most competitive.

With a wealth of international experience under his belt, this race on paper presents as an opportunity for Ramsden to claw his way back to optimal form and record a confidence-boosting result.

Ramsden’s Melbourne Track Club teammate Ben Buckingham (Nic Bideau) will set the pace for the field.

Women’s 1500m (3:03am AEST):

Australia’s middle-distance depth will be on display in the form of Georgia Griffith (Nic Bideau) and Liden Hall (Ned Brophy-Williams) at Stockholm, with two of the classiest metric milers in Australian history set to stamp an Australian presence on the event.

Little separates the two on paper in 2022 with Griffith’s 4:00.16 narrowly faster than Hall’s 4:00.58, but Griffith will be determined to join Hall in the elusive sub four-minute club – a club that Hall founded in 2021 when becoming the first Australian woman to break the barrier.

After a slow start to the year, Hall has built strongly towards the form that witnessed her finished in sixth place at last year’s Tokyo Games, while only a bout of COVID-19 has been able to slow Griffith down in her breakthrough season.

Ellie Sanford (Nic Bideau) will pace the race.

Women’s 100m Hurdles (2:34am AEST):

Liz Clay (Sharon Hannan) may have missed out on a lane in the main program, but it leaves her as the leading contender to take out this event provided she can continue her recent form.

The Olympic semi-finalist has runs of 12.85 and 12.89 to her name already on her international voyage, but it is her 12.72 from the national championships that suggests Clay is ready to carve another margin off her 12.71 best with racing under her belt.

The Australian finds her main rivals in the form of friend and training partner Sarah Lavin (Ireland) who owns a 12.93 best, along with Mette Graversgaard (Denmark) whose 12.84 is the second fastest mark in the field of eight.

Men’s 800m (2:15am AEST):

Jye Perrott (Ben Liddy) may not yet be a household name on the Australian athletics scene, but the 23-year-old delivered a dazzling run of 1:45.61 in Germany last week to burst onto the international scene.

An Australian representative at the World University Games in Napoli during 2019, Perrott returned to the national scene with fourth place finishes in the national 800m finals of both 2021 and 2022 – but his new exploits suggest he is ready to stake a claim in the senior ranks.

Perrott will have his work cut out for him in the form of 1:45.30-man James Preston (New Zealand) and Ireland’s John Fitzsimons who has a 1:45.16 to his name this year.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 30/6/2022