While the crowd at the Stockholm Stadium will have left slightly disappointed after home hero Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis just missed out on setting a new pole vault world record, they did witness an evening of world-class athletics action that saw new world leads set and Paris 2024 favourites show their form just weeks away from the next Olympic Games.
While headline names such as Duplantis, Shericka Jackson and Femke Bol all won their respective events, some of the most impressive action was seen elsewhere on the track as the fastest times of 2024 were set.
Read on for some of the best performances at the 2024 Stockholm Diamond League.
Mondo victorious but just fails to break world record
It says a lot about the dominance of Duplantis that whenever he competes there’s an air of expectation that he will break his own world record.
This time, it wasn’t to be for the American-born Swede at his home Diamond League. Three times he took aim at six metres and 25 centimetres and three times the bar came tumbling down just as it looked as if he had flown over it.
With the speakers in the stadium blaring out electronic music and the crowd clapping and whooping in support, it would be easy to think that Duplantis might have been distracted.
Not so, says the 24-year-old, whose last world record came as recently as April of this year.
“When you put yourself in all sorts of situations, you just get better from it,” he said of the competition. “I’m glad I came away with the win in front of a home crowd. I don’t think it’s difficult seeing all these fans cheering, it’s a positive thing and you take the energy of the crowd.”
Duplantis will have plenty more chances to perform to the crowd - including the upcoming Olympics where thousands of avid fans will be waiting to see whether he can set the bar even higher.
World leads tumble on rapid night of action in Stockholm
In one of the most impressive performances of the evening, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma dominated the men's 3000m steeplechase, with his time of 8:01.63 shattering the 2024 world lead by almost five and a half seconds.
The 23-year-old has a collection of silver medals on the highest international stage, including Olympic silver from Tokyo 2020 and three from the last three editions of the World Athletics Championships.
However, with the sun beating down on him in Sweden’s capital, Girma was in untouchable form and will now have hopes of reaching the top step of the podium in Paris.
“The time is very good - a fast and good time, so my tactics worked well,” he told reports after the race. “We had great conditions today, so I enjoyed it and want to come back next time.”
Will he return next year as Olympic champion?
The men’s 800m was the other event of the night where a new world lead was set - this time by Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati who raced home in 1:43.23 ahead of the USA’s Bryce Hoppel and Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela.
Sedjati will now be installed among the favourites for the Olympics in France’s capital after a positive COVID test at Tokyo 2020 left him missing out on competing at the last edition of the Games.
His victory in Stockholm against a strong field, which also included Britain’s 2022 world 1500m champion Jake Wightman (eighth) and his compatriot, 2023 world bronze medallist Ben Pattison, will give him confidence that Paris 2024 will be an entirely more positive experience as he takes aim at medals.
Femke Bol
Femke Bol gets season started in style as Shericka Jackson bounces back in 200m
Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson has become used to crossing the line first in the 200m. But after last week’s Oslo Diamond League, in which she finished fifth for her first half-lap loss in two years, the disappointment hit her hard.
“I was a little bit hurt because it has been two years since I have lost a 200m race but I trust my coach and what I am capable of and I know how training is going,” she said in a press conference before Sunday’s race.
However, Stockholm was a much more positive experience for the reigning world champion who is the second-fastest woman ever over the 200m distance.
Jackson returned to winning ways in a time of 22.69 seconds, beating Sweden’s Julia Henriksson and Great Britain’s Amy Hunt into second and third.
Still, there is work to be done before Paris 2024 if Jackson is to claim her first individual Olympic gold medal. But victory breeds confidence, even if she is still some way away from her personal best time of 21.41 set at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last year.
One of the most exciting races in Paris will be the women’s 400m hurdles, with the USA’s world record-holding Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone likely battling for gold with the Netherlands’ Femke Bol.
The Stockholm Diamond League saw Bol open her season in the event with a time of 53.07. And while that mark most likely will not trouble the podium in Paris, the unique nature of this athletics season means it’s all part of the wider plan for the 2023 world champion.
“It was a bit slow and the clearing of the hurdles was not that good, but it´s my fastest season opener, so I can’t complain too much,” said Bol. “I started my season a bit later than usual because I had a busy indoor season followed by the World Relays. I wanted to put in a good training block to be as fresh as possible for the Olympic Games, and given that the Europeans are in between too, this seemed to be the best plan for us.”
Stockholm Diamond League 2024: Best of the rest
Missing some of the star names that have graced recent Diamond League meets, the men’s and women’s 100m saw new athletes top the podium in Stockholm.
In the men’s race, Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme was victorious, winning in a time of 10.16 seconds ahead of the USA’s Kyree King (10.18) and Italy’s Chituru Ali (10.19).
The women’s race delivered one of the surprises of the night, with Gina Bass of Gambia (11.15) coming out ahead of three-time African Championships gold medallist Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith and the surprise winner of the Oslo Diamond League 200m race, Britanny Brown of the USA.
Britain’s Laura Muir produced a strong performance to win the women’s 1500m, with the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist crossing the line in 3:57.99.
Other big winners on the night included the USA’s 2022 world champion Chase Jackson in the women’s shot put, the Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women’s high jump and Cuba’s Leyanis Pérez Hernández in the women’s triple jump.
