One of the final necessary track and discipline meets earlier than the Olympics takes place Friday in Monaco, the place Canadian stars Marco Arop and Christopher Morales Williams are among the many big names at this week’s Diamond League tour cease. Here’s who and what to look at:
Marco Arop within the males’s 800m at 2:23 p.m. ET
The reigning world champion is undefeated in three 800m begins this yr, together with a Diamond League win in China in April and a dominant victory ultimately month’s Canadian Olympic trials.
On Friday, Arop was slated to face his fundamental rival, 19-year-old Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who took the silver ultimately summer season’s worlds in Budapest earlier than beating Arop within the Diamond League last in Oregon a few weeks later. But Wanyonyi dropped out after struggling his first defeat because the world championships, ending second to Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati in a picture end ultimately Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Paris.
Even with out Wanyonyi, Friday’s race is fairly stacked. It options Sedjati, whose world-leading time of 1:41.56 in Paris was greater than a second sooner than Arop’s private finest; Great Britain’s Ben Pattison, the bronze medalist ultimately yr’s worlds; and European champion Gabriel Tual of France, who completed third on Sunday.
Christopher Morales Williams within the males’s 400m at 2:33 p.m. ET
The 19-year-old rising star makes his skilled debut after a record-breaking sophomore season on the University of Georgia turned him into an in a single day Olympic contender. Morales set an unofficial indoor world report earlier than capturing the NCAA indoor and outside titles and breaking the Canadian report with a time of 44.05 seconds — nonetheless the quickest by anybody on the earth this yr. He was additionally named a finalist for the track and discipline equal of the Heisman Trophy earlier than clinching his first Olympic look with a victory on the Canadian trials.
Morales Williams was scheduled to face 2022 world champion Michael Norman on Friday till the American was scratched. But he’ll nonetheless take on Quincy Hall, who beat Norman ultimately month’s U.S. Olympic trials and was the bronze medallist ultimately yr’s worlds.
Other Canadians to look at:
* Olympics-bound pole vaulter Alysha Newman will compete towards Olympic champion and two-time world title winner Katie Moon. The American’s fundamental challenger is Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who shared the gold with Moon ultimately yr’s world championships.
* Lucia Stafford is within the girls’s 2,000m race at 2:43 p.m. ET as she prepares for the 1,500m on the Olympics.
Other occasions to look at:
* Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot sq. off within the males’s 1,500m at 3:34 p.m. ET. They have been the gold and silver medallists, respectively, on the Tokyo Olympics.
* The males’s 400m hurdles at 2:04 p.m. ET options all three medallists from the Tokyo Games. Norway’s Karsten Warholm is the reigning Olympic and world champ, American Rai Benjamin took Olympic silver in 2021 and gained the Diamond League title final yr; and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos was the Olympic bronze medallist earlier than capturing the world title in 2022.
* Men’s 100m and 200m world champion Noah Lyles dropped out of the 200, saying he wished to spend an additional week coaching in Florida as tries to develop into the primary man since Usain Bolt to comb these occasions on the Olympics. The prime canine within the race, at 3:27 p.m. ET, is now Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. He took bronze within the 200 and silver within the 100 ultimately yr’s worlds.
* Another thrilling showdown vanished when Olympic champion Hansle Parchment of Jamaica pulled out of the boys’s 110m hurdles at 2:58 p.m. ET. That clears the way in which for American Grant Holloway, the reigning world champ.
How to look at:
Catch the Monaco Diamond League meet reside Friday from 2-4 p.m. ET on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBCSports.ca. Here’s the complete schedule of occasions.
PARIS PULSE | Your weekly Olympic, Paralympic replace forward of Paris 2024:
In this week’s Olympic and Paralympic replace, we cowl the finalized Olympic rosters for the ultimate two Canadian groups.