Fresh from their world championships titles in Moscow, Eunice Sum and Asbel Kiprop lead 12 world champions to the Stockholm leg of the IAAF Diamond League series tonight.
Asbel Kiprop
The IAAF World Championships came to a close last Sunday and many of the newly-crowned World champions will compete in at the DN Galan, the leg that follows the penultimate one in Zurich set for August 29.
Sweden’s own world champion at 1500m, Abeba Aregawi, will step down to the 800m where she will face the world champion in that event, Sum, who is a protégé of 2007 world champion Janeth Jepkosgei. The pair have already competed against each other once this year, back in May at the Diamond League meeting in Doha where they both posted their fastest times of the season over 1500m.
Kiprop, the world champion in the men’s 1500m, who also won the global title in Daegu two years ago and an Olympic title in 2008, will also be parading among the elite athletes. Among those he’ll be up against are Olympic silver medallist Leonel Manzano and World 800m bronze medallist Ayanleh Souleiman.
Another world champion set to compete in Stockholm is German javelin thrower Christina Obergfoll, who will be celebrating her 32nd birthday on the day of the competition. Young Swedish talent Sofi Flink, who set a national record to book her place in the final at the World Championships, will be one of Obergfoll’s opponents in Stockholm.
Other world champions from Moscow to be recently added to the DN Galan line-up include 5000m winner Meseret Defar, 400m victor LaShawn Merritt, High Jump champion Svetlana Shkolina and Triple Jump winner Caterine Ibarguen.
They join the previously-announced list of US sprint hurdler David Oliver, New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams, Russian long jumper Aleksandr Menkov and Czech 400m hurdler Zuzana Hejnova, making 12 World champions in total that will compete in the Swedish capital.
“It is fantastic to be able to present so many World champions and medallists from Moscow,” said Anders Tallgren, head of operations at DN Galan. “It bodes well for an exciting competition with some interesting grudge matches.”
After the Stockholm and Zurich’s Weltklasse meetings, the focus will be on the final leg in Brussels on September 6 where Kenyans, among them steeplechasers Milcah Chemos (world champion) and Paul Kipsiele Koech will be canmdidates for the overall titles.
By JONATHAN KOMEN AND IAAF
