The Charléty Stadium looks like Tokyo Olympic Stadium.
If it will take three years before vibrating to the rhythm of the rings in Paris, this Saturday, August 28 will offer a nice foretaste to fans of athletics in the enclosure located in the south of the capital.
So much so that it will be difficult to bring out one star rather than another, even if several high points will animate the Diamond League stage.
Starting with the pole vault competition that Armand "
Mundo
" Duplantis will
compete in
. With 6.02m in Tokyo, the Swede logically won the first Olympic title of his young career. At 21, the future, and the present, belongs to him. In the Tokyo capital, he came close to adding a new world record at 6.19m to his victory. In Paris, it may well be that he is still tackling it, especially if the American competition of Sam Kendricks, inevitably revenge after his forfeit at the Games because of covid-19, and the silver medalist Christopher Nilsen pushes him in its entrenchments. Not to mention that Duplantis only finished 4th in Lausanne on Thursday, and he rarely misses two contests in a row. "
It's part of sport to lose
", Said the person on Friday.
“
I made several mistakes, I paid for them, sometimes it feels good to take a little slap to get things right.
"
No Thompson-Herah vs. Fraser-Pryce duel
Triple gold medalist in Tokyo (100, 200 and 4x100 m), Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah will be the female attraction of the Meeting de Paris. She will be engaged there over 100m, a distance where she achieved the second best time in history in Japan (10''61). To give her the answer, she will be able to count on her compatriot Shericka Jackson, bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games (10''76). But unfortunately not on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who forfeited the Paris Diamond League meeting the day after a resounding victory in Lausanne. The athlete said she was "
very tired
», Explained the organizers.
The Parisian public, who will be back for athletics, will therefore be deprived of the eagerly awaited duel between the two sprinters who threaten in the short term the sulphurous world record of the American Florence Griffith-Joyner, long considered unbeatable (10 ' '49 in 1988).
In Lausanne, Fraser-Pryce won in 10''60, the third fastest time in history, ahead of Thompson-Herah (10''64).
An impressive plateau
Others will show their Olympic title in Charléty. Like the Puerto Rican Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in the 100m hurdles (12''26, 4th fastest in history), the Jamaican Hansle Parchment in the 110m hurdles (winner of the American favorite Grant Holloway), the American Valarie Allman on the disc, the Indian Neeraj Chopra javelin (first Indian Olympic champion in history in athletics) or Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali created a sensation by dominating the Kenyans over a distance, the 3,000m steeplechase, of which they held all the Olympic titles from Athens. in 2004. The women's high jump competition will offer the public a remake of the Rio Games, with all the podium of the Olympic event: the Russian Mariya Lasitskene (2.04m), the Australian Nicola McDermott (2.02m) , and the Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh (2,00m). And Queen Allyson Felix will also be there, she who has become the most medalist athlete with her eleven podiums, including seven titles, the most recent in the 4x400m in Tokyo.
French revenge
Finally, after a failed Games, with only one medal for the decathlete Kevin Mayer (silver), the French will try to find a smile at home, in front of their home crowd.
Many will be looking for performance, to end their season on the right foot: Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Aurel Manga, both Olympic finalists in the 110m hurdles.
The pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie who, despite various physical problems, will be present before undoubtedly enjoying a well-deserved rest.
Gabriel Tual, revelation of the Tokyo Games in the 800m (7th), will want to confirm, while Mélina Robert-Michon, frustrated in Tokyo with an elimination in qualifying, will try to bounce back during a discus throw competition on the plateau of very high quality.
