Vadlejch will fight for a triumph in the Diamond League, Juška will also be in the final

< /p> Jakub Vadlejch in the final of the javelin throw competition at the World Championships in Eugene. (July 23, 2022)

Eugene (USA) – In Eugene, USA, this year's Diamond League will culminate this weekend. Javelin thrower Jakub Vadlejch will fight for the third diamond trophy in his career in the new venue of the final meeting, which hosted the World Championship last year. Distance runner Radek Juška also received an invitation to the final meeting.

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Vadlejch won the Diamond League in 2016, when the results from the entire season were added up for the last time, and in 2017 at the premiere of the current format with a decisive final meeting. The Olympic silver medalist is the leader of the world charts this year. He won bronze at the World Cup and was on the podium at all starts in the Diamond League. He won the meetings in Monaco and Zurich.

In the absence of the German Julian Weber, his biggest competitor will be the reigning world champion and defending champion in the Diamond League, Níraj Čopra. Vadlejch defeated the Olympic champion from India in Zurich. “I feel good, but it's been a long time. It won't be easy. I'd really like to be in the top three, as I've managed to do in every race this year,” said the Czech representative on the Dukla website before his flight to the USA.

The women's javelin competition will also have a Czech footprint, even though Nikola Ogrodníková narrowly missed out on the finals. Haruka Kitaguchiová, the Japanese protégé of Czech coach David Sekerák, is the favorite to win. The new world champion improved her personal record to 67.38 meters at the last qualifying meeting in Brussels.

Just like last year, distance runner Juška will be a substitute in the Diamond League final. The Czech record holder started in the current season of the elite series only in Zurich after seventh place at the WC. He finished fourth in Switzerland, which was enough for him to finish tenth overall. He was a long way from making it to the final six, which was guaranteed participation in the technical events, but in the absence of several long-distance runners, including world champion and Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglu of Greece, he made it to the final. He can try to improve on last year's sixth place.

The weekend will see the battle for the Diamond League triumph in 32 competitions. Fifteen finals are scheduled for Saturday, the remaining seventeen for Sunday. Noah Lyles, the sprint king of the world championship in Budapest, will run the 100 on Saturday. This American announced the end of the season after the meeting in Zurich, but finally decided to start in the final. However, he will not run his stronger 200m, where he is undefeated for two years, in Eugene.

His compatriot Sha'Carri Richardson, who is about to confirm the position of reigning world champion, will also start only in the 100. She will face, among others, the Jamaican Shericka Jackson, who is preparing for the weekend double. Jackson will be a big favorite in the 200m, where she attacked Florence Griffithová-Joyner's year-old world record at the World Championships and in Brussels.

The 15m will see the undefeated world record holder Faith Kipyegonová this year. Men including Jakob Ingebrigtsen will run the mile. The surprising 15-meter world champion Josh Kerr will not be at the start.

Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm will try to return to victory in the 400-meter hurdles race. The star Norwegian won his third world title in Budapest, but then lost for the first time in the season in Zurich when he was three hundredths short of Kyron McMaster from the British Virgin Islands. Both will be in the final. Among the women, this year's unequivocal queen of the hurdles is Dutchwoman Femke Bolová, who can win the diamond trophy for the third time in a row.

The program in Eugene will start on Saturday at 20:00 CEST, half an hour later on Sunday.