As the last dress rehearsal before the World Championships in Tokyo, every event at the Diamond League final in Zurich on Thursday evening is suitably loaded in class.
This is the meeting also known as the ‘Weltklasse’, meaning world-class, and the Letzigrund Stadium has been the setting for 25 world records over the years.
For Sarah Healy the last stop on the Diamond League circuit is also the chance to cash in on her summer of consistency. Healy has repeatedly raised her performance levels since winning the European Indoor 3,000m title in March and arrives in Zurich leading the standings in the women’s 1,500m.
In her five 1,500m or mile races this summer, she’s run 3:59 or faster (including her 1,500m split time in the mile), also winning the 1,500m at the Rome Diamond League in June. The 24-year-old Dubliner has already beaten most of the women who’ll line up alongside her, with the Diamond League trophy and $30,000 prize certainly within her reach.
RM Block
There will be a new champion in the event for the first time since 2021, as Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon has opted not to defend her title. Nelly Chepchirchir, also from Kenya, will start as marginal favourite having won the Paris Diamond League in 3:57.02, where Healy finished second in 3:57.15, her lifetime best.
Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull has run 3:52.67 this year, and the Ethiopian Birke Haylom is also coming into form, but Healy won’t fear anyone.
Zurich, which features 16 reigning World Champions and 12 individual Olympic champions from Paris, is the last meeting before the World Championships get under way in Tokyo on September 13th, where making the final will be Healy’s first focus.
“I’ve never made a (outdoors) final before, and in Paris I didn’t even make the semi-final,” she says. “I do know I have the ability to make a final, and once you make a final who knows what can happen.
“I’ve been racing for a long time, and I know how it works, and I know how to do it. If I just focus on what I can control and the same process I go through all the time, instead of the end results, that my performances are a lot better and they improve.”
In her last Diamond League race in Silesia, Poland earlier this month, Healy had to settle for ninth despite running another 3:57.95 after Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay ran 3:50.42 to win. Healy then came out last week and improved her 800m best to 2:00.19 at the British Milers Club meeting in London.
She’s the sole Irish competitor in Zurich and would be the first Irish Diamond League champion if she can pull off the victory. In last year’s Diamond League final in Brussels, Rhasidat Adeleke finished third in the 400m, promoted from fourth after Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser was disqualified for a lane infringement.
Healy’s husband-and-wife coaching team of Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter – whose Manchester M11 training group includes Britain’s Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson – continue to have a big say in her progress this season. Healy’s training partner Georgia Hunter Bell will race the 800m in Zurich, having opted for that event in Tokyo.
Meanwhile, Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly will look to defend their title on the tandem at the Para-Road Cycling World Championships in Belgium this weekend.
The pair won gold at last year’s Paralympics and followed it up with two titles at the World Championships in September.
They will compete in the women’s B time trial on Friday before the road race on Sunday.
The Diamond League final will be shown live on Virgin Media 2 from 5.30pm, with the women’s 1,500m due to take place at 6.40pm Irish time.
