Amusan makes Diamond League return in Zurich

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World record holder Tobi Amusan and her compatriots, Ezekiel Nathaniel and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, will be among the global champions competing at the last Diamond League meeting of the season in Zurich on Thursday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

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The iconic meeting will take place across two days, with the women’s pole vault competition scheduled for Zurich train station on Wednesday before the main event at the Letzigrund Stadium on Thursday.

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Zurich is the last opportunity for athletes to pick up points as they bid to qualify for the Wanda Diamond League Final in Brussels on September 4-5.

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Amusan and several other athletes have already secured their places in the Diamond League Final, but others will be seeking precious points in Zurich to secure qualification. Her last Diamond League race was in June before she went to the Commonwealth Games where she won bronze.

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Ahead of the final showdown next month, Amusan will test her mettle against USA’s Olympic champion Masai Russell, who will aim to maintain her season-long winning streak in the women’s 100m hurdles. Russell’s season includes a 12.14-second performance in Xiamen in May, a mark just 0.02 seconds shy of Amusan’s world record.

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Others in the women’s 100m hurdles field for the Zurich Diamond League meeting include Alaysha Johnson, Nadine Visser and home favourite Ditaji Kambundji.

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Nathaniel is currently ranked eighth in the men’s 400m hurdles standings with 10 points.

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The Commonwealth Games gold medallist will again compete against Karsten Warholm and Alison dos Santos, just days after going head-to-head with them at the Silesia Diamond League meeting in Chorzów, Poland.

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Enekwechi, who is ranked ninth in the Diamond League standings this season, will be up against world No. 1 Leonardo Fabbri of Italy, Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell and New Zealand’s Tom Walsh.

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Names such as Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Julien Alfred, Audrey Werro, Femke Bol, Cole Hocker and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will also be in action.

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After Zurich, the global athletics calendar will have two major events remaining: the Diamond League Final in Brussels, Belgium, from September 4-5, and the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, which will be held in Budapest, Hungary, later in September.

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