The women’s 100m hurdles will be among the showpiece events at the 2026 Wanda Diamond League meeting in Xiamen on May 23, which will see the past four global champions in the event take to the track.
Reigning Olympic champion Masai Russell will take on reigning world champion Ditaji Kambundji along with two-time world champion Danielle Williams, while the world record holder and 2022 world champion Tobi Amusan and three-time world indoor champion Devynne Charlton are also in the field. Completing the star-studded line-up are Ackera Nugent, the 2025 world indoor bronze medallist; and leading Chinese athletes Yanni Wu and Jingyang Liu.
Russell is the second-fastest athlete in history in the event, the US star clocking a national record of 12.17 in Florida last year. She finished fourth in last year’s world final and the 2024 Olympic champion will renew her rivalry in Xiamen with two of the three athletes who beat her to the medals in Tokyo: Kambundji and Amusan.
Kambundji enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2025, the 23-year-old winning the European indoor title and claiming a world indoor silver medal before going on to take the world 100m hurdles title in Tokyo, smashing the Swiss record with 12.24.
Amusan set the world record of 12.12 en route to winning gold at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon and the 28-year-old Nigerian enjoyed another fine year in 2025, claiming silver in the world final behind Kambundji. After finishing fifth in Xiamen in 2024 and fourth last year, she’ll be keen for a better result in 2026.
Williams, the 2015 and 2023 world champion, will be looking for a repeat of her victory in Xiamen last year, when the Jamaican powered to victory in 12.53. She lowered her PB to 12.31 later in the season and finished seventh in the world final in Tokyo. She will be joined in Xiamen by fellow Jamaican Ackera Nugent, who set the national record of 12.24 in 2024 and who won world indoor bronze last year in Nanjing.
Charlton will arrive in Xiamen after another dominant indoor season in which the 30-year-old Bahamian claimed her third consecutive world 60m hurdles title, equalling her own world record with 7.65. Her 100m hurdles best of 12.44 is from the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, where she finished fourth in the final.
Yanni Wu. Photographer: Luke Howard
There will be lots of excitement among local fans in Xiamen as two of China’s leading sprint hurdlers take on the world’s best. Yanni Wu, who has a 100m hurdles best of 12.74, won bronze at the Asian Championships last year while Jingyang Liu also enjoyed a breakthrough 2025 season, smashing her PB to take gold at the National Games in 12.81.
Jingyang Liu. Photo: CAA