The event will see reigning Olympic champions Gong Lijiao (shot put) and Liu Shiying (javelin) take on world-class fields in their specialist events, while the 2022 world champion in the women’s discus, Feng Bin, will be keen to make a statement against her likely rivals in Paris later this year.
The women’s discus is one of the most loaded events at the meeting, bringing together every global champion since the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Two-time Olympic champion Sandra Elkasevic of Croatia and reigning Olympic and Diamond League champion Valarie Allman of USA will go up against the last three world champions in Yaime Perez of Cuba, Feng Bin of China and Laulauga Tausaga of USA, who claimed gold in Budapest last year. Perez was showing great form this weekend throwing 73.09m, the longest throw worldwide since 1989 – maybe she can produce an even longer throw in Xiamen?
Dutch star Jorinde van Klinken, a three-time NCAA champion, is one of three 70-metre throwers in the field, with an additional three holding personal bests of over 69 metres. Germany’s Kristin Pudenz, the Olympic silver medallist in Tokyo, is also in the field and she will be keen to start her outdoor season off with a bang after throwing an indoor PB of 63.38m in February.
Feng has good memories of the Egret Stadium, having claimed victory in the inaugural Xiamen Diamond League last year, shortly after winning bronze in Budapest. The 30-year-old has thrown 66.44m already this season but the world leader is Allman, who launched a 67.98m effort last month in Texas.
Last year’s inaugural meeting proved a huge hit with the locals, with close to 30,000 in attendance, and a bigger crowd is expected at Xiamen Egret Stadium this year given the presence of many Chinese stars.
In the women’s shot put, Gong Lijiao will be keen to defeat some of the women who will stand between her and a second straight Olympic title in Paris. The 35-year-old, who is also a two-time world champion, will take on reigning world champion Chase Jackson of USA and reigning world indoor champion Sarah Mitton of Canada.
The field brings together six women who have thrown beyond 20 metres, including Maggie Ewen of USA, Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands and Song Jiayuan of China. It will also feature a rematch between the three world medallists in Budapest last year: Jackson, Mitton and Lijiao. Schilder has the longest throw in the world this year, the European champion and 2022 world bronze medallist launching a 20.31m effort indoors.
The women’s javelin, a non-Diamond League event in Xiamen, should nonetheless produce fireworks given the calibre of athletes involved. Reigning Olympic champion Liu Shiying will square off with fellow Chinese star Lyu Huihui, a three-time world medallist, with two other women in the field who have thrown beyond 65 metres: Australia’s Kathryn Mitchell and Colombia’s Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado.
Huihui won world bronze in 2017 and 2019 and silver in 2015 and the 34-year-old, who finished fifth in the last Olympic final in Tokyo, will be keen to start 2024 in strong fashion. However, Shiying will be tough to beat. The 30-year-old was below her best last year, finishing sixth in the world final with 61.66m, but as the Paris Games approach she will be keen to recover the form she showed in 2020 and 2021, when she set a PB of 67.29m and claimed Olympic glory in Tokyo.
Mitchell has been in decent form already this year, throwing 62.12m in Melbourne in February, while another to watch out for is Latvia’s Lina Muze-Sirma, who came close to her national record when winning her fourth Latvian title last summer with 64.78m.
China’s Yuzhen Yu is another worthy of respect, having thrown 64.98m back in 2021, and she returned to competition last month after missing the past two seasons. New Zealand’s Tori Peeters, an eight-time national champion with a PB of 63.26m, is also in the line-up.
