Preview: Wanda Diamond League - Monaco

The Wanda Diamond League is set to return Friday in Fontvieille, Monaco with the first non-exhibition event of the season. Five reigning world champions and seven world championship medalists are scheduled to compete.
 
Watch live on the Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA at 2pm ET on Friday with coverage also live Streamed on NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app and NBC Sports Gold. In addition, NBCSN will present encore coverage from Monaco Saturday, August 15 at 10 p.m. ET.
 
The competition schedule and live results can be found here.
 
Two-time world champion from Doha, Noah Lyles is poised for true return to competition after clocking a 19.94 in the 200m, the second-fastest time in 2020 and two wind-aided 100m dashes both in 9.93 and the 11th fastest time in the world this year of 10.04 (+1.4) in the Back to the Track Series and Showdown in OTown. Noah’s brother Josephus Lyles and Elijah Hall-Thompson will also toe the line in the 200m on Friday.
 
In the 800m, World Champion and American record-holder Donavan Brazier who holds the 2020 world-lead in 1:43.84, will be joined by fellow American, Bryce Hoppel who was the fourth-place finisher at the World Championships in Doha. This will be Hoppel’s first official 800m outdoors of the season.
 
Reigning pole vault World Champion Sam Kendricks had an extensive indoor campaign that included an American indoor record 6.01m/19-8.5 at Rouen, France, and opened his outdoor season with a win in the Zurich Impossible Games, where he cleared 5.81m/19-0.75 at Bradenton, Florida, in a competition that was linked by video across continents.
 
Another Doha gold medalist, 110m hurdler Grant Holloway, has a pair of meets in Florida and Georgia to his credit in a brief outdoor season, sporting a best of 13.35 from Clermont in July. He will face world-leading Andy Pozzi of Britain, who clocked 13.17 to win at Turku, Finland on Tuesday.
 
Former American record-holder Shannon Rowbury will run her first 5,000m of the season after putting down a world-leading 8:40.26 in the 3,000m and a 4:03.62 in the 1,500m last month. That 1,500m was the fastest for Rowbury since 2016, the year she took fourth at the Rio Olympic Games. Her 5k best of 14:38.92 also came that year at Brussels and stood as the AR until Shelby Houlihan broke it in 2018.
 
2018 USATF Outdoor 100m champion Aleia Hobbs takes on World Championships bronze medalist Maria-Josée Ta Lou of Côte d’Ivoire in the dash. Hobbs has run only one meet outdoors, scoring an 11.16 at Clermont on July 24, while this is Ta Lou’s 2020 debut. The two women have a matching personal best of 10.85, but Switzerland’s Ajla Del Ponte has the top entry mark of 11.08.
 
One of the most anticipated races on the program is the men’s 1,500m, where Doha gold medalist Timothy Cheruiyot brings in a PR of 3:28.41 set in Monaco two years ago. Craig Engels, who was 10th at the World Championships, has an outdoor best of 3:36.01 in 2020 and has looked very fit in his outings in Oregon of late. Norway’s brother duo of Filip and Jakob Ingebrigtsen have teased the 3:30 barrier in their careers, and Jakob was fourth in Doha last fall.
 
The only two women with sub-50 credentials in the field, Wadeline Jonathas and Lynna Irby face off in the 400m. Jonathas was fourth at Doha with a PR 49.60 and picked up gold on the Team USATF 4x400m relay. Irby was the NCAA champion for Georgia in 2018 with a 49.80 best, and she has shown speed sharpness with a 22.47 200m already this season.
 
Doha 800m silver medalist Raevyn Rogers is running only her second career 1,000m, and it comes against a bevy of the world’s top middle distance women. Rogers has an 800m best of 1:57.69 from 2018 and ran her first 1k indoors in January, winning at Boston in 2:39.00. Britain’s Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie have both dipped under 2:00 in the 800m this season, and Muir has the best 1k entry mark at 2:33.92. Doha 800m gold medalist Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda is making her outdoor debut, as is reigning Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya.