START LISTS for Monaco Diamond League released

Lots of national records could fall in the women's 1000m. These are the current NR for those competing:

Ethiopia - 2:33.06 Genzebe Dibaba 2017
Australia - 2:32.94 Abbey Caldwell 2025
France - 2:31.93 Patricia Djate-Taillard 1995
Kenya - 2:29.15 Faith Kipyegon 2020
United States - Addy Wiley 2024 (competing in Monaco)
Great Britain - 2:30.82 Laura Muir 2020
Switzerland - 2:31.51 Sandra Gasser 1989

United States - 2:31.49 Addy Wiley 2024 (competing in Monaco)

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Talking about burying the lede OP

Men's 800m is absolutely stacked.

Arop

Attaoui

Bol

Burgin

Hoey

Hoppel

Moula

Sedjati

Tual

Wanyonyi

Hoey and Hoppel in the 800, along with Arop, Attaoui, Burgin, Tual, Wanyoni, and Sedjati. Jeez that's a stacked field. Hoppel comes in as the 3rd fastest this year, if he wants a 1:41 this will probably be his best shot.

Too bad no Americans in the 5k, it was so fun watching Nico and Graham competing up there. Still stacked though, Almgren fresh off his 5k AR, Bekele, Gebhriwet, Gressier, Kejelcha, Krop, Kwemoi, and Mehary. I'm counting 6 12:4x guys + 2 12:3x guys.

Rooks and Corrigan in the steeple, very excited to see what they do, hopefully Rooks is competing for the win. No sub-8 guys in it, but Ruppert at 8:01 and Wale (~7:23i 3k iirc) along with 12 8:0x guys leaves the door open for it. Would love to see Rooks get it.

The W1k looks stacked. Moraa, Hull, Wiley, Johnson, probably some more I don't recognize the name of.

One bold prediction for that race - Hoey is going to run under 1.42.0 I don't think he quite gets the US record, but he's going to get close to it (maybe runs 1.41.8X)

This seems like a logical one to pin as a WR attempt - here is the only question. Does the depth of this field work against that? I know that seems counter-intuitive, but the guys eyeing this up with legitimate chances to do it (Wanyonyi, Arop, Sedjati) all want to be in that 49.7-49.8 sweetspot at the bell. Problem is, that entire field wants to be there too (or within half a second of that) so the question is, how does the battle for position hurt the main protagonists late in the race? If you want that record you don't really want to be passing anyone during the race because that's a significant cost in energy - the last 3 WR holders in Rudisha, Kipketer and Coe did not have to pass anyone in any of their WR's - Rudisha led at the 200m merge point off the break in London, and every other race had a pacer that just stepped off the track. So history says if you want that record you don't really want to be racing anyone at any point because that takes up valuable energy, even if you don't really feel it at the time.

Other comment, that is surely the best 800m field every assembled in terms of pure ability.Peter Bol is the "worst" runner in the field at 1.43.79 (!!!) and he's made world and Olympic finals before. Unreal.

Holy cow. 1:41 low incoming.

100% a WR attempt. I have to imagine Wanyonyi and possibly Arop have it on their minds every time they stops on the track.

I agree that the depth will hurt them, but possibly not as much as you might think. Several of the faster guys like Arop and Sedjati have shown preference towards going out around 50.1-50.4 and running a near-even race, and I expect the race to be strung out enough going into the bell that it won't matter too much.

Nobody mentioned Chepchirchir but I'd say she's the favorite in that women's 1000 race.

I don't like to make it overly complicated. Chepchirchir has won every race she has competed in this year. Her name recognition isn't as high as it would have been if she had been in Grand Slam Track, as intended. She had to withdraw from Kingston due to minor injury in the final days.

Prior to that she was quoted as saying she was treating the event very seriously, because she hasn't decided whether she will pursue 800 or 1500 at world championships. She has the standard in both events. I thought she was going to be Welteji's greatest obstacle in Grand Slam Track.

If conditions are good, could see WRs in men's 800 and 5k.

But that's exactly why I think there is a possibility it works against them. Even 50.0 - 50.5 is where at least 7-8 of that field want to be and that is a 4m bubble. This new current trend of considerably slower opening 200/400's is actually counter a field being strung out. At least for me, I think about sub/low 49 second openings of the golden era of 800m runner where the first 200m's were absurdly fast (in the high 23's).

I'm not saying it is totally counting anything out and they guys almost always figure it out - but it is a slight shift in philosophy of the event that with really deep, top fields, make it worth noting.

Press Conference tomorrow - times are Eastern

8:30: Introduction with Jean-Pierre SCHOEBEL, Meeting Herculis EBS Director
8:40: Armand DUPLANTIS (SWE) and Femke BOL (NED)
9:00: Letsile TEBOGO (BOT) and Masai Russell (USA)
9:20: Jimmy GRESSIER (FRA) and Gabriel TUAL (FRA)
9:40: Jessica HULL (AUS) and Agathe GUILLEMOT (FRA)

Yeah for sure, i'm not gonna argue against that. The field was pretty much 3 wide last year at the Olympics going through the bell, right? I expect something similar tomorrow then.

Only 1 women's field event, Shot Putt!