By Matt Hardy
After a four-year absence, top level track and field will return to the capital this weekend when the London Stadium stages Diamond League athletics.
More than a decade after Mo Farah did the double, Usain Bolt the treble and Super Saturday took place at the London 2012 Olympics, Sunday offers a chance for the next generation to make a name for themselves.
There’s no shortage of talent on show either at a stadium that was designed for athletics but has since been disguised as the home of West Ham United. For the first time in a number of years the stands won’t look awkward and the venue will return to its roots.
London calling
Interestingly, the schedule culminates with two women’s events, the 100m and 800m, suggesting British interest and blockbuster action has shifted away from the traditional men’s 100m, which doesn’t even feature.
In the women’s 100m British duo Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita will aim to challenge the incredible Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and her American rival Sha’Carri Richardson.
There may be no Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the mix – she’s competing tomorrow in Luzern, Switzerland – but there is an astonishing depth of talent on the starting blocks.
The Diamond League is not like the World Championships or nationals, which feature heats, semi-finals and finals; it is a series of one-off events with one race for each discipline.
Much of the interest, however, will be on the final race of the evening as British sensation Keely Hodgkinson races at the former Olympic stadium for the first time in the 800m.
Hodgkinson is seen as an heir to Jessica Ennis and Greg Rutherford as a British athlete able to consistently challenge for wins. The 21-year-old could blow the partial roof off the east London arena.
Fill the coffers
But a return to London is more than just using athletics to fill the coffers – that was proved earlier this year when the event was thrown into doubt over funding issues.
That it is happening at all is a sign of confidence in track and field, something that has not been seen for a while.
The stadium is set to be close to capacity just a couple of years after the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and the European Championships in Munich, Germany struggled to sell tickets.
Brits proved during the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and immediate aftermath of London 2012 that there is an appetite for track and field in this country.
It is a sport often filled with exciting moments and drama, so it has been a shame to see it relegated to unfit arenas, though a redeveloped Alexander Stadium in Birmingham could easily become a long-term home for athletics once again.
So while it is back in the capital we should rejoice, because London once again is at the centre of a global sport. And as the world’s eyes are on the Big Smoke, it’s only fair the city gives them a Super Sunday of track and field to remember.
