Record seekers Keely Hodgkinson and Josh Kerr in London action alongside Armand Duplantis

LONDON – Record seekers Keely Hodgkinson and Josh Kerr lend a strong home interest at the Diamond League meet on July 18 in London where Armand Duplantis, Julien Alfred and Femke Broeders-Bol are also in action.

The star-studded track and field meet will feature athletes with an astonishing 71 medals between them from the 2025 world championships in Tokyo and the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Here are five events to watch at the London Stadium.

Women’s 800m

Broeders-Bol continues her crossover from the 400m hurdles in which she has claimed multiple world and Olympic medals when she races the two-lap event.

The 26-year-old Dutch star – along with Ethiopia’s Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma, Australian Sarah Billings and Addison Wiley of the US – will face a stellar British contingent led by Olympic champion Hodgkinson and Jemma Reekie.

Also set to compete are rising British runners Isabelle Boffey, 26, and 19-year-old Phoebe Gill who will be making her Diamond League debut.

One notable absence is Audrey Werro, the Swiss runner who has run the world’s fastest 800m time in 2026 to become the first woman since 1983 to dip under 1min 54sec.

Hodgkinson, 24, will use the London meet as a chance to chase the 43-year-old 800m world record of 1min 53.28sec set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.

Men’s 800m

Olympic and world champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi headlines an outstanding field also featuring Canada’s Marco Arop and American Bryce Hoppel, who came second and fourth respectively at the Paris Games in 2024.

European contenders include two capable Britons, Max Burgin and Ben Pattison, but Jake Wightman, who won silver at the 2025 Tokyo world championships, was a late withdrawal.

The home crowd will have an eye on whether one of that trio can break World Athletics president Sebastian Coe’s British record of 1:41.73.

Wanyonyi will be the main man to keep an eye on, however, touching down in London fresh from setting a world best of 2:11.83 over 1,000m in Monaco on July 10.

“I don’t want to talk about the world record in the 800m,” the 21-year-old Kenyan said in Monaco.

“I first want to run fast and improve my personal best. Let me keep quiet – actions speak louder than words.”

Men’s mile

The Emsley Carr Mile brings together an exceptional field led by 1,500m Olympic silver medallist and 2023 world champion Kerr, who will be gunning for Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record of 3:43.13 set in 1999.

“It’s time to bring this record into the modern era through training, technology and effort,” said the Briton.

The 28-year-old Kerr will be pushed by Olympic bronze medallist Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler, alongside a third American in Nathan Green, as well as fellow Briton Neil Gourley.

“I have won three world titles and two Olympic medals, but joining Sir Roger (Bannister), as well as middle-distance legends Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram on the roll-call of mile record holders, would be the biggest moment of my career,” said Kerr.

Women’s 200m

Olympic champion Alfred is in blistering form, having run the third-fastest women’s 200m time in history in Monaco.

The Saint Lucian, 25, will defend her London title against a world-class field that includes Americans Gabby Thomas and Anavia Battle, Britons Dina Asher-Smith and Amy Hunt, and veteran Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas.

“There are no limits right now,” a slow-starting Alfred said after clocking 21.51 seconds in Monaco, bettering her own personal best by 0.20sec.

Only American world record holder Florence Griffith Joyner (21.34sec) and Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson (21.41) have gone faster over 200m.

“It’s not about the reaction time, it’s about how you finish,” said Alfred. “I was first, that’s all that matters.”

Men’s pole vault

Duplantis will come up against Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, who will be making his London debut.

The Greek has vaulted 6.17m to go second in the all-time list and has the necessary gamesmanship, power and skill to ensure any showdown with the Swede is worth watching.

Duplantis had a hiccup at the Stockholm Diamond League but has since been back to his best. As always, expectations are raised about a potential tilt at a 16th world record. AFP