10 June 2015

Following on from a fantastic Sainsbury’s Birmingham Grand Prix on Sunday, the next Diamond League meeting of the 2015 season takes place tomorrow evening in Oslo, Norway.  The ExxonMobil Bislett Games celebrates its 50th Anniversary and sees 14 British stars in action, including Greg Rutherford (coach: Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo), Richard Kilty (Linford Christie), Eilidh Child (Malcolm Arnold) and Martyn Rooney (Rana Reider).

The first British performance of the evening will come from Eilidh Child in the 400m hurdles, who is coming off the back of a season’s best performance at the Rome Diamond League last week, where she clocked 54.84.

In a highly competitive Long Jump line-up that includes Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor, Rutherford will face off against Russia’s Aleksandr Menkov.  Both athletes top the events Diamond Race standings after Rutherford, the Olympic, European and Commonwealth champion jumped an impressive 8.35m to win in Birmingham on Sunday.

The British trio of Delano Williams (Neil Harrison), Matthew Hudson-Smith (Tony Hadley) and Rooney turn out in the 400m, before fellow Brits Laura Muir (Andy Young) and Laura Weightman (Steve Cram) hit the track for the 1500m in a field that includes the reigning world champion, Abeba Aregawi.

The 200m sees a rare outing for Richard Kilty, who is in the form of his life and comes to Oslo off the back of setting a new 100m PB of 10.05 at the Alexander Stadium on Sunday.  The European 60m indoor champion is making the step up to 200m for the first time in two years and will be joined in the race by fellow Brit and training partner James Ellington (Christie).

Steph Twell (Mick Woods) will compete in the women’s  5000m, where Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba is expected to try and take the world record away from her elder sister Tirunesh.  

Asha Philip (Steve Fudge), who was named in the GB & NI squad for the European Team Championships in Russia last week, closes the action for the British contingent in the 100m. The Loughborough-based athlete is in great form after clocking a personal best of 11.10 at the FBK Games in Hengelo.

Andrew Steele (Chris Zah) competes in the earlier National 400m with Amy Griffiths (Mick Woods) and Melissa Courtney (Mark Pauley) going in the National 1500m – these are non-Diamond race events. 

Other notable events include the men’s high jump which includes five athletes with personal bests above 2.40m and contains Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov, world champion Bohdan Bondarenko, world indoor champion Mutaz Essa Barshim and Commonwealth champion Derek Drouin.

You can watch the Oslo Diamond League on British Eurosport 2 between 19:00-21:00 this evening. There will also be highlights on BBC One at 13:15 on Saturday 13 June.