{"id":1280,"date":"2017-03-30T09:54:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T09:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/shanghai-rios-golden-stars-to-shine\/"},"modified":"2017-03-30T09:54:07","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T09:54:07","slug":"shanghai-rios-golden-stars-to-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/shanghai-rios-golden-stars-to-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Shanghai: Rio\u2019s Golden Stars To Shine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The stellar line-up includes four gold medallists from the Beijing 2015 IAAF World Championships and nine event winners from the 2016 Diamond Race, plus an array of last year\u2019s world leading performers.<br \/>One of those is sprint hurdler Omar McLeod who produced the world\u2019s fastest time of the season to win the Shanghai meeting\u2019s traditional closing event, the men\u2019s 110m hurdles.<\/p>\n<p>The newly-crowned world indoor champion left two world champions and the world record holder in his wake as he clocked 12.98 to grab the headlines. He went on to win Olympic gold in Rio and will be looking to show similar early season form in Shanghai this May as he gears up for a tilt at the world title in London.<br \/>The 22-year-old Jamaican will have to be at his best on 13 May, however, as he faces Spain\u2019s Orlando Ortega, the former Cuban who took the silver medal in Rio and went on to win the 2016 Diamond Race trophy with late season victories in Lausanne and Brussels.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"lazyload smush-lazyload-video smush-lazyload-youtube\" style=\"--smush-video-aspect-ratio: 640\/360\" data-bg-image=\"url(https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=smush_video_thumbnail&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FCenDF4XkFNc&#038;video_width=640&#038;video_height=360)\" ><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CenDF4XkFNc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><\/iframe><span class=\"smush-play-btn\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Play video\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span tabindex=\"0\" class=\"smush-play-btn-inner\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Play<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Ortega was second behind world champion David Oliver in Shanghai two years ago but will be looking to make amends in 2017 after being disqualified for a false start last year.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u2019s 110m hurdles always attracts huge interest, but it is far from the only highlight in what promises to be a meeting full of top class performances as the world\u2019s leading athletes begin the long build-up to August\u2019s World Championships in London.<\/p>\n<p>David Rudisha is one of four Beijing 2015 champions who will looking for some early pointers just three months ahead of his world title defence. The 800m world record holder made his Shanghai Diamond League debut last May and went on to retain the Olympic title in Rio in some style.<\/p>\n<p>This year the Kenyan will be keen to tap into memories of his astonishing world record victory at the 2012 Olympics to spur him on the road to London 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere in the men\u2019s track events, Rio champion and 2016\u2019s fastest one-lap hurdler Kerron Clement begins his campaign to retain the Diamond Race 400m hurdles trophy, while reigning Diamond League 200m champion Alonso Edward tops a Shanghai field that includes China\u2019s own national record holder and world relay silver medallist, Xie Zhenye.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u2019s field events also feature some intriguing match-ups. Canada\u2019s world and Olympic champion Derek Drouin takes on China\u2019s world silver medallist Zhang Guowei in the high jump, while the pole vault pitches Brazil\u2019s Rio hero Thiago Braz against France\u2019s world indoor record holder, Renaud Lavillenie.<br \/>Germany\u2019s Rio gold medallist Christoph Harting will make his Shanghai debut in the discus against Poland\u2019s world champion and Olympic silver medallist Piotr Malachowski, while another Olympic champion, USA\u2019s Jeff Henderson, leads the long jump field.<\/p>\n<p>The women\u2019s events will be no less star-studded, not least the women\u2019s 100m which showcases Jamaica\u2019s double Olympic sprint champion, Elaine Thompson, making her first appearance at the Shanghai meeting. Yet another Rio gold medallist, Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas, takes on last season\u2019s Diamond Race winner Stephanie McPherson of Jamaica in the 400m.<\/p>\n<p>A further trio of Olympic champions will grace the women\u2019s distance events: 1500m gold medallist Faith Kipyegon, who broke the Kenyan and meeting record in Shanghai last May; Almaz Ayana, who smashed the meeting\u2019s 5000m record two years ago when she clocked the third fastest time ever; and steeplechaser Ruth Jebet, who lowered the Asian and Bahraini record to place second in Shanghai in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Ayana went on to take the world 5000m title in Beijing and last summer added Olympic 10,000m gold when she smashed the world record in Rio, while Jebet bettered her Shanghai performance three times over four months last summer as she claimed Olympic gold in Brazil and took the world record in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Croatia\u2019s double Olympic discus champion Sandra Perkovic will be seeking her fourth victory at the Shanghai Stadium, while China\u2019s Gong Lijiao will hope to reproduce the crowd-pleasing form that saw her defeat a world-class field to win the shot put contest two years ago.<\/p>\n<p>More big names will be announced in the next few weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The 2017 Shanghai Diamond League meeting on 13 May will include 16 events, nine for men (100m, 200m, 800m, 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles, high jump, pole vault, long jump, discus) and seven for women (100m, 400m, 1500m, 5000m 3000m steeplechase, shot put, discus).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No fewer than 13 Rio Olympic champions are among the galaxy of international track and field...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}