XIAMEN, CHINA: Multiple world and Olympic gold medallists are set for Wanda Diamond League clashes in Xiamen and Silesia, with a world-class men’s 400m field confirmed for the season’s third meeting in China and a mouthwatering showdown lined up for the women’s 100m in Poland.
The reigning Olympic, world and Diamond League champions in the men’s 400m will go head to head in Xiamen on 23 May. Olympic champion Quincy Hall, world champion Collen Kebinatshipi and Diamond League champion Jacory Patterson are all set to compete, alongside world bronze medallist Bayapo Ndori and Olympic bronze medallist Muzala Samukonga.
The race will mark a return to Diamond League action for Hall, whose progress since claiming Olympic gold in Paris in 2024 has been affected by injury, while Patterson arrives as the defending Diamond League champion after securing the series title in 2025.
Kebinatshipi and Ndori, meanwhile, won gold and bronze respectively at the World Championships in Tokyo last year, and both were part of Botswana’s gold medal-winning 4x400m squad. Samukonga adds further strength to the field, having become a regular presence on Diamond League podiums and having claimed victory in Rome on the way to Olympic bronze in 2024.
Later in the season, attention will turn to Silesia on 23 August, where Olympic champion Julien Alfred and world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden will go head to head in the women’s 100m. The pair have clashed twice in global finals with St Lucia’s Alfred winning the 2024 Olympic final ahead of Jefferson-Wooden, who claimed bronze. The positions were reversed in the World Championships final last year, where the US sprinter claimed victory.
They are also tied on Diamond League head-to-heads with Alfred finishing ahead of Jefferson-Wooden at the 2024 Pre Classic before the US sprinter gained revenge at the same meeting in 2025.
Last year in Silesia, in a race where Alfred was absent, Jefferson-Wooden equalled Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s meeting record of 10.66.
Poland’s two-time European silver medallist Ewa Swoboda is also set to compete.
Xiamen is the third leg of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League season and Silesia the 13th, with the series beginning in Doha on 8 May and ending with the two-day final in Brussels on 4-5 September.
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