On song Mary Moraa to face Olympic champion McLaughlin-Levrone in Monaco DL

Kenya’s in-form two lap specialist Mary Moraa will continue with her preparations for the upcoming 2023 World Championships set for Budapest, Hungary from 19-27 August by competing in the Monaco Diamond League on 21 July.

In what will be the ninth outing of the 2023 Diamond League calendar, the women’s 800m Commonwealth champion and World bronze medalist will test her pace and one lap prowess against Olympic and World 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone from USA.

The two athletes will head into the EBS Herculis Meeting on the back of impressive performances which saw Moraa set a new 400m national record when she clocked 50.38s in the Kenyan trials for the Budapest World Championship in a race that she led from gun to tape.

McLaughlin-Levrone on the other hand, clocked a world-leading 48.74 last weekend to win the US 400m title.

Despite being the favourites, Moraa and McLaughlin-Levrone will face stiff competition as they will be stacked against NCAA indoor champion Britton Wilson, NCAA outdoor champion Rhasidat Adeleke, European silver medalist Natalia Kaczmarek and US 400m hurdles champion Shamier Little.

Monaco will mark the fourth Diamond League appearance for Moraa who won the Rabat, Lausanne and Silesia stops early in the year.

Multiple global champion Faith Kipyegon was already confirmed to compete in Monaco even before she broke the world 1500m and 5000m records this season.

The Kenyan will contest the mile (1600m) and will take on Olympic silver medalist Laura Muir, rising Ethiopian talent Freweyni Hailu and Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen in the race.

Fast rising 2021 World U20 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Marco Arop (Canada) – the two fastest men in the world this year over 800m – will clash again over two laps of the track alongside the gold and silver medalists from last year’s World Championships Emmanuel Korir and Djamel Sedjati (Algeria).

Kenya’s World silver medalist Jacob Krop has been added to the men’s 5000m, which features world leader Berihu Aregawi alongside World cross-country champion Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) and world 1500m bronze medalist Mohammed Katir (Spain).

Abraham Kibiwott will try to cause a rare shocking result he lines up against World and Olympic steeplechase champion Soufiane El Bakkali and Ethiopia’s Getnet Wale. Kibiwott will be joined by Simon Kiprop Koech.

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Elsewhere, Olympic gold and silver medalists Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Kendra Harrison will duel over 100m hurdles while Ferdinand Omanyala, Ackeem Blake, Akani Simbine and Letsile Tebogo all feature in the men’s 100m line-up.

More sprint talent has been packed into a women’s 200m race that features the previously announced world champion Shericka Jackson. The Jamaican will be lining up against US champion Gabby Thomas, NCAA champion Julien Alfred, 2019 world champion Dina Asher-Smith, British champion Daryll Neita and USA’s Abby Steiner.

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