Stars speak at pre-meeting press conference

Warholm opened his season last weekend with a world best of 33.05 for 300m hurdles in Xiamen, and on his return to the more familiar 400m hurdles in Shanghai/Keqiao, the Tokyo Olympic champion has one goal: “I want it to be fast,” he said.

Warholm said he felt “very fresh” during last weekend’s race and was delighted with his ground speed. “I was really able to push from the last hurdle to the finish, it’s a strength I haven’t felt in a long time, so it’s nice to see and I’m taking it with me now that I’m running 100 metres more.”

Warholm said it is a “beautiful stadium” in Keqiao and with warm, dry weather forecasted, he’s looking to put on a show for the fans. “We are not curing cancer, we are running around the track to have fun and entertain people,” he said. “For me, passion is extremely important in what we do; that’s where I find my joy. The reason I keep on doing this sport is I find it fun. It gives me the feeling of doing something good.”

Duplantis will hope to maintain his winning streak in the men’s pole vault and the Swedish superstar has a variety of goals for the competition.

“The main priority is to win, that’s how I go into every competition,” he said. “But it’s also to jump as high as I possibly can. The shape feels nice, the body feels good. It’s a new track, a new setup I’ve never jumped on, so naturally for good or for bad, I don’t know exactly how the poles will react. But it’s warm, which I really like. My body reacts better to that so we’ll have that as an advantage. The setup is there for good jumps –now it’s up to me to go out there and put something high out there.”

Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo will take on a loaded field in the men’s 100m and he said he’s benefitted from early-season endurance work over 400m.

“The body feels good,” he said. “We were focusing on endurance and we’re introducing speed now the next couple of weeks. We are building up our speed with these two Diamond Leagues and using the basic endurance from the 400m. We took everything into the 100m and will see how we’re going to perform. After this, we’ll introduce more speed into our sessions and go full out to September.”

A national hero in his native Botswana, Tebogo said that when it comes to young sprinters across Africa, his Olympic win “showed them it’s possible,” adding: “Once we leave, a new group is coming and that’s something I’m happy to look back at and smile.”

China will be represented in the 100m by Xie Zhenye, the Asian record holder in the 200m, and he said upcoming Chinese sprinters can compete with the world’s best but advised the fans that it is a long process. “They have a great future, but it will take time for the young generation to overcome the challenges,” he said. “Just be patient.”

Olympic 400m champion Quincy Hall returns to racing in his first event for almost nine months, the US star picking up an injury as he powered to gold in Paris last August. “I had an injury in the first 60, 70 metres and I was able to come out and finish the race but after that me and my coach decided to shut it down,” he said. “I just started training back eight, nine weeks ago. I tried to do a little speed training but it’s been a little shaky. But I’ve been able to get back to some practices and I need to get back out here competing.”

Two-time Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman has been in superb form of late, throwing a US record of 73.52m last month, the longest throw since 1989. “For us, so much about it is pushing the boundaries in the women’s discus,” she said. “It’s about continuing to put on great performances and doing these competitions that give me confidence for later in the season.”

Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the reigning Olympic high jump champion and world record holder, will hope to take her second Wanda Diamond League win of the season, though she’s thinking less about the outcome, more about the process. “I stop thinking about expectations of competition, I just enjoy the atmosphere,” she said. “But I keep in mind that I can jump higher and higher. The main goal for this season is to improve myself, jump higher and break my own world record.”

Wu Yanni will carry the hopes for China in the women’s 100m hurdles and the hugely popular athlete said she took pride in inspiring a generation of young athletes. “I’m very happy that lots of kids learn this game and now the women’s 100m hurdles is very popular among young people,” she said. “It’s very exciting for us to compete alongside the top-tier athletes. I want to welcome everyone to enjoy the (meeting).”

Haruka Kitaguchi, the Olympic and world javelin champion, said she was “really nervous” to sit in front of the media but is looking for a strong performance in her first competition of 2025. “I hope to do a very beautiful job,” she said.

Yaming Zhu, the Tokyo Olympic silver medallist, will hope to contend for victory in the men’s triple jump in a field that includes the Tokyo Olympic champion, Pedro Pichardo. “After the Olympics I pushed things harder with my coach, we wanted to fight harder, push it forward, every time I want to guarantee at least 17 metres,” he said. “Let’s see what’s going to happen tomorrow.”