In a month’s time, the world’s best athletes will head to Weltklasse Zürich for a shot at one of the most coveted prizes in global athletics: the Diamond Trophy.
The 2025 Wanda Diamond League Final will take place across two days on August 27-28, with five champions crowned in Zurich city centre on the Wednesday evening and a bumper programme of 28 competitions at the Letzigrund Stadium the following night.
The stakes are higher than ever in 2025, with a record 2.24 million US dollars’ worth of prize money on offer at this year’s final.
The season finale is also a chance for athletes to get in title-winning form ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September.
Only the most consistent performers earn the right to compete in Zurich, however, with athletes competing at 14 series meetings throughout the season to earn points and qualify.
With just three meetings to go, only 64 athletes have so far secured qualification and there is still plenty to fight for on the Road to the Final.
So as the season heads into the final bend, who has already booked their ticket to Zurich and who is still fighting for their place on the plane?
Early birds
The Road to the Final is a marathon not a sprint, and most athletes only manage to secure qualification in the final weeks of the Diamond League season.
Yet early-season form can also pay dividends. In the men’s 3000m steeplechase, Kenya’s Edmund Serem and Ethiopia’s Samuel Firewu had both qualified by the fourth meeting of the season in Rabat.
Kenyan superstar Beatrice Chebet joined them a week later, as three successive wins in Xiamen, Rabat and Rome saw her get over the line by early June.
Explosive early victories also helped the likes of Akani Simbine, Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Cordell Tinch and Karsten Warholm, who all claimed back-to-back wins in Xiamen and Keqiao before suffering defeats in mid-season.
Champions dominant
For some athletes, it is almost a point of principle to win every time they set foot on the Diamond League stage.
The likes of Mondo Duplantis, Valarie Allman and Femke Bol have held an iron grip on the Diamond Trophy in recent years, and have marched into the final with their usual dominance in 2025.
Pole vault world record holder Duplantis has rampaged to six successive victories, Allman has won five out of five Diamond League competitions in the women’s discus and 400m hurdles ace Bol is now unbeaten in 28 Diamond League appearances after adding four wins to her tally so far this season.
Other reigning series champions have also cruised into the final with impressive ease this season.
Kenyan 800m star Emmanuel Wanyonyi finished third at his season opener in Rabat, but has since notched up four successive victories in one of the sport’s most competitive disciplines.
St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred, the reigning Olympic and Diamond League champion in the women’s 100m, has also mounted a formidable title defence this year, winning three of her four races so far in Oslo, Stockholm and Monaco.
Surprise packages
While familiar faces have dominated in some disciplines, the Road to the Final has also thrown up some surprises in 2025.
Australian long jumper Liam Adcock secured qualification in London last week after claiming his first ever Diamond League victory in Rome in June.
The same is true of Irish distance star Sarah Healy, whose win in the 1500m in Rome was her first in 15 Diamond League appearances.
London also proved auspicious for local favourite Morgan Lake in the women’s high jump, with the British star claiming her first Diamond League win and wrapping up qualification with victory in front of her home crowd.
All to play for
Some of the sport’s biggest names have left it late this season and will still be fighting for qualification when the Road to the Final resumes in Silesia on August 16.
Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles kickstarted his campaign with wins in the 200m in Monaco and the 100m in London, but he still needs points in both disciplines if he is to qualify and compete for a sixth career Diamond League title next month.
Fellow Paris 2024 gold medallist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana has secured his place in the men’s 200m final, but is currently ninth in the 100m standings, just outside the qualification places.
And even Faith Kipyegon, who set a new 1500m world record in Eugene earlier this month, is still yet to secure qualification as she too targets a sixth Diamond Trophy in 2025.
