The Diamond League action continued to come thick and fast in the second half of June, as the Road to the Final reached the halfway stage in Oslo, Doha and Paris.
It proved to be a month of rising stars, with a full Diamond League debut for Gout Gout and breakthrough victories for Cooper Lutkenhaus, Davisleydi Velazco and Cameron Myers.
Oslo: Lutkenhaus makes a splash
Expectations were running high ahead of the men’s 800m in Oslo, as US teenager Cooper Lutkenhaus prepared to take on world, Olympic and Diamond League champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi for the first time.
Lutkenhaus had become the youngest world champion in history at the world indoors in March, and won on Diamond League debut in Stockholm a few days earlier.
Yet he faced his toughest test yet in Oslo against seasoned Kenyan campaigner Wanyonyi, who had missed the Stockholm meeting due to the birth of his first child.
The American didn’t disappoint, diving over the line to beat Wanyonyi in a photo finish and clock of 1:42.08, setting up what could be the defining rivalry of the men’s 800m in the coming years.
Another teenage sensation, Australian sprinter Gout Gout, also made his full Diamond League debut in Oslo, going up against his idol Letsile Tebogo in the men’s 200m.
Gout had to make do with sixth place, however, as Olympic champion Tebogo stormed to a comfortable win.
Tebogo was one of several big names to pick up statement wins, with Julien Alfred winning the women’s 100m with a windy 10.76 and Alison Dos Santos beating home favourite Karsten Warholm in the men’s 400m hurdles.
Doha: Velazco opens a new era
After being moved from May to June due to events in the Middle East, the Doha leg of this year’s Diamond League campaign turned out to be worth the wait.
Cuba’s Davisleydi Velazco dominated the headlines in the Qatari capital with a performance that marked the start of a new era in the women’s triple jump.
The 26-year-old had picked up her first ever Diamond League win a week earlier in Oslo, but she went one better with a massive 15.13m to make it back-to-back wins in Doha.
It was the first 15-metre jump in the women’s triple for two years, and it opened the floodgates as both Velazco and her rivals went on to break the mark again several times before the end of the season.
Other standout performances in Doha came from Marileidy Paulino in the women’s 400m and Emma Zapletalová in the women’s 400m hurdles.
Paulino stormed to a meeting record of 48.91 in her first Diamond League race of the year, blowing away the memories of her surprise defeat to Salwa Eid Naser in the 2025 final.
Zapletalová took her electric form to the next level with a world lead of 52.30, breaking the Slovakian record and her own PB for the third time in four races.
Paris: Series records fall
Paulino was in even better form as the series returned to Europe nine days later, as she contributed to an astonishing hat-trick of Diamond League records in Paris.
The Dominican Republic star raced to 48.48 at the Stade Charléty, clocking the third-fastest time of her career and underlining her intent to regain the Diamond League title in 2026.
In the men’s 400m, world champion Busang Collen Kebinatshipi raced to 43.54 in what would turn out to be the first of three series records he set in the course of 2026.
Meanwhile, Audrey Werro followed up on her stunning win in Stockholm with an even more impressive time in Paris, clocking 1:53.80 in the women’s 800m.
The men’s 800m proved to be almost as historic, as Marco Arop blasted his way to a world lead of 1:41.84 with some spectacular front-running.
After suffering a shock defeat in Stockholm and missing out on Oslo and Doha, Mondo Duplantis finally returned to winning ways in the men’s pole vault with a new meeting record of 6.13m.
The additional events saw yet another rising star make his first impression on the big stage, as Australia’s Cameron Myers claimed his first Diamond League win with a world lead of 3:28.00 in the men’s 1500m.
