With just three weeks to go until the 2020 Wanda Diamond League season begins in earnest, Karsten Warholm has joined the ranks of track and field superstars who will launch their summer camapigns at Meeting Herculis.
The Norwegian world champion, Diamond League champion and European record holder will line up in the 400m hurdles at the Monaco meet, organisers announced on Tuesday evening.
Coming just under a year after he claimed his first career Diamond Trophy with a barnstorming run in Zurich last season, it will be the first time that Warholm has competed in Monaco.
"To be honest, I’ve always wanted to run in Monaco because of the track," he said. "I know people have been running fast there before, and I’ve been training there too. It’s a nice stadium and I know I might be able to run even faster in it."
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Warholm has already made his mark this season, running a world best in the 300m hurdles at the Impossible Games Wanda Diamond League exhibition event in his home country last month.
Other stars recently added to the Monaco entry list include Kenyan middle distance stars Timothy Cheruiyot and Faith Kipyegon, US pole vault star Sam Kendricks and Ukrainian high jumpers Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Yuliya Levchenko.
Cheruiyot will once again take on Norway’s Jakob and Filip Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m, while Kipyegon lines up against the likes of two-time Diamond League champion Laura Muir in the 1000m.
Another Brit, heptathlete Katharina Johnson-Thompson, will take on the Ukrainians in the women’s high jump.
Kendricks, meanwhile, is set to go head to head with Mondo Duplantis in the men’s pole vault, in a battle which will pit the reigning Diamond League champion against the newly crowned world record holder.
Ivorian star Marie-Josée Ta Lou, meanwhile, is set to headline in the women’s 100m a year after her victory at Herculis last summer.
Click here to see which other athletes have been confirmed for Monaco.