Golden Gala events by events

19.30 - Discus throw - men
The entire podium of the Paris Olympics on the discus circle. The surprise at the Games was the Jamaican Roje Stona, winner with 70.00, and in Rome he is looking for his first victory in the Diamond League. The Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna (his father Virgilijus won two Olympic gold medals) arrives with the Paris silver around his neck and with the world record set in April in Oklahoma (74.35), the mark with which he beat the record of Jurgen Schult which had stood since 1986. Completing the medals at the Stade de France is the Australian Matthew Denny (bronze) and the field also sees the presence of those who ranked from fourth to seventh place in Paris, namely Slovenian Kristjan Ceh, Austrian Lukas Weisshaidinger, German Clemes Prufer and world champion Daniel Stahl of Sweden. Italy will be represented by Alessio Mannucci.

19.48 - Triple jump - men
Andy Diaz jumped to the bronze of the Games with 17.64, just eleven centimetres from the Italian record set last year during his victory in Florence. The Italian won the last two Diamond League champion titles and can’t wait to jump in Rome, his adoptive city, after having had to give up the European Championships because he was not yet ‘eligible’ for the national team jersey last June. There will also be the reigning world champion, Hugues Fabrice Zango (Burkina Faso), fifth in Paris, and other finalists from the Olympics, German Max Hess and Cuban Lazaro Martinez, world silver in Budapest. Italy will also line up Andrea Dallavalle.

20.15 - Shot put - men
Ryan Crouser collected his third gold medal at the Olympics, Joe Kovacs his third consecutive silver, Leonardo Fabbri returned from Paris with a fifth place which did not satisfy him. It is not to be excluded that all three shot putters could go beyond the meeting record set in 2019 by the Polish Konrad Bukowiecki (21.97) which has never been so at risk. We are talking about three of the top five in history: Crouser (USA) world record holder with 23.56, Kovacs (USA) second all-time with 23.23, Fabbri fifth all-time with the Italian record of 22.95 achieved in May in Savona before winning the European gold medal at the Olimpico in Rome. There will also be the bronze medallist from Paris, the Jamaican Rajindra Campbell, with the other finalists Payton Otterdahl (USA), Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (Nigeria), Jacko Gill (New Zealand), European indoor gold medallist Zane Weir of Italy.

20.37 - Pole vault - women
She is the reigning Olympic and world champion. Nina Kennedy (Australia) in Paris vaulted to 4.90 to take the most precious gold, after sharing the medal last season with Katie Moon at the World Championships in Budapest. In Rome she meets the Canadian Olympic bronze medallist Alysha Newman, the fourth from Paris Angelica Moser (Switzerland), also European champion in this stadium, the fifth Amalie Svabikova (Czech Republic), the sixth Eliza McCartney (New Zealand) and Elisa Molinarolo, the Italian who together with Roberta Bruni reached the Olympic final, the first Italians in history to do so.

21.04 - 400 metres - men
The American Olympic champion Quincy Hall is out due to injury, among the protagonists there are certainly the Zambian Muzala Samukonga who won the bronze medal in Paris with a personal best of 43.74 and fourth placer Jereem Richards (Trinidad & Tobago) capable of 43.78. On the track there is also London 2012 Olympic gold Kirani James (Grenada) and four medallists from Paris with the 4x400m relays: the gold from the United States Vernon Norwood, the silver from Botswana Bayapo Ndori and Busang Kebinatshipi, the bronze medallist from Britain Charles Dobson. For Italy, a lane to the new national record breaker Luca Sito, in the race dedicated to the memory of former holder Andrea Barberi who left us too early.

21.15 - 100 metres hurdles - women
There is the Olympic champion Masai Russell (USA) who ran this year in 12.25 at the US Trials, still the world best performance of 2024. With her, at the start is the Olympic silver medallist Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France who on this same track celebrated the European champion title in Rome 2024. The Jamaican Ackera Nugent, winner of the Diamond League meeting in Silesia last Sunday, is in great shape. Among those entered are also the world record holder and world indoor champion of the 60hs Devynne Charlton and the fourth of the Games Nadine Visser (Netherlands). With this line-up, the meeting record of 12.37 set by Puerto Rican Camacho-Quinn in 2022 is not impossible. For Italy, a lane for Giada Carmassi.

21.20 - High jump - men
All eyes on Gianmarco Tamberi, idol of the Olympic stadium, showman like no other in the world. The Italian jumper lit up the 2024 European Championships in Rome less than three months ago (gold) and comes back to the Curva Sud to give another magical evening and to put the unfortunate final of the Paris Olympics behind him, if possible. ‘Gimbo’ is the world season leader with 2.37 (in Rome), he won last Sunday in the Diamond League in Chorzow and wants to take the only success he lacks, the victory at the Golden Gala named after Pietro Mennea, which he has never achieved in the previous five participations. There will be no re-match with the Olympic champion Hamish Kerr of New Zealand who has given up as the other Italian Stefano Sottile. Korean Woo Sang-hyeok, Oleh Doroshchuk of Ukraine, Czech Jan Stefela, Romaine Beckford from Jamaica and Manuel Lando of Italy will also take part in the competition.

21.24 - 3000 metres steeplechase - women
The last two Olympic champions, Winfred Yavi of Bahrain and Peruth Chemutai of Uganda, are at the start line, protagonists of a fantastic final sprint at the Paris Games in the 3000m steeplechase. In the most important and fastest race of the year (8:52.76 Yavi) also showed up the young Kenyan Faith Cherotich, just twenty years old and already an Olympic bronze medallist. Among the big names is also Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan, world champion in Oregon 2022. Watch out for the meeting record, set in the last edition by the Ethiopian Sembo Almayew (9:00.71), and it could be the moment of the first sub-9 in the Golden Gala steeplechase race.

21.41 - Long jump - women
All the energy of Tara Davis-Woodhall, Olympic gold medallist from Paris, ready for the big leap in Rome. The American beat everyone at the Stade de France with 7.10 and meets again her compatriot Jasmine Moore, bronze in the Olympic final, as well as the fifth (Ese Brume, Nigeria), sixth (Monae’ Nichols, USA), seventh (Alina Rotaru-Kottmann, Romania), in a competition that lost the German Malaika Mihambo and the Italian Larissa Iapichino but which maintains its charm and talent. Also on stage is the other USA jumper Quanesha Burks, Serbian Milica Gardasevic and Fatima Diame of Spain.

21.44 - 200 metres - women
The American Brittany Brown was back on a global podium (bronze in Paris) after five years (she had won world silver in Doha 2019) and this season she has already won the 200m Oslo leg of the Diamond League. In Rome she meets the silver duo from British 4x100m relay team Daryll Neita and Amy Hunt, the Ivorians Jessika Gbai and Maboundou Koné, other US sprinters Anavia Battle and Jenna Prandini, the Swiss Mujinga Kambundji and for Italy Dalia Kaddari.

21.55 - 110 metres hurdles - men
In his city, in front of the home crowd, Lorenzo Simonelli wants to start flying again in 110m hurdles. The memory of the gold medal and the Italian record of 13.05 at the Olympic Stadium during the European final in Rome 2024 is still intact. Emotions that the young Italian, world indoor silver medallist in the 60hs, wants to relive at the Golden Gala, to forget the semifinal at the Paris Olympics when he couldn’t qualify for the final. In the race also meeting record holder Omar McLeod, Rio 2016 gold medallist, the other Jamaican Orlando Bennett, Cordell Tinch (USA), the Frenchman Sasha Zhoya who competed for a long time in the youth categories with Simonelli, the Spaniard Asier Martinez and for the Italian team also Hassane Fofana.

22.04 - 5000 metres - men
It is one of the most traditional races in the 44 editions of the Golden Gala. Here, in Rome, for the first time we went under 13 minutes in the 5000m (Said Aouita 12:58.39 in 1987) and eight years later Moses Kiptanui signed another record. The level of the competition, this time too, is remarkable: on the track Olympic silver medallist in Paris Ronald Kwemoi fo Kenya, the Ethiopian 10,000m silver medallist Berihu Aregawi, the American bronze medallist on both distances Grant Fisher, other Ethiopians Selemon Barega (10,000m gold in Tokyo), Hagos Gebrhiwet (world leader of the year, second all-time with 12:36.73) and Yomif Kejelcha, Canadian Mohammed Ahmed. The meeting record holder Nicholas Kipkorir (Kenya), who clocked 12:46.33 in 2022, and the European 10,000m champion Dominic Lobalu (Switzerland) return to the Olimpico.

22.28 - 400 metres hurdles - women
The Paris Olympic silver medallist is the 400m hurdles star: at the Stade de France the American Anna Cockrell was beaten only by the unreachable Sydney McLaughlin. But the silver medallist of the Games, in that race, became the fourth woman of all time, showing off a luxurious 51.87. From the Paris final she meets Jamaicans Rushell Clayton and Shiann Salmon, and French Louise Maraval. In their careers Shamier Little (USA), Anna Ryzhykova (Ukraine), the British Lina Nielsen, the jam Janieve Russel, all of them at the start line in Rome, have won Olympic medals with the 4x400m relay.

22.37 - 1500 metres - women
“So many memories of the Golden Gala, I can’t wait to come back on Friday”, wrote the Kenyan Faith Kipyegon on her social profiles, publishing a photo from last year in the Florence edition when she rewrote the 1500m world record with 3:49.11. A time that less than two months ago she beat in the Diamond League in Paris (3:49.04) before definitively entering the legend of athletics by winning her third consecutive Olympic gold, again in Paris, a feat never achieved by any middle-distance runner. If Kipyegon will be the No. 1 favorite, there is no shortage of opponents, starting with the Australian Jessica Hull, just included in the Golden Gala entry list, silver at the Olympics and fifth woman of all time with 3:50.83. The Olympic stadium is ready to embrace the home idol, Nadia Battocletti, silver medal in the 10,000m in Paris after having triumphed twice at the 2024 European Championships in Rome in the 5,000m and 10,000m. In a discipline she practices less, the 1500 metres, she can aim to run under four minutes, something that the other Italian Sintayehu Vissa, the new national record holder with 3:58.11, managed at the Games, capable of breaking the mark set by Gabriella Dorio after 42 years. The Ethiopian group is led by Birke Haylom and includes Freweyni Hailu, Nigist Getachew, Worknesh Mesele, Australia also with Linden Hall, Kenya with Nelly Chepchirchir, Ireland with Sarah Healy, among the Italians also Ludovica Cavalli.

22.52 - 100 metres - men
Just wonderful. In the fastest race, three of the Paris finalists (Kerley, Jacobs, Tebogo), five athletes with season best times from 9.86 and below (also Coleman and Omanyala), nine sprinters with personal bests under 10 seconds. Fred Kerley (bronze in Saint Denis) wants to maintain his status as the king of the 100 metres at the Golden Gala after winning the last two editions, in Rome in 2022 with 9.92 and in Florence in 2023 with 9.94, to which it must be added the success of 2018 in 400 metres. Fifth in Paris was Marcell Jacobs with 9.85 and the Olimpico can’t wait to cheer for its champion, Olympic gold in Tokyo in the 100m and with the relay, also gold at the European Championships in Rome 2024 in the straight under the Monte Mario grandstand. The other sprinter is Letsile Tebogo (Botswana), Olympic 200m gold in Paris, also phenomenal in his 4x400m leg (silver), who dominated the two stages of the Diamond League after the Games with 19.64 in Lausanne and 19.83 in Chorzow. In Silesia, the 100m race was won by Kerley in 9.87, one hundredth better than Ferdinand Omanyala (9.88) capable of 9.78 this year, and two better than Ackeem Blake (Jamaica, 9.89) who is in a good shape. The experience of Christian Coleman (9.76 in his career) and the freshness of the Japanese Abdul Hakim Sani Brown and the British Jeremiah Azu, who takes the place of the Italian Chituru Ali, should never be underestimated while American Kyree King will be at the start instead of Jamaican Kishane Thompson.