Another world athletics star will highlight the Rome Olympic Stadium on 6th June for the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, the fourth leg of the IAAF Diamond League. The new name signed up by Meeting Director Luigi D’Onofrio is world record holder Genzebe Dibaba, who won the Olympic silver medal in Rio de Janeiro and the world title in Beijing 2015. A few weeks before the world title the Ethiopian star clocked 3:50:07 in the Monte-Carlo Diamond League meeting smashing a world record, which withstood all assaults for 20 years. Twenty-eight year-old running star Genzebe, the youngest of three phenomenal sisters (Ejegayehu and Tirunesh), already boasts a win in her career in the 5000m in Rome and is set to run against European champion Laura Muir in a re-match of last year’s IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, where Dibaba won the gold medal ahead of the Scottish runner. The world-class field also features olympic bronze medallist Jenny Simpson (United States), who won in Rome over this distance four years ago. The line-up is completed by Ethiopian runners Gudaf Tsegay, Habitam Alemu and Axumawit Embaye, Morocco’s Rababe Arafi and Kenya’s Winny Chebet.
MEN’S SHOT PUT, 7 ATHLETES OVER 22 METRES
Unfortunately US Olympic champion Ryan Crouser, who had been previously announced, has pulled out of the meeting. However the men’s shot competition features a world-class field with seven athletes, who set a PB over 22 metres: former world champion Joe Kovacs from the USA (22.57m), US Darrell Hill (22.44m), German double world champion David Storl (22.20m), Czech Republic’s Tomas Stanek (PB 22.17m indoor), reigning European champion Michal Haratyk from Poland (PB 22.08m), Brazil’s Darlan Romani (PB 22.00m) and Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki (PB 22.00m indoors). Italian rising star Leonardo Fabbri (20.69m indoors) can be inspired by this world-class field.
