Kerr and Lyles offer despite the withdrawals | athletics

ONe of the main problems of athletics is the relative lack of importance that the vast majority of events prevent. It is one of the reasons why Michael Johnson's Grand Slam Track is not yet on fire: the payment is great for the athletes, but a victory or a loss counts little in the overall scheme of a season or career.

The strongly sunken Diamond League fought against such (ir) relevance throughout its existence. In such a context, it is a remarkable achievement that the leading competition of the London London of Athletics in London is a sold -out season for a thunderstorm that could stand up as a grid Saturday afternoon.

These spectators bought tickets long before the inevitable drop, the drop of top -class withdrawals, which often occurs outside of the most important championships that define sport.

The BBC Sports -Personality of the year Keely Hodgkinson was supposed to present the meeting, but pulled out at the beginning of the week when she continued her recovery from a thigh injury. It has not been started since she won the Olympic 800 -M gold last August. Jakob Ingebrtsen, who was supposed to compete with the 1500 meter rival and reigning world champion Josh Kerr. Distant, the great Sifan Hassan pulled out of the mile a few days ago.

The loss of such top-class stars is not ideal in a week in which the Kenyan Marathon World Record holder Ruth Chepngetich was temporarily suspended after they have been positively tested for a forbidden diuretic and masking agent. At the beginning of this month, Kenya had 139 people in the forbidden list of athletics integrity – more than twice the country out of India.

However, withdrawals and suspensions are a well-known territory for a capacity quantity that will make the London Diamond League a certain scope for the largest one-day athletics meeting in the world. In return, they are still treated with one of the strongest accumulation of athletes outside of a global championship.

The 1500 m of the gentlemen, which was sheared by Ingebrtsenen, was able to put the curtain on the procedure in a spectacular way. Kerr confirmed that the pacemakers were instructed to reach a British record on halfway. Kerr compared to his world champion predecessor Jake Wightman and newly installed second fastest British runners of all time, George Mills, is a fascinating view.

“It is the most incredible Diamond League out there and I just want to put on something that is worth the time of all,” said Kerr.

“It will be a great race. I want to go out there, run a little quickly and put something on the ranking that will make me proud to go to the World Cup.

“A British record would be a great way for me to run this week. There is no priority to win and you will get a good time. But I'm not here for a slow race. It won't be boring.”

If rain does not ruin the fast times, there could still be an attack on the 800 M world record that David Rudisha set up on the same London route during the 2012 Olympic Games. His Kenyan compatriot, the reigning Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, leads a line -up that corresponds to a global finale.

Hodgkinson made her own British 800-meter record in this breathtaking way last year that she admitted that she had put the four-year-old women's world record in her thoughts. In their absence, the British trio Georgia Hunter-Bell, Jemma Reekie and Laura Muir will probably fight for victory.

Elsewhere, Noah Lyles will drive over 100 m last summer for the first time since the winning of Olympia gold. He defeated Botswanas Olympic 200 -M champion from Botswana last week in Monaco Lossile Tebogo over the longer distance in Monaco, and both men resume their rivalry in London, although Jamaica's diagonally Sevilla is the fastest man on the field this year.