Diamond League Ambassador Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia will clash over 5000m with 2007 World 1500m and 5000m champion, Bernard Lagat at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games, the 3rd leg of the 14 meeting IAAF Diamond League series, which takes place on Friday June 4 in Oslo, Norway.
Bekele, the World and Olympic champion and World record holder at the distance, will not be able to tinker with American Lagat who took the 5000m silver behind him last summer in Berlin and sped to the 3000m World Indoor title in Doha last month.
The ExxonMobil Bislett Games in the famous Bislett stadium will be the first European meeting of the new international tour, following on from meetings in Doha (14 May) and Shanghai (23 May).
The organisers also said that six other IAAF Diamond League Ambassadors will participate.
Given that Norway boasts the reigning two-time Olympic Javelin Throw gold medallist Andreas Thorkildsen, it is not surprising that his duel with fellow Ambassador Tero Pitkämäki of Finland, the 2007 World champion, will very much be a highlight as usual.
Thorkildsen, who also holds the World and European titles, has over his entire career beaten the Finn 23 times, but Pitkämäki retains a slight edge with 26 career victories over his Norwegian rival including a win last year in Oslo.
The other four IAAF Ambassadors at the meeting are:
- 2009 World Athlete of the Year Sanya Richards-Ross (USA) - women's 200m and 400m
- Two times World champion Blanka Vlasic (Croatia) - women's High Jump
- Olympic and World champion Steven Hooker (Australia) - men's Pole Vault
- Asafa Powell (Jamaica) - the former World record holder in the men's 100m.