Olyslagers and Patterson head Diamond League dazzler

With under one month until the World Athletics Championships, some of the biggest names in Australian athletics including dual Olympic medallist Nicola Olyslagers, a New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holder,  and rising star Cameron Myers  will stamp their presence at the Silesia Diamond League as the race for global glory in 2025 heats up.

Australians views can tune in to the main program from 12:01am AEST, Sunday August 17 on the Wanda Diamond League YouTube channel, with full entry lists and live results available HERE.

Women’s High Jump

11:40pm AEST, Friday

Australia’s high jumping duo of Nicola Olyslagers (Matt Horsnell) and fellow NSWIS athlete Eleanor Patterson (Fayaaz Caan) have been in hot form in 2025 and have no plans of slowing down in Silesia, with Olyslagers out to clinch her third consecutive Diamond League meeting win.

Taking wins in Paris and Stockholm with heights of 2.00m and 2.01m respectively, the back-to-back World Indoor champion will clash with world leader and world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR), along with Patterson who is building into her campaign nicely.

Mahuchikh has been toppled on multiple occasions in 2025 but still holds the world lead at 2.02m, setting up another thrilling battle with Olyslagers and Patterson who looks set to return over the two-metre barrier once more, while Germany’s Imke Onnen and Ukraine’s Yuliya Levchenko have both returned to form worthy of podium contention.

Men’s Pole Vault

11:33pm AEST, Saturday

Standing on the podium in the last three Diamond League meetings and two Continental Tour Gold contests, Kurtis Marschall (Paul Burgess) is quietly building into sound form on the global stage.

The credentials of Olympic champion Armand Duplantis (SWE) are well known fresh off another world record of 6.29m in Budapest earlier this week, while Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis has cemented himself as the second-best vaulter in the world in 2025 – but the Australian is staking a strong claim for third.

With a seasons best of 5.93m, Marschall should be optimistic about his chances of backing up his bronze medal from the 2023 World Championships come Tokyo next month, first meeting a field in Silesia featuring six athletes to have cleared six metres in the event – an achievement that still eludes him for now.

Women’s 800m

11:52pm AEST, Saturday

No Diamond League points will be up for grabs in the Women’s 800m, but that will not detract from the quality of the field as Olympic semi-finalists Abbey Caldwell (Gavin Burren) and Claudia Hollingsworth (Craig Mottram) line up alongside Australian record holder Catriona Bisset (Trevor Painter) to take on Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson (GBR).

Hollingsworth is the fastest of the Australian trio this year with her personal best of 1:58.02 from the London Diamond League, while Caldwell won the national title in emphatic fashion – both selected already for the 2025 World Championships.

Hodgkinson has not raced since winning the Olympic title last August, while Botswana’s Oratile Nowe owns the fastest time in the field this year in 1:57.49, with the contest providing a real chance for the Australians to race prominently and stamp their presence on the Diamond League scene.

Women’s 3000m

12:16am AEST, Sunday

In what looms as a world record attempt for Kenyan great Faith Kipyegon, Australian record holder Georgia Griffith (Nic Bideau), NSWIS’s Rose Davies (Scott Westcott) and Lauren Ryan (Lara Rogers) will be on the personal best train driven by Jessica Hull who is on pacing duties.

No one has ever gone within five seconds of the world record set at 8:06.11 by China’s Junxia Wang in 1993, but Hull will do her best to drag the Olympic champion Kipyegon to the feat, while in the race behind them Griffith will be out to keep her 8:24.20 national record safe.

Davies recently set the Australian 5000m record of 14:31.45 at the London Diamond League, followed closely by Griffith in 14:32.82, while Ryan last week clocked 14:40.39 in Belgium to make the Silesia trio the three fastest Australian women ever over 5000m.

Women’s 1500m

12:44am AEST, Sunday

It’s a rare Diamond League 1500m showdown without Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon or Australia’s own Jessica Hull, a NSWIS athlete, but the pace will still be on for Linden Hall (Ned Brophy-Williams) and Sarah Billings (Nic Bideau) who meet the Ethiopian duo of Gudaf Tsegay and Diribe Welteji amongst a strong field.

Billings has already booked her ticket to the 2025 World Championships and has three Diamond League podiums to her name this year over a range of distances, while Hall has flexed her form with a series of qualifying performances over both 1500m and 5000m.

With the Ethiopians expected to push the pace, the Australian duo will lock horns with the likes of Nikki Hiltz (USA) and Sarah Healy (IRL), while Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter-Bell (GBR) will also be a strong target for Billings and Hall.

Men’s 1500m

1:18am AEST, Sunday

Already selected for the 2025 World Championships next month, it’s all about sharpening the tools and gaining race experience for Cameron Myers (Dick Telford) in Silesia, while NSWIS athlete Oliver Hoare (Dathan Ritzenhein) secured a late entry to strengthen his push for Tokyo.

Eager to bounce back after being caught up in a fall at the London Diamond League with 200m remaining, the 19-year-old Myers will face off against a star-studded field including Olympic bronze medallist Yared Nuguse (USA), fellow rising star Niels Laros (NED) and the might of East Africa including Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang.

Myers has already broken the 3:30 barrier in 2025 with a personal best of 3:29.80 and returns to the happy hunting ground of Silesia where he set the Under 18 world best in 2023 with 3:33.26.

The teenage sensation will undoubtedly have his eyes fixed on toppling the world-class field with a statement performance ahead of the World Championships, which would naturally endanger the Australian record of 3:29.41 belonging to Hoare, who owns a 3:31.15 seasons best.

Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics