The annual Diamond League stop in Monaco has become a crown jewel of the track and field calendar. Friday’s meet has the best international fields of the year thus far.
Olympic previews in several events are the storylines at a venue where a world record on the track fell each of the past three years.
Peacock streams live coverage HERE at 1:05 p.m. ET on Friday. NBCSN broadcast coverage starts at 2, also streaming on NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app.
Trayvon Bromell, the Olympic Trials 100m champion and favorite to succeed the retired Usain Bolt as Olympic gold medalist, faces the next four fastest men this year out of all of the Olympic qualifiers.
The women’s 200m pits Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas against two-time Olympic 100m gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
Norwegian Karsten Warholm races eight days after breaking the longest-standing men’s track world record in the 400m hurdles.
Here are the entry lists. Here’s the schedule of events (all times Eastern):
1:05 p.m. -- Women’s Triple Jump
1:20 -- Women’s Javelin
1:20 -- Women’s Pole Vault
1:50 -- Men’s High Jump
2:03 -- Men’s 400m Hurdles
2:18 -- Women’s 800m
2:32 -- Men’s 1500m
2:43 -- Women’s 200m
2:49 -- Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
2:50 -- Men’s Long Jump
3:06 -- Men’s 800m
3:16 -- Women’s 1500m
3:28 -- Men’s 100m
3:36 -- Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
Here are six races to watch
Men’s 400m Hurdles — 2:03 p.m.
Initially a showdown between Warholm and Rai Benjamin, but Benjamin withdrew after Warholm broke the 29-year-old world record in Oslo last Thursday. Field still includes the third- and fourth-fastest men this year, Brazilian Alison Dos Santos and Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands. They could push Warholm to go even faster than the 46.70 he clocked at home in Norway.
Men’s 1500m -- 2:32 p.m.
Is there any hope for world champion Timothy Cheruiyot to still be named to the Kenyan Olympic team? He was left off the initial roster after placing fourth at the Kenyan Trials last month, and the Olympic entries deadline has passed. However, if Cheruiyot was entered as an alternate, he can still replace one of the top three men on the Olympic team. And one of those three, Kamar Etyang, is reportedly in jeopardy for not having been drug tested enough. In Monaco, Cheruiyot takes on his primary rival in recent years, 20-year-old Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Women’s 200m -- 2:43 p.m.
The three fastest women of this Olympic cycle were set to face off before the withdrawal of U.S. Olympic Trials winner Gabby Thomas. Miller-Uibo went nearly four years without losing a 200m that she finished until being taken down by Jamaican Shericka Jackson in Hungary on Tuesday. Here, the Bahamian takes on Fraser-Pryce, who lowered her personal best at the Jamaican Olympic Trials. They’ll have to challenge if not beat Thomas’ Trials-winning time of 21.61 to unseat the American as Olympic favorite.
Men’s 800m -- 3:06 p.m.
This event was blown open when world champion Donavan Brazier faded out of the U.S. Olympic Trials. Enter Rio bronze medalist Clayton Murphy, who won the Olympic Trials with his fastest time in nearly three years and the world’s fastest time for 2021. In Monaco, Murphy takes on the three fastest men of this Olympic cycle other than Brazier: Botswana’s Nijel Amos and Kenyans Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich. Plus, Brit Elliot Giles, who beat Murphy on Tuesday. The winner is likely the Olympic favorite.
Women’s 1500m -- 3:16 p.m.
Ethiopian-born Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan is the world’s fastest woman in this event in this Olympic cycle by 1.96 seconds, but she said last month that she will probably bypass the Olympic 1500m in favor of the 5000m and 10,000m. But the matchup everyone’s anticipating will happen in Monaco. Hassan faces Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon of Kenya. Hassan handed Kipyegon all three of her 1500m defeats since September 2016, including at 2019 Worlds. Kipyegon came back from 2018 childbirth to twice lower her Kenyan record.
Men’s 100m -- 3:28 p.m.
Five men figure to fight for the Olympic medals. All of them are in this field, including the three U.S. Olympians -- Bromell, Ronnie Baker and Fred Kerley. They’re joined by Akani Simbine, who on Tuesday broke the African record by clocking 9.84 seconds, ranking second in the world this year behind Bromell. The most decorated man in the race is Canadian Andre De Grasse, the Olympic and world bronze medalist with a best of 9.99 in 2021.
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