Paris Diamond League still on after heatwave warning
Organisers have struck an agreement with French authorities to hold the meeting in an adapted format.
The Paris Diamond League will go ahead as planned this Sunday (June 28) after organisers and the authorities agreed on a series of measures to protect public health and safety.
As a historic heatwave continues to grip France – Paris hit a June record of 40.9C on Wednesday – police in the capital requested the cancellation of large-scale weekend events earlier today, including the Pride march, Solidays festival and sporting events like the Diamond League.
Organisers had already stated on Thursday that provisions were being put in place to mitigate the heat, including providing sufficient drinking water, reinforcing the medical support available to athletes, broadcasting regular heat safety messages through the stadium and providing cooling vests for athletes, to name just a few.
They also added that there was an exemption in the prefectural order, meaning that professional athletes could still compete. Therefore the non-elite athletics events, which take place before the start of the TV window, were cancelled.
This morning police stated that despite efforts by organisers to increase internal first-aid capacity, the influx of thousands of spectators posed too high a risk for an already saturated healthcare system.
The prefecture warned it would be compelled to enforce the order if voluntary agreement was not reached.
Organisers have since updated some of the measures, including pushing back the opening of the stadium gates to the public by 45 minutes to 4.15pm (local time). Today they stated that the Diamond League will go ahead as planned.
Paris is the eighth leg of this year's competition and some of the star names on show include the likes of Noah Lyles, Mondo Duplantis, Audrey Werro and Femke Broeders-Bol.
There will be British interest in the 1500m with both Georgia Hunter Bell and Katie Snowden competing, while Ben Pattison races over 800m and Jeremiah Azu is in the 100m.
