International Track and Field Stars Confirmed for London 

A host of international stars, including the USA’s reigning Olympic and world champions Rai Benjamin and Valerie Sion, will join the high-profile names already confirmed for the Novuna London Athletics Meet on Saturday, 18 July. 

Benjamin, who won gold in the 400m hurdles and the 4 x 400m relay at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, will compete over the flat 400m on this occasion. A multiple world 400m hurdles and 4 x 400m relay medallist, his lifetime best for 400m is 44.11 – a mark achieved at the recent Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet.   

Sion – an impressive five-time Diamond League Final winner – won her second successive Olympic discus title in Paris. Her world gold in Tokyo 2025 improved on silver in Budapest (2023) and bronze in Eugene (2022). She is the US record holder with 73.52m (2025) and with three Diamond League wins already this season – plus a world-leading season’s best of 73.10m – the London meeting record of 69.94m (Sandra Perković, 2016) is well within her grasp. 

Reigning Olympic champions Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) and Marileidy Paulino (DOM) will compete in the high jump and 400m respectively. 

World record holder Mahuchikh (2.10m, Paris 2024) is the 2026 world indoor champion and former world outdoor champion (2023). She is unbeaten this year to date and her season’s best of 2.03m (indoors) remains the world lead. 

Paulino, world 400m champion in 2023, is the Dominican national record holder (47.98) and ranked third in the world all-time. She kicked off her 2026 Wanda Diamond League campaign with victory in Doha in a meeting record of 48.91 and backed that up with a world leading 48.48 win in Paris. 

Two time Olympic Champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH) will also compete at the Novuna London Athletics Meet on 18 July at the London Stadium. 

Miller-Uibo – who will race over 200m – won back-to-back Olympic 400m titles in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021. She’s a multiple world medallist in the 200m and 400m and a former Diamond League and Commonwealth 200m champion. She holds the Bahamian record for 200m with 21.74 (2019). 

Former world 800m champion and Olympic silver medallist Marco Arop (CAN) is the fastest in the world over two laps this year with 1:41.84 (Paris, June 2026), his third-fastest time ever. In a hugely competitive event, the Canadian record holder (1:41.20) is the only man to have gone sub-1:42.00 this year so far. He joins the trio of Brits; Pattison, Wightman and Burgin plus current Olympic Champion Wanyonyi in a race not to be missed. 

An intriguing addition to the men’s 110m hurdles is new world record holder Ja’Kobe Tharp (USA). The 20-year-old – the 2024 world U20 champion and 2025 US national champion – won the NCAA title for the second successive year in June, clocking 12.75 in his semi-final for the fastest time in history. He ran 12.90 (into a slight headwind) in the final. 

The Novuna London Athletics Meet – the world’s biggest one-day athletics event – is the eleventh meeting of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League. The series comprises 15 of the most prestigious events in global track and field across four different continents and began in Shanghai/Keqiao on 16 May. It concludes with a single final across two days in Brussels (4-5 September). 

Buy your tickets now: https://www.britishathletics.org.uk/events-and-tickets/novuna-london-athletics-meet-2026/