Seven days after the magical evening at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, the official entry lists for the 2026 Golden Gala Pietro Mennea (Thursday, June 4th) have been published, the fourth leg of the Wanda Diamond League, featuring over 40 Olympic and world champions and over 80 global medalists.
MEN
In the men’s event, the 100-meter race stands out, featuring the last two Olympic champions, Noah Lyles of the United States and Marcell Jacobs of Italy, along with Olympic 200-meter gold medalist Letsile Tebogo (Botswana), the last two World Indoor 60-meter gold medalists, Jordan Anthony of the United States and Jeremiah Azu of Great Britain, and African sprinters Ferdinand Omanyala (Kenya) and Akani Simbine (South Africa). In the 800-meter race, the spotlight is on Donavan Brazier (USA) and Isaac Nader of Portugal, who arrives as the reigning world champion in the 1500-meter race.
WOMEN
All eyes will be on the women’s 200 meters as the Golden Gala resembles an Olympic final. Reigning world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (USA) in the 100, 200, and 4×100 meters will face off against Olympic 100 meter champion Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia), along with Britain’s Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith and Anavia Battle of the United States. Alfred, with a personal best time of 21.71 seconds will come head to head with Jefferson-Wooden whose personal best is 21.68 seconds, only 0.03 seconds between them.
In the 400 meters, all eyes are on Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, an 800 meter specialist in which she is an Olympic champion and world indoor record holder, but the result is far from a foregone conclusion given the presence of rivals such as Lieke Klaver (Netherlands), Natalia Bukowiecka (Poland), Aaliyah Butler (USA), Amber Anning (Great Britain), and Czech world indoor gold medalist Lurdes Gloria Manuel.