Femke Bol’s Paris Diamond League meeting will go ahead on Sunday in an adjusted format after the Paris Police Prefecture moved to prohibit sporting events because of extreme heat. The change keeps the meeting at Stade Charlety on the programme, but only for professional athletes.
The Paris Police Prefecture issued a statement on Friday prohibiting all sporting competitions and events in Paris, then added that “should they refuse, the Prefect of Police will prohibit them by decree”. The Diamond League said “an exceptional set of measures has been put in place to mitigate the effects of the extreme heat”.
Paris and Stade Charlety
Sunday’s meeting at Stade Charlety will only feature competitions involving professional athletes. All activities for athletics clubs and licensed members were cancelled, and all regional competitions were cancelled as well.
The schedule change comes after emergency red alert measures were implemented in Paris. Meteo-France said Wednesday was France’s hottest day on record, with an average national temperature of 30C, and a high of 39C was forecast for Paris on Saturday. A high of 32C was forecast for Sunday.
Keely Hodgkinson in Paris
Keely Hodgkinson finished second in Stockholm and is due to race next in Eugene, giving the Paris meeting one more major name to track across the Diamond League run-in. The series has 15 stops, with 14 regular series meetings and a final in Brussels in September.
Athletes compete for points across 32 Diamond League disciplines. The top six in field events qualify for the finals, the top eight in track events from 100m up to 800m qualify, and the top 10 in distances from 1500m upwards qualify.
Diamond League Paris schedule
The Paris meeting is one stop in a calendar that runs through Shanghai, Keqiao, Xiamen, Rabat, Rome, Stockholm, Oslo, Doha, Eugene, Monaco, London, Lausanne, Silesia, Zurich and Brussels. For athletes, the practical effect in Paris is simple: the meeting stays on, but the entry list is narrowed and the wider amateur programme has been cut back.
Which specific events remain on the Paris programme after the schedule was adjusted matters most now, because the meeting moves forward under limits rather than the full format that was originally planned. For anyone tied to the cancelled club and regional events, the decision has already shifted the day from an open competition schedule to a professional-only meeting.
