Olympic pole vault champion Nina Kennedy is ready to raise the bar once again in Rome, where Abbey Caldwell will go from the hunter to the hunted after blazing start to the Diamond League season.
After a one-year hiatus from the Diamond League circuit, Kennedy (WA, James Fitzpatrick) could not have made a more emphatic return than she did on Sunday in Rabat, soaring over 4.80m for the win before retiring on top of the competition.
The Commonwealth champion will enjoy a rematch with key rivals including Molly Caudery (GBR), Sandi Morris (USA) and Eliza McCartney (NZL) in Rome, but Kennedy is laser-focussed on her own goals and cementing her status on top of the world once again.
After clinching her first Diamond League win in Xiamen last month, Commonwealth bronze medallist Caldwell (VIC, Gavin Burren) will be watched closely by the world’s premier middle-distance women, including Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell (GBR).
Caldwell opened her international campaign with third place and a personal best of 3:56.12 in Shanghai before winning in Xiamen, with this week’s 1500m showdown also featuring Birke Haylom (ETH) and Nikki Hiltz (USA).
Adding to the middle-distance headlines, Linden Hall (VIC, Ned Brophy-Williams) will race her first 5000m on the Diamond League stage, 10 years after her Diamond League debut came over 1500m in Eugene in 2016.
Hall is the fourth fastest Australian ever over the distance at 14:43.61 and is set to face the might of East Africa over 12.5 laps, including Freweyni Hailu (ETH) and Medina Eisa (ETH).
A pair of showmen in the form of Yual Reath (VIC, Mike Barber) and Liam Adcock (QLD, self-coached) will take flight in the field, as Reath looks to back up his Oceania Athletics Championships high jump heroics.
On that occasion he leapt over 2.28m to bounce back into form in Darwin, now facing World Indoor champion Oleh Doroshchuk (UKR), while Adcock will need to bring his best to the Men’s Long Jump when facing two-time Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE).
Rounding out the action will be Peyton Craig (QLD, Craig Mottram) in the non-scoring Men’s 800m, where the 21-year-old will face his toughest test yet in 2026 featuring Donnovan Brazier (USA), Isaac Nader (POR) and Mark English (IRL), arriving fresh off back-to-back international wins in Los Angeles and Trieste.
Australian viewers can tune in live and free via the Age of Sport YouTube channel from 5:00am AEST, Friday June 5.
The full entry list and timetable is available HERE.
By Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics
posted 2/6/2026
