At the end of last week, big-name athletes from the worlds of track and field descended on the Principality for the Herculis EBS Meeting at the Stade Louis II, a key preparatory event and competition showcase ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris later this summer.
The 2024 Herculis EBS programme on 12th July featured a wide array of men’s and women’s track and field events, from sprints, middle-distance races and hurdles to the pole vault, the triple jump and the javelin throw.
Grant Holloway, the three-time world champion and the 2022 110m hurdles winner in Monaco, was among the many top-calibre athletes who competed at this year’s event. Though he didn’t beat the all-time Herculis record of 12.92 seconds, set by Aries Merritt in 2012, Holloway came away as the winner once more and clearly enjoyed his time in the Principality.
“I like the rhythm I had in the race today. I just need to push a bit more to run sub-13 seconds. I was tired after the American trials, they took a lot from me… But I am always ready to run the Monaco race,” he shared.
In the 200m men’s race, winner Tebogo Letsile, a talented sprinter from Botswana who is equally well-known for his impressive performances in the 400m event, clocked 19.87 seconds this year despite facing significant headwinds.
In the women’s pole vault category, US Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion Katie Moon returned to Monaco after missing the event in 2022 and 2023. Moon won with a 4.90m jump in 2021, but faced stiff competition this year. The event was ultimately won by Australian Nina Kennedy, who snatched first place with a 4.88m jump.
In second was Swiss pole vaulter Angelica Moser, who told Monaco Life, “The competition was great: jumping a national record is always amazing, and here I did it twice. Breaking my personal best by 10cm is just extra special and incredible.”
Sedjati Djamel, a prominent Algerian middle-distance runner renowned for his competitive performances in the 800m, sealed a win in the event with a time of 1 minute 41.46 seconds and simultaneously broke three records: the national record, the Herculis record and the Diamond League record.
“It’s the fourth time I have run a World Lead and the second time an Algerian Record. I have worked really hard for that,” said Sedjati.
Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi, the reigning world champion, competed in the women’s javelin. Kitaguchi, the Japanese record-holder with a throw of 67.38m, surpassed her season’s best and won with a 65.21m throw.
For Kitaguchi and many of the 2024 Herculis’ other winners, who were congratulated on their successes personally by Prince Albert II of Monaco, the event provided a valuable opportunity for fine-tuning and assessment ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris. Notable performances were observed in many of the disciplines, underscoring the high level of competition at the Monaco-staged event, setting the stage for what promises to be an exciting Olympic showdown in just a few weeks’ time.
To see some of the action, watch the Monaco Life Instagram reel below:
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Photo credit: Enrico Bottero