Six things to note in Rabat
I have been watching the early-season Diamond Leagues on TV as the athletes move through Asia and Africa before reaching Europe. Six athletes caught my eye at Rabat.
1 Shaunae Miller-Uibo
It is great to see Shaunae back in action. The 2016 and 2020 Olympic gold medalist in the 400 is now 32 and a mother of two children. I was privileged to be at the stadium to see both of those Olympic finals, as well as her win four outdoor and two indoor world medals. A highlight was watching her run in the World relays in her native Bahamas, where she is a hero. In Rabat, she seemed to get a slow start in the 200 and never quite made up the distance, finishing fourth in 22.42. Great to see her back in action, with certainly better to come this season.
2 Joe Kovacs
Joe is often in the shadow of Ryan Crouser, but has twice been world champion and has also taken three Olympic and two world championship silvers.
Kovacs said afterward: “I would love to know how many Diamond Leagues wins I have, but no, I do not know. [19, Joe]. My wife and I just built a training facility, and I would love to put banners on the walls with all the special results. So maybe I should start counting them because I am pretty grateful for every one of them. My first Diamond League was in 2012, so it is good to start the year with a win and a healthy body. You cannot just copy what you did in the past, so this result shows that I am able to adapt, that I trust my wife (and coach) with training, and that I do this as a proud dad. I think this is one of my best openers ever, it is crazy for me. It shows me that there is always more in the tank, and that keeps me going for more. I was not expecting any result. I had no marks in training indicating how far I was going to throw”.
He once explained to me how being coached by his wife works: “I just do what my wife says. It makes my life easier!”
3 Nina Kennedy
It was great to see Nina Kennedy back in action. The 2023 World Champion (first equal with Katie Moon) and 2024 Olympic champion missed all of the 2025 season with injury but won her fourth successive competition – three in Australia – with 4.80.
Kennedy said afterward: “I am so happy, having close to two years off. The way I won today was really amazing. I don´t think that the girls were expecting that. I felt comfortable with the long approach; that´s what training is for, you work through your body, the niggles. I haven´t jumped off the full approach for a year and eight months, so I am very rusty. 4m80 is definitely not bad, especially in the first attempt. I have Rome in a few days, so I didn´t take any further jumps. I am just unloading accordingly, given that we are that early in the season. Competition intensity is very high, so I will definitely be sore tomorrow”.
4 Laura Muir
Laura Muir was fifth in the 1500m in 4:00.77 in her first international race of the season. I had seen her win in the Banister Mile in Oxford earlier in the year. Now 33, Laura has had an illustrious career, highlighted by an Olympic silver medal in the 2021 Olympics. She has also won World indoor and outdoor medals as well as 7 European golds (indoor and outdoor). I have been privileged to see her win them all, and I have never encountered a nicer, more cooperative athlete. A highlight of 2026 will be the second Commonwealth Games in her native Scotland, in fact, in Glasgow, the city where she graduated as a vet.
5 Matt Hudson-Smith
Matt Hudson-Smith was second in the 400 meters, a race that included Olympic Champion Quincy Hall. Matt was second in 44.25 behind Jacory Patterson.
Matt said, “It´s good to be back. I have had a lot of niggles, but it is a great opener. Now I need to build on that for the rest of the season. Last year was a bit of a difficult one. I was juggling the birth of my daughter, and then coming into this year, I had some family issues going on, which made me miss the World Relays”.
6 Audrey Werro
Werro won the 800m, breaking Caster Semenya’s 2016 meeting record in 1:56.56. Werro, who is 22 and was last year’s European young female athlete of the year, put an early-season marker down but will have her work cut out to challenge Keely Hodgkinson later in the summer in the European Championships.
Her assessment was: “I feel very good, and I was very surprised with my finish time, because it´s still early in the season and it´s so close to my PB. It´s a great way to start the season. Last year, I stepped up from the junior scene to the senior level. I learned many things, and now I can put them into place too. I don´t know where it will go, but I don´t put any limits on myself. I improved on both the physical and mental side, now for nine months already I have been a professional athlete and have no more classes on the side”.
