European Athletics (EA) – From Heidler and Lysenko to Lavillenie and Savinova, a big weekend awaits Europeans in Eugene

The IAAF Diamond League reaches stage four in Eugene on Friday evening with the event split over two days.

The competition begins, at 6pm local time on the west coast of America, with an event where European athletes are at their strongest.

The field for the women's hammer has the top three athletes on the European Athletics rankings: Betty Heidler, of Germany, who has thrown 75.80m, Aksana Menkova, of Belarus, who has thrown 75.45m and the Olympic and world champion Tatyana Lysenko, of Russia, who has thrown 74.07m.

It is the first staging of the event on this year's Diamond League programme and it promises to be an outstanding competition.

Heidler, 29, has led the rankings since March 9 when she threw 75.80m in Mont Dore, 35 centimetres more than Menkova. Lysenko is just behind with 74.07m.

At last summer's Olympic Games in London, Heidler won bronze with 77.12m as Lysenko took gold with an Olympic record of 78.18m.

The Russian arrives in Eugene fresh from throwing 72.16m for her club, Luch Moscow, to win the hammer at the European Champion Clubs Cup Senior Group A in Vila Real di Santo António in Portugal.

The women's javelin should be another superb event after Germany's Christina Obergfoll won in New York last Saturday with 65.33m from Mariya Abakumova, of Russia, with 64.25m.

The pair have travelled across the USA for this next installment just three weeks before the SPAR European Athletics Team Championships where they could face each other in Gateshead.

Germany's Christina Schwanitz leads the Diamond League table for the shot put, but is likely to be overtaken tonight. She is not in Eugene but China's Lijao Gong, who is second behind her, does compete.

The final event on Friday evening is the men's 10,000m which was set to feature Britain's Olympic champion Mo Farah, but he has now dropped down a distance to the 5000m on Saturday where he will face his training partner, the American Galen Rupp, who finished second behind him in London in the 10,000m.

But from a European perspective, the men's pole vault is one event that should be fascinating as Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie makes his debut on the Diamond League this year.

It is only the second time the discipline has been featured in 2013 with Greece's Filippidis Konstantinos the leader after his win in Doha on the opening night when he cleared 5.82m.

But the event cranks up another level now with the arrival of Lavillenie, the Olympic, World and European champion.

The high jump brings together Russia's leading two – Ivan Ukhov, the Olympic champion, and Sergey Mudrov, who won gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg.

The women's 400m hurdles will see the clock turn back to London as the top three all meet.

Russia's Natalya Antyukh will be looking to repeat that triumph as she faces Lashinda Demus, of the USA, and Zuzana Hejnova, the Czech Republic star who is in fine form.

Germany's Robert Harting, the Olympic and European discus champion, will be heading to both Gateshead and Moscow, for the World Championships, as the favourite but on Saturday he faces a fellow European who is becoming a major threat – Poland's Piotr Malachowski.

Two weeks ago Malachowski won at the Diamond League in Shanghai with 67.34m, which puts him second on the European rankings behind Harting who has thrown 68.31m.

Mariya Savinova won Olympic gold for Russia in the 800m last summer and on Saturday she will make her season's debut, where her performance will provide indicators of what lies ahead – for her rivals as much as herself.

European Athletics (EA)

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