Paralympic 200m T47 champion Paralympian #195 Anna Grimaldi MNZM welcomes the “awesome opportunity” of competing at her very first Diamond League event on Sunday (July 6 NZ time) when she takes to the start line of the Women’s Para 100m mixed classification race at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
Meanwhile, a second Kiwi, Paralympian #234 Mitch Joynt, will also be making his Diamond League debut, competing in the Men’s 200m T62/64 event.
The Diamond League is the long-established elite one-day athletics meet for able-bodied athletes comprising 15 meets around the world. However, increasingly some of the Diamond League meets have strived to be more inclusive by introducing Para events on to the schedule.
Leading the way is the historic Prefontaine Classic, who have four Para events on the 2025 programme – Men’s and Women’s Para 100m mixed classification races, a Men’s T62/T64 200m and a Women’s 800m T54 race.
A delighted Grimaldi, who also won a bronze medal in the Women’s 100m T47 at Paris 2024, said: “It is an awesome opportunity as a Para athlete to compete at a big event. Outside of the World Para Athletics Championships and the Paralympic Games we don’t get many chances to compete at major international events. To be able to compete in front of a big crowd will be exciting and it is also a great chance for the crowd to enjoy Para sport as well.”
Joynt, who finished sixth in the Men’s 200m T64 at Paris 2024, was similarly excited, adding: “This will be my first Diamond League, it is pretty rare for them to put on Para events so its awesome they are giving us this opportunity. Eugene is synonymous with track these days, so its going to be a cool venue to get to compete in.”
Since her double medal winning success at Paris 2024, Grimaldi, the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Women’s Long Jump T47 champion, has stepped away from long jump to focus on the sprints.
While she admits this might not be a permanent move, she explains: “If I had done better at the Games (in the Long Jump T47 where she finished fourth) I can’t sit here and say I would not have taken the same approach. But I was struggling with long jump and not enjoying it as much as I once was. I’m not stepping away from long jump forever but for now it has been really good to be able to focus on sprinting. The long jump took a toll on my body, particualarly the lower legs and back. It has been refreshing to have a new focus. It is a new era for me and the move has given me a new lease of life.”
Grimaldi described her busy domestic season as “a mixed bag.” Satisfied with her efforts in the 100m, where she posted a couple of times in the low 12.30s (her national Women’s 100m T47 record stands at 12.20 set at Paris 2024) and a wind-aided 12.26, she was less satisfied with her performances in the 200m which “did not click” as she would have wanted. She is nonetheless hopeful that by the time of the New Delhi 2025 World Para Athletics Championships (27 September – 5 October 2025) she will be able to replicate the kind of performance over the half-lap distance which saw her storm to an emphatic gold medal-winning success at Paris 2024.
Currently training at the ALTIS training centre in Phoneix, Arizona (USA) she says the experience of training there will be beneficial for helping her adjust to the intense heat she will be expected to face in New Delhi.
However, in the short-term the 28-year Kiwi faces a world-class field of Para athletes inside the iconic Hayward Field, which includes American Brittni Mason, who claimed silver in the Women’s 100m T47 at Paris 2024 and whom the Dunedin-based Para athlete has never beaten over the distance.
So what would she like to achieve in Eugene on her Diamond League debut?
“I would like to build on some of the things we have been working on through the season,” she says. “My start and my early part of the race has been my weakest part of the race and my strength is my top speed and back end of the race. I’ve been doing some start work with my old coach, Brent Ward, so it will be cool to see what I can take from training through to a competition. We’ll use this as a good guide for what I need to do in the three months leading into to the Para Athletics World Championships.”
Joynt will face a stellar field dripping with World and Paralympic medallists led by Paris 2024 Men’s 200m T64 champion Sherman Isidro Guity Guity of Costa Rica. It will be no easy challenge for the 30-year-old Aucklander who added: “I wasn’t given a tonne of notice to prepare for this race so we are still very much in a build phase aiming to be ready for India later this year. We are also just going over for this race, so travel to race turnaround will be pretty quick, so expectations will be pretty low. It is more about the experience and the opportunity to showcase Para sport to a huge audience.”
***Anna Grimaldi is in action at 7am (NZ time) on Sunday with Mitch Joynt competing at 7.24am.
***Follow the live action of the Wanda Diamond League via its Facebook or YouTube channels.
