Wavelight at the meetings of the Wanda Diamond League

Wavelight has been present in the Wanda Diamond League for several years now, but 2024 was a special year. For the first time, Wavelight was used at all 15 Wanda Diamond League meetings.

Throughout the season, we witnessed incredible performances from your favorite athletes at these 15 worldwide events. Here is a summary of the incredible achievements made possible with the help of Wavelight:

🌍 4x World Records
🏆 11x Area Records
🏟️ 21x Meeting Records
📍 60x National Records

But how exactly has Wavelight contributed to these remarkable performances? To understand its impact, we spoke to some of the athletes themselves about how Wavelight influences their experience during the Wanda Diamond League competitions.

A Strong opponent – Jakob Ingebrigtsen

"I was scared the light would catch me!" said Jakob Ingebrigtsen after breaking the 3000-meter World Record in a spectacular 7:17.55, beating the previous World Record, which had stood for almost 24 years, by more than 3 seconds.

In that post-competition interview with the Wanda Diamond League, Jakob indicates that Wavelight feels like an opponent that pushes him to beat the World Record. Wavelight can be a motivating tool for athletes to push them to reach their ultimate potential, even when there is no opponent in sight.

Hand-in-hand pacing – Mounir Akbache (Pacemaker)

We asked Mounir Akbache, pacer for the Wanda Diamond League, how he feels about the use of Wavelight during the competition and how it has impacted his role as a pacemaker at the highest level.

“Wavelight makes it easier to keep my rhythm and frees my mind to keep an eye on the rest of the field,” Mounir explained. He indicated that using Wavelight during the races makes his job as a pacemaker more "relaxed," as it helps him maintain the rhythm and pace he's tasked with more easily.

In addition, Mounir also said that Wavelight and pacemakers go hand-in-hand, without one replacing the other. “Pacers are no robots, there is always a human aspect to the race. That is why Wavelight will not replace a pacer, but rather add to the value of the pacemakers in races”.

The perfect race plan – Faith Kipyegon

“for my 1.500m World Record, Wavelight has helped me to run my ideal race” said Faith Kipyegon. Faith worked closely together with the Wavelight team before her World Record race at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris.

Faith and her manager Valentijn Trouw made their perfect “Raceplan” with varying split times as far as every 200 meters. ”I know my last 300 meters can be my biggest strength, that is why I requested a faster pace at the end”.

Valentijn Trouw also highlighted the strategic advantage of using Wavelight: “One of the biggest benefits of using Wavelight is how it helps control the speed at the start of the race”. This way Wavelight prevents athletes from going out too fast and allows them to save energy for the critical moments later in the race.

Wavelight does not just set an even pace throughout the race, but rather precise split times requested by the top athletes.