Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles will compete at the Herculis meeting on Friday

The cast of the 39th Herculis meeting, scheduled for Friday evening at the Stade Louis-II starting at 7 p.m., welcomes a new Olympic champion. Crowned at the Paris Olympic Games last summer in the straight, Noah Lyles arrived in the Principality earlier this week to run the 200m.

For the 27-year-old American, who finished third at the Olympics over this distance, it will be an opportunity to cross paths again with Letsile Tebogo, the Botswanan who became Olympic champion a year ago. Injured last year, the Floridian withdrew but promised he would attend this year. He kept his verbal commitment, the one he made to meeting director Jean-Pierre Schoebel.

Menton's Téo Andant will be in action in this half-lap. The 400m specialist will be working on his speed.

Holloway, Zhoya and Maraval forfeit

While Lyles landed on the Rock, two athletes preferred to withdraw in recent hours.

Struggling since suffering an injury at the start of the season, Olympic champion and three-time world champion in the 110m hurdles, Grant Holloway, has been sidelined. He was due to battle it out with Frenchman Sasha Zhoya, who also missed out at the last minute, but believes he is lacking training.

The same misfortune befell Louise Maraval. The Vendée native had already had to withdraw from the European Team Championships held at the end of June in Spain. She had injured herself a few days earlier during training. The European 400m hurdles runner-up will not be sharing the track with Olympic champion Femke Bol of the Netherlands, nor with American Dalilah Muhammad, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Games.

Tickets for the meeting are still available, starting at €15. You can find them at herculis.com.