Merritt heads a star cast for the Shanghai Diamond League

Sprint hurdler Aries Merritt tops a list of headline names that includes world 100m champion and Olympic silver medallist Yohan Blake, world and Olympic 400m champion Kirani James, world junior and Olympic javelin champion Keshorn Walcott, and the multi-world record breaking pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.

Merritt returns to the meeting in 2013 hoping to make amends after finishing fourth last year in a 110m hurdles contest that brought victory for Chinese favourite Liu Xiang.

While Liu’s season came to crashing halt in the Olympic heats, the US athlete went on to enjoy a virtually unbeaten run throughout the 2012 outdoor season, culminating with Olympic gold in London and a stunning world record of 12.80 seconds at the Brussels Diamond League meeting on 7 September.

Merritt dipped under 13 seconds 10 times during the season and he will hope to run close to that time again on 18 May when he faces the latest Chinese hurdling hope, Xie Wenjun.

Tipped by some as the new Liu, Xie lowered his personal best at 110m hurdles to 13.34 in the Olympic semi-finals last August and made a breakthrough earlier this year when he finished third over 60m hurdles at the British Athletics Grand Prix in Birmingham in 7.60.

Blake will compete in Shanghai for the first time full of confidence after picking up three medals at the Olympic Games, clinching two silvers behind Usain Bolt in the 100m and 200m before joining his Jamaican compatriot to take gold in the 4x100m relay in a world record time.

Already the second fastest man ever over 200m, the man they call ‘the beast’ is expected to challenge Bolt’s supremacy in both sprints this year after beating his training partner twice at last year’s Jamaican Olympic trials. The 200m race in Shanghai will be a major step on the road towards defending his world 100m crown in Moscow.

James is also aiming to defend a world title in Moscow this summer after adding the Olympic 400m gold in London to an ever-growing collection of medals.

Still only 20, the Grenadan has won world youth, world junior, world senior and Olympic titles in the last four seasons. He broke the Caribbean and Central American record to take gold at London 2012 in 43.94, making him the only non-US athlete to figure among the world all-time top 10.

Walcott’s rise to the Olympian heights has been even more meteoric. The Trinidad and Tobago athlete arrived at the Games in London fresh from winning the world junior title in Barcelona just a month earlier.

In London he shocked the favourites to claim Olympic gold, out-throwing such experienced men as Andreas Thorkildsen and Vítezslav Vesely with a best of 84.58 metres. It was the climax of a remarkable season for the 19-year-old who had also won the Central American junior crown early in July.

His winning throw in London was his fifth national record of the season and the seventh time he had set a new area junior record in 2012.

Isinbayeva is another athlete familiar with record-breaking achievements. The Russian has set a remarkable 28 world indoor and outdoor pole vault records in her career, topping out at 5.06m in Zurich back in 2009.

Twice an Olympic and world champion, and three-times voted the world athlete of the year, the 30-year-old has endured injury problems and a dip in form over the last few seasons. She finished sixth at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu before returning to the Olympic podium in 2012 when she clinched the bronze medal.

She returns to Shanghai in 2013 for the first time in four years hoping to defend an unbeaten record from four previous appearances at the meeting. With her mind focused on regaining her world title at her home championships in Moscow, Isinbayeva will be keen to get her 2013 season off to a winning start.

Shot putter Gong Lijiao also left London with a bronze medal in her pocket to add to the bronze she took home from at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Gong was triumphant at the Shanghai Diamond League two years ago, having finished third in 2010, and will be one of the hosts’ main hopes of victory at this year’s meeting.

The 2013 Shanghai Diamond League meeting will include 16 events, nine for men (200m, 400m, 1500m, 110m hurdles, 3000m steeplechase, high jump, long jump, discus throw, javelin throw) and seven for women (100m, 800m, 5000m, 400m hurdles, pole vault , triple jump , shot put).