Diamond League 2021: Dina Asher-Smith and Karsten Warholm among stars set to dazzle

Karsten Warholm, Dina Asher-Smith and Elaine Thompson-Herah will all be looking to impress

Athletics fans will certainly be able to avoid the post-Olympic blues courtesy of a mouth-watering line-up of Diamond League meetings en route to the series final next month.

Here, we highlight the top head-to-heads coming up, and where to catch the unmissable action.

Saturday, 21 August - Prefontaine Classic, Eugene

Hosting the eighth leg of the 12-meeting Diamond League series is the refurbished Hayward Field in Oregon - venue for the 2022 World Championships - and the Prefontaine Classic boasts no less than 26 gold, 18 silver and 18 bronze medallists from the Tokyo Games.

With a big point to prove having missed the Olympics following a one-month suspension after testing positive for marijuana, Sha'Carri Richardson will face all three 100m medallists from Tokyo, with blistering times expected.

The flamboyant 21-year-old American, who recorded a swift 10.72 seconds earlier in the summer, goes up against Tokyo and Rio 2016 100m and 200m champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah, and her Jamaican compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce - the two-time Olympic winner who took 100m silver in Japan.

Thompson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce have scorched to jaw-dropping 10.61 and 10.63 times respectively this season, while all nine entrants in this race have dipped below the 11-second barrier, including five of them under 10.80.

In the longer sprint, Britain's world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith seeks redemption for missing out on the 100m final in Tokyo, as the 25-year-old pits herself against seven-time Olympic and 12-time world sprint champion Allyson Felix of the USA.

With a season's best of 22.06 seconds, Asher-Smith bids to follow up her 4x100m relay Olympic bronze by improving her 21.88 national record.

Teenage sensations Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson match-up again a fortnight after their scintillating Olympic 800m one-two.

American Mu, 19, claimed victory with an impressive time of one minute 55.21 seconds while Britain's European indoor champion Hodgkinson, also 19, set a 1:55.88 national record with silver - incredibly, improving her two-lap time by almost six seconds this year.

An agonising fourth in Tokyo, Scotland's Jemma Reekie will also be keen to impress.

Meanwhile in the 1500m, Reekie's training partner and housemate Laura Muir goes into battle once more with Kenya's Faith Kipyegon - the woman who took the Olympic crown ahead of her in a new Games record time.

Watch live on BBC Red Button, iPlayer and online from 21:00-23:00 BST

Thursday, 26 August - Athletissima Meeting, Lausanne

The Swiss city of Lausanne looks set to provide a night of mesmerizing athletics, headed by man of the moment Karsten Warholm, the enigmatic 400m hurdles world-record breaker.

Eager to capitalise on the astounding form that propelled him to a phenomenal Olympic victory which obliterated the world record, the 25-year-old Norwegian is an intriguing entrant in the 400m flat discipline here.

With a 44.87 lifetime best, the two-time world champion over the barriers will target the 25-year-old European record of 44.33 and few would bet against him during the season of his career.

Compatriot Jakob Ingebrigtsen is also expected to create fireworks as the 20-year-old goes for the 3,000m European record to follow up his Tokyo 1500m triumph, achieved in a record Olympic time.

With the European 1500m and 5,000m records to his name, Ingebrigtsen will face silver medallist and reigning world champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, in a race which fascinatingly boasts all the medallists from the 1500m, 5,000m, 10,000m and 3,000m steeplechase in Tokyo.

In the city centre on the eve of the event, Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy return from their heart-warming high jump antics in Japan, where the duo decided to share the gold medal.

Back on the track, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will again compete in the 100m.

Watch live on BBC Two, iPlayer and online from 19:00-21:00 BST

Saturday, 28 August - Meeting de Paris

Dina Asher-Smith lines up in the 100m determined to banish her Tokyo injury demons. The Briton looks to improve upon her 10.91 season's best - and will almost certainly need to eclipse her 10.83 British record to stay in touch with Thompson-Herah who competes again.

In the pole vault, Sweden's Mondo Duplantis follows his appearance in Lausanne as he aims to better his 6.18m world record in the shadow of his Tokyo gold-medal win.

The 21-year-old has a 6.10m season's best and he will come up against American Sam Kendricks who was heartbreakingly forced to withdraw from the Games on the eve of the competition because of a positive Covid-19 test.

Watch live on BBC Two, iPlayer and online from 19:00-21:00 BST

Friday, 3 September - Memorial van Damme, Brussels

In the penultimate series meeting, Karsten Warholm will take centre stage in his specialist 400m hurdles event, with another world record hoped for if the inevitable end-of-season fatigue has yet to set in.

European record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen starts in the 1500m, while Dina Asher-Smith tackles the 100m again and Sha'Carri Richardson competes this time over 200m.

Following her 5,000m record attempt in Eugene, Sifan Hassan goes after the world 10,000m record. Having broken the global all-time best mark back in June, the Dutchwoman lost the record a mere two days later at the same Hengelo track to Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey, prompting Hassan to seek revenge.

And after her history-making 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic double (and 1500m bronze) in Tokyo, it seems likely she will reclaim the record in the Belgian capital.

Watch live on BBC Two, iPlayer and online from 19:00-21:00 BST