Doha’s stage is all set to welcome athletics champions of the world and the Olympics this Friday on 28 May at the 2021 Wanda Doha Diamond League. This will be the 25th edition of the annual outdoor track and field meeting in Doha and will be a star-studded event. The Qatar Sports Club will once again host the Diamond League fixture this year.
The 2021 Wanda Diamond League has 14 meetings and the competition in Doha will take place without an audience this year in compliance with Qatar's precautionary measures for the coronavirus (COVID-19). Each meeting will be broadcast globally and on the Alkass channel locally in Qatar!
The Diamond League is a yearly series of track and field athletic competitions consisting of fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series is part of the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day meeting competitions. It was created to replace the IAAF Golden League, which had been held since 1998. The sponsorship name - Wanda Diamond League is the result of an agreement with Wanda Group that was announced in 2019. (Source: World Athletics)
The Wanda Diamond League consists of 32 Diamond Disciplines that follow a championship style model. Here, athletes earn points at the 13 series meetings to qualify for the final of their respective discipline.
At each of the 13 series meetings, Athletes are awarded 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 points for ranking 1st to 8th respectively. The top 8 for 100m, 100/110m Hurdles and 800m, the top 7 for the 200m, 400m and 400m Hurdles, the top 6 for all technical events and top 10 Athletes for 1500m and long distance, will qualify for the Final. In there is a tie, the best legal performance of the qualification phase wins.
The winner of each discipline at the final will become "Diamond League Champion" and be awarded a Diamond Trophy, USD 30,000 prize money, and a wild card for the World Athletics Championships (with certain conditions applied). (Source: Wanda Diamond League)
This year’s events include pole vault, discus throwing, triple jump, 3000m steeplechase, 100m, 3000m for women sprint hurdles, and 800m for both men and women; high jump, 400m hurdles, shot put, 200m, 400m, 1500m for men and more.
Click here for the complete list of programme events: https://doha.diamondleague.com/programme-results-doha
This year’s Wanda Doha Diamond League will include Timothy Cheruiyot, Mutaz Barshim, Abderrahman Samba, Anzhelika Sidorova, Katerina Stefanidi, Sandi Morris, Hellen Obiri, Letesenbet Gidey, Angelica Moser, Holly Bradshaw, Alysha Newman among other world-class athletes.
Some of the countries that are coming together to be part of the 2021 Wanda Doha Diamond League:
Mutaz Barshim and Abderrahman Samba, Qatar’s reigning men’s high jump world champion and World Championship 400mH bronze medallist respectively, will return to the 2021 Wanda Diamond League action for the respective events. Barshim won the global World Championship gold at the Khalifa International Stadium in October 2019 and has competed only once since.
Adam Ali Musab, Qatar’s world-leading 1500m star will also be part of this year’s lineup. Musab has made great achievements over the recent years, most recently clocking a 3:32.41 lifetime best which took him to the top of the world rankings for 2021 to date.
Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) will be taking part in the women's 100m event. She is the fastest woman in the world currently. The 21-year-old clocked a 10.72 lifetime best at the Miramar Invitational in Florida (World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting).
Pole vaulter Sandi Morris from the USA will meet Anzhelika Sidorova (ANA) and Katerina Stefanidi (Greece) again in Doha. She was runner-up to Sidorova in Doha 2019 and won the World Indoor title in 2018.
The 100m field also features double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and defending world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce from Jamaica. Thompson-Herah is in fine form and ran 10.78 to win the Pure Athletics Sprint Elite Meet after a windy 10.76 in her heat. A gold medallist over 100m and 200m in Rio 2016, she is ranked equal-fourth in the world all-time rankings (10.70) alongside Fraser-Pryce, double Olympic champion (2008 and 2012), and multiple world champion over 100m, 200m, and 4 x 100m relay.
Katerina Stefanidi, the Greek national record holder for pole vaulting with a best of 4.91m will be reunited with Anzhelika Sidorova (ANA) and Sandi Morris (USA) in the Doha pole vaulting lineup.
British record holder and European Indoor Championships bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw will be competing for her position in the women’s pole vault in the 2021 Wanda Doha Diamond League.
World 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot will return to open his season at the 2021 Wanda Doha Diamond League. The Kenyan, who competed for over 800m in last year’s Doha meeting, will return to this number one event.
World 5000m champion Hellen Obiri will compete against world record holder Letesenbet Gidey from Ethiopia as they line up over 3000m at the Wanda Doha Diamond League on Friday 28 May. 31-year-old Obiri, Olympic 5000m silver medallist in Rio 2016, is an experienced competitor with three world track titles dating back. Additionally, Obiri is the current World Cross Country champion and Commonwealth Games champion over 5000m.
Stewart McSweyn, Australia’s 1500m national record holder, will also take part in this year's 1500m event. McSweyn has given a lot of great performances including a 1500m national record, with a victory in the 2020 Doha Diamond League (3:30.51) and before, a 3000m national record in Rome (7:28.02).
The 1500m event includes Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega, the World Championships 5000m silver medallist, and Samuel Tefera, world indoor 1500m champion.
World record holder Letesenbet Gidey will be competing in the 3000m event. She finished third behind Obiri in the senior race at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships.
Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, the 2019 world bronze medallist in the 3000m SC will take part in the 1500m.
European Indoor champion Angelica Moser will also be part of the impressive Doha line-up for the women’s pole vault.
Nigeria’s national record holder Blessing Okagbare, an Olympic, world and Commonwealth Games medallist will take part in the 100m field this year.
Multiple world medallist Marie-Josée Ta Lou will compete in the 100m field at the Qatar Sports Club on 28 May.
In addition to the top three from the 2019 World Athletics Championships in the women's pole vault event, the Doha line-up includes Canadian national record holder and Commonwealth Games champion Alysha Newman.
Source: World Athletics, Wanda Diamond League, Doha Diamond League
Cover image credit: QOC
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