Diamond League athletics entourage to make Doha stopover on Sept 25

 

The Qatar Athletics Federation is working round the clock in preparation for this year's Diamond League athletics meeting in Doha which will take place on September 25 at Qatar Sports Club Stadium.

The event in Doha, which serves as the traditional season opener, had previously been pushed back from its April 17 slot due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The competitive season began in Monaco on August 14 followed by meeting in Stockholm. Naples will hold the third meeting on September 17 while Doha will host the last leg.  

Diamond League meetings in Eugene, London, Paris, Rabat, Gateshead and Shanghai were cancelled while events in Oslo, Zurich, Lusanne and Brussels were just exhibition events.

Doha will host the revised 12-event programme - the fourth and final competitive meeting of the truncated Diamond League season - which includes sprint hurdles and 800m for both men and women; 100m, 3000m and long jump for women; and 200m, 400m, 1500m and pole vault for men.

For local fans all eyes will be focused Asian 400m hurdles champion and World Championships bronze medal winner Abderrahman Samba.

Due to the impact of Covid-19, the Diamond League will not form a structured series of events leading to a final and athletes will not earn Diamond League points this season.

2019 World Championship medallists Sam Kendricks (USA), Mondo Duplantis (SWE) and Piotr Lisek (POL), as well as London 2012 Olympic gold medallist Renaud Lavillenie (FRA), will battle it out in the pole vault in Doha.

Two-time world champion Kendricks is the Rio 2016 Olympic Games bronze medallist. He finished second to Duplantis with a 6.02m jump at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on 2 September, the second highest vault of his career.

World record holder Duplantis, runner-up to Kendricks in Doha at the World Championships last year and European champion (2018), is in outstanding form.

His exceptional indoor season – which peaked with an incredible 6.18m clearance in Glasgow in February – has continued outdoors, and he jumped a national outdoor record and world lead of 6.07m, the best outdoor vault in the world for 26 years, to take the victory in the fading light of Lausanne.

Lisek was second to Kendricks in London and third behind Kendricks and Duplantis in Doha. He has a season’s best of 5.90m from the Wiesław Maniak Memorial in Szczecin on 16 August.

Lavillenie, the most experienced of the quartet, backed up his London triumph with Olympic silver in Rio 2016 and over the last decade has won a multitude of global medals, including seven Diamond Trophies.

In addition to their pole vault achievements in competitive international events, Kendricks, Duplantis and Lavillenie brought live sport back during lockdown in the inaugural ‘Ultimate Garden Clash’ in May.

The contest, devised by the three vaulters, was a race to see who could produce the most 5.00m vaults within a 30-minute period, all from the comfort and safety of their own back gardens.

Kendricks said: “We’ve had fun this summer going right back to our back garden meet in May, but after some solid blocks of training, it’s been great to get back out and compete with these guys on the circuit.”

Duplantis, unbeaten this season to date, said: “After Lausanne I was desperate to get back out and compete, I felt like I was in the zone and it’s hard to take a step back in those situations, but I had to play safe.

“I’m excited to compete in Doha and to continue this season. After a delayed start we’re all getting into good shape so this should be a great competition. I love pole vault – we all do – and when we compete against each other we really push each other on, it brings out the best of us.”

 

Meanwhile, Double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica), Olympic silver medallist Dafne Schippers (Netherlands) and multiple World Championships medallist Marie-Josée Ta Lou (Ivory Coast), will go head to head over 100m.

Thompson-Herah, the first woman to win gold in the 100m and 200m at the same Olympics (Rio 2016) since Florence Griffith Joyner achieved the feat in Seoul 1988, finished fourth in the 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019.

Former heptathlete Schippers, world champion over 200m in 2015 and 2017, is the European record-holder (21.63) and third-fastest woman of all time over the distance. She was runner-up to Thompson-Herah over 200m in Rio and fifth in the 100m.

Talou finished third in the 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, but was second in London 2017 - behind the dominant Schippers - in a National Record (22.08). She was also runner-up in the 100m, this time to the USA’s Tori Bowie, with Schippers in third.

Schippers will make her season’s debut over 100m in Doha while Talou will be looking to build on her Wanda Diamond League performances in Monaco and Stockholm where she finished fourth (11.39) and third (11.32) respectively.

Thompson-Herah’s season’s best of 10.88 set in Kingston on 8 August is the second fastest of the year to date. She will race outside of Jamaica for the first time in 2020 when she lines up in Doha.

She said: “I’ve been fortunate to be able to race at home over the summer, but nothing beats the thrill of lining up in an overseas, international meet. I can’t wait to get back on the circuit, especially as part of a quality field in Doha where I’ve really enjoyed competing in the past.”

 

2020 Diamond League, Doha Programme

25 September 2020 at Qatar Sports Club

18:33 ---- 200m Men

18:50 ---- Pole Vault Men

19:03 ----  400m Men

19:08 ---    Long Jump Women

19:12 ---    100m Hurdles Women

19:21 ----   1500m Men

19:34 ----   110m Hurdles Men

19:43 ----    800m Women

19:56 ----    100m Women

20:07 ----   800m Men

20:18  ----  3000m Women

 

Non-Diamond League events

17:53 -- - 100m Junior Men

18:02  --- 400m Junior Men

18:11 ---   800m Junior Men

18:22 ---  1500m Junior Men

18:43        1500m B Race Men