Doha, Qatar - There are exactly three weeks-to-go until the start of the inaugural season of the IAAF Diamond League which commences in Doha on Friday 14 May.

A replacement for the former Golden League of 6 meetings which were staged only in Europe – the new IAAF Diamond League meets one of the strategic goals of the IAAF, which is to enhance the worldwide appeal of Athletics, by taking this top tier of the one-day competition circuit outside Europe for the first time with competitions in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA.

The Doha Diamond League will get the 14 meeting series off to a start and will be headlined by the participation of 6 of the IAAF Diamond League Ambassadors including 2009 World Athlete of the Year Sanya Richards-Ross (USA), who is the World 400m champion.

Richards-Ross, who was married this winter, was in Doha last month as a spectator at the IAAF World Indoor Championships and was mobbed by adoring fans seeking her autograph - click here for previous story

Blanka Vlasic (CRO) another of the six on show on 14 May also has fond recent memories of Doha. Vlasic, the two-time World outdoor High Jump champion, competing at those World Indoor Championships in Doha’s impressive Aspire Dome, secured her second successive indoor title with a 2 metre clearance.

The remaining four Ambassadors who will compete in the Doha Diamond League are, in alphabetical order, World and Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele (ETH), three-time World 200m champion Allyson Felix (USA), 100m speedster Asafa Powell (JAM), the two-time World bronze medallist and former World record holder for the dash, and Barbora Spotáková (CZE), the reigning women’s Olympic Javelin Throw champion and World record holder.

IAAF Diamond League

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