IAAF Diamond League logo (© c)
There are exactly two weeks to go until the 2014 season of the IAAF Diamond League gets underway on Friday 9 May in Doha, Qatar.
The IAAF Diamond League is entering its fifth season and comprises 14 of the best invitational track and field meetings in the world.
The meetings are spread across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA, and are the top tier of the IAAF’s global one-day meeting competition structure.
In 2013, the men’s highlights arguably included (in event order) Ethiopia’s Mohammed Aman running 800m in 1:42.37 at the Diamond League final in Brussels, Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop clocking 3:27.72 for 1500m in Monaco, Ukrainian high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko leaping 2.41m in Lausanne and US shot putter Ryan Whiting launching his implement out to 22.28m at the opening meeting in Doha.
On the women’s side, a selection of the best performances included: Botswana’s Amantle Montsho speeding to 49.33 over 400m in Monaco, Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi winning a thrilling 1500m in Doha in 3:56.60, Doha also saw US long jumper Brittney Reese fly out to 7.25m while Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic launched her discus out to 68.96m in Lausanne.
All those eight marks ended the year as the best performances of 2013, as did a number of other feats in last year’s IAAF Diamond League meetings.
This year’s series of 14 meetings are each offering 480,000 USD in prize money.
The IAAF Diamond League showcases 32 event disciplines which are carefully distributed among the meetings.
In each event disciplines there is a ‘Diamond Race’ with points available throughout the 14-meeting season.
Each of the 32 event disciplines is staged seven times with the top three athletes being awarded the same amount of points at each meeting, with the exception of the Final where the points are doubled.
The overall winner of each of the 32 Diamond Races will receive a 40,000 USD cash prize and a spectacular Diamond Trophy.
Combine the individual meeting prize money with the Diamond Race cash, and the IAAF Diamond League is offering a total of 8 Million USD in prize money in 2014.
To find out more, please click here to download the 2014 IAAF Diamond League media guide (4.7mb pdf).
To follow all the results and news throughout the IAAF Diamond League season…
Click here for the IAAF website’s dedicated IAAF Diamond League section.
Click here for the official IAAF Diamond League website.
2014 IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 9 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
Eugene, USA – 31 May
Rome, ITA – 5 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 11 Jun
New York, USA – 14 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 3 Jul
Paris, FRA – 5 Jul
Glasgow, GBR – 11-12 Jul
Monaco, MON – 18 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 21 Aug
Birmingham, GBR – 24 Aug
Zurich, SUI – 28 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 5 Sep
