Latest news with #16thDiamondLeague
BBC News
25-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Azu, Duplantis, Kipyegon in action at Diamond League opener
The 16th Diamond League season begins in Xiamen, China on Saturday as athletics' Olympic stars begin to build towards their shot at world glory in 2025, live on the BBC. The series will see athletes compete for points in 32 disciplines across 14 meetings in a bid to qualify for the winner-takes-all two-day finals in Zurich in takes place just over two weeks before the start of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan in is also the first year in which the Diamond League must compete with Michael Johnson's new Grand Slam Track for athletes' the three remaining Grand Slam Track events, only one clashes directly with Diamond League competition - with the Miami Slam on 2–4 May taking place at the same time as the meet in Keqiao, China on 3 Diamond League has increased its prize money to the highest level in its history, with a total prize pot of $9.24m (£6.95m) on offer across the includes $500,000 (£375,000) at each of the 14 series meetings, and $2.2m (£1.7m) at the Diamond League the Diamond League action on the BBC Red Button, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app from 12:00 to 14:00 BST on Saturday. Who to watch out for in Xiamen After winning the first global title of his career with world indoor 60m gold in March, Great Britain's Jeremiah Azu begins his push for outdoor 23-year-old will have Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, American Christian Coleman and South Africa's Akani Simbine for company in a stacked pole vault star Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis competes in the men's pole vault after breaking the men's world record for an 11th time in Xiamen one year ago, Duplantis posted the earliest world record in a Diamond League season before going on to win a fourth announced this week that in June she will attempt to become the first woman to run a sub-four minute mile, three-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon will contest the women's 1,000m in Kenyan, whose personal best is just 0.17 seconds slower than the world record of two minutes and 28.98 seconds, is joined in that race by Olympic 800m silver medallist Tsige Duguma and GB's Erin Britain's Amy Hunt lines up in the women's 200m against Jamaica's two-time world champion in the event Shericka Jackson, while Morgan Lake competes against Ukraine's Olympic high jump champion Yaroslava inaugural Diamond League men's 300m hurdles features the event's world record holder Karsten Warholm, while four-time global champion Grant Holloway goes in the men's 110m hurdles. Key Diamond League timings 10:15 BST - Women's high jump featuring GB's Morgan Lake and Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh10:35 BST - Men's pole vault featuring world record holder Mondo Duplantis11:40 BST - Men's 110m hurdles featuring Olympic champion Grant Holloway11:50 BST - Women's 200m featuring GB's Amy Hunt and Jamaica's two-time world champion Shericka Jackson 12:01 BST - Men's 100m featuring GB's Jeremiah Azu and Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo12:10 BST - Women's 1,000m featuring three-time Olympic gold medallist Faith Kipyegon and GB's Erin Wallace12:52 BST - Men's 300m hurdles featuring Norway's world record holder Karsten Warholm How does the Diamond League work? Athletes will compete for points at the 14 regular series meetings from April to August. Points are awarded on a scale from eight for first place to one for eighth place. After the 14th meeting in Brussels, the top six ranked athletes in the field events, the top eight in track events from 100m up to 800m, and the top 10 in the distances from 1500m upwards qualify for the final. The two-day finals are a winner-takes-all competition to be crowned Diamond League champion in each event. Diamond League calendar 2025 26 April - Xiamen, China03 May - Keqiao, China16 May - Doha, Qatar25 May - Rabat, Morocco06 June - Rome, Italy12 June - Oslo, Norway15 June -Stockholm, Sweden20 June - Paris, France05 July - Eugene, USA11 July - Monaco19 July - London, England16 August - Silesia, Poland20 August - Lausanne, Switzerland22 August - Brussels, Belgium27-28 August - Zurich, Switzerland
The Hindu
22-04-2025
- Sport
- The Hindu
Duplantis kicks off Diamond League amid Johnson-led changing landscape
Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis heads up a stellar cast of athletes kicking off the 16th Diamond League season in Xiamen on Saturday amid a changing landscape that has seen Michael Johnson launch his Grand Slam track series. Petr Stastny, CEO of the Diamond League, insisted that he welcomed competition, but added he thought the 15-meet circuit he oversees was the "backbone" of global athletics, with a record US$9.2 million in prize money on offer. "You will get the most comprehensive coverage on the highest possible level of competition in our sport, in track and field. Great arenas, great big crowds," Stastny said. Former U.S. sprint star Johnson is the founder of Grand Slam Track, which debuted in Kingston earlier this month. Conceived by Johnson as a way of reinvigorating interest in athletics outside of Olympic years, his four-event series aims to showcase more races between the world's best runners, sprinters and hurdlers. There are no field events. "We feel strongly that the sport is more than just track and we will continue growing the sport and not just a part of the sport," said Stastny. "We see other events and series being established around us, which we are, generally speaking, happy about. "But we are the backbone of the sport between the major championships, including the Olympics. We have track and field, that's one. We are truly global. "With one event in Jamaica and three in the United States I think it depends how you define global," he said in reference to the Grand Slam Series. "I see there a substantial difference. Being truly global means that you have athletes from a lot of countries and so far we've had it in the Diamond League -- athletes from 142 countries competing. I don't see that happening, at least for now, anywhere else."
News.com.au
22-04-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Duplantis kicks off Diamond League amid Johnson-led changing landscape
Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis heads up a stellar cast of athletes kicking off the 16th Diamond League season in Xiamen on Saturday amid a changing landscape that has seen Michael Johnson launch his Grand Slam track series. Petr Stastny, CEO of the Diamond League, insisted that he welcomed competition, but added he thought the 15-meet circuit he oversees was the "backbone" of global athletics, with a record US$9.2 million in prize money on offer. "You will get the most comprehensive coverage on the highest possible level of competition in our sport, in track and field. Great arenas, great big crowds," Stastny said. Former US sprint star Johnson is the founder of Grand Slam Track, which debuted in Kingston earlier this month. Conceived by Johnson as a way of reinvigorating interest in athletics outside of Olympic years, his four-event series aims to showcase more races between the world's best runners, sprinters and hurdlers. There are no field events. "We feel strongly that the sport is more than just track and we will continue growing the sport and not just a part of the sport," said Stastny. "We see other events and series being established around us, which we are, generally speaking, happy about. "But we are the backbone of the sport between the major championships, including the Olympics. We have track and field, that's one. We are truly global. "With one event in Jamaica and three in the United States I think it depends how you define global," he said in reference to the Grand Slam Series. "I see there a substantial difference. Being truly global means that you have athletes from a lot of countries and so far we've had it in the Diamond League -- athletes from 142 countries competing. I don't see that happening, at least for now, anywhere else." - Regrettable clash - While the athletes in Kingston served up some high-quality performances, Johnson's opening event failed to capture the imagination of spectators, with swathes of empty seats at the National Stadium on all three days of competition. There is also an absence of several high-profile athletes, including Olympic men's and women's 100m champions Noah Lyles and Julien Alfred, among the 48 racers contracted, with $30 million in funding. Their absence suggest both will soon be plying their trade on the Diamond League circuit, with a long season featuring meets that are often sold out ending with the September 13-21 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. The second Series meet will be between May 2-4 in Miami before rounding off in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Stastny said that "competition is good, we welcome that", regretting however that the Miami meet clashed directly with the second Diamond League meeting of the season. "What we would have liked to avoid is a day clash with the Grand Slam Track," he added. "When we have our second Chinese meeting in Shanghai/Keqiao, it has a direct date clash with Grand Slam Track. "We do establish our calendars well in advance, the main reason being that we allow ... other organisers to look for dates which don't clash. In this case, we have one clash. There's not much we can do about it." Clash or not, the likes of Norway's Karsten Warholm, US hurdling star Grant Holloway and Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana have spurned the Grand Slam Track by opting to compete in China. Also taking to the track on the weekend will be Kenya's three-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, in the 1,000m, while teammate Beatrice Chebet, a two-time Olympic gold medallist will face Ethiopia's 5,000m world record holder -- and two-time world champion -- Gudaf Tsegay over 5km.
South China Morning Post
22-04-2025
- Sport
- South China Morning Post
Diamond League CEO bats away concerns over rival Grand Slam Track series
Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis will head up a stellar cast of athletes kicking off the 16th Diamond League season in Xiamen on Saturday amid a changing landscape that has seen Michael Johnson launch his Grand Slam Track series. Advertisement Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny said he welcomed competition, but that the 15-meet circuit he oversees was the 'backbone' of global athletics, with a record US$9.2 million in prize money on offer. 'You will get the most comprehensive coverage on the highest possible level of competition in our sport, in track and field. Great arenas, great big crowds,' Stastny said. Former United States sprint star Johnson is the founder of Grand Slam Track, which debuted in Kingston earlier this month. Conceived as a way of reinvigorating interest in athletics outside Olympic years, Johnson's four-event series aims to showcase more races between the world's best runners, sprinters and hurdlers with no field events. Ethiopia's Hagos Gebrhiwet runs the men's 3000m during April's Grand Slam Track event in Kingston. Photo: AFP But Stastny questioned where Grand Slam Track could be defined as a global competition after only one event.
Int'l Business Times
22-04-2025
- Sport
- Int'l Business Times
Duplantis Kicks Off Diamond League Amid Johnson-led Changing Landscape
Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis heads up a stellar cast of athletes kicking off the 16th Diamond League season in Xiamen on Saturday amid a changing landscape that has seen Michael Johnson launch his Grand Slam track series. Petr Stastny, CEO of the Diamond League, insisted that he welcomed competition, but added he thought the 15-meet circuit he oversees was the "backbone" of global athletics, with a record US$9.2 million in prize money on offer. "You will get the most comprehensive coverage on the highest possible level of competition in our sport, in track and field. Great arenas, great big crowds," Stastny said. Former US sprint star Johnson is the founder of Grand Slam Track, which debuted in Kingston earlier this month. Conceived by Johnson as a way of reinvigorating interest in athletics outside of Olympic years, his four-event series aims to showcase more races between the world's best runners, sprinters and hurdlers. There are no field events. "We feel strongly that the sport is more than just track and we will continue growing the sport and not just a part of the sport," said Stastny. "We see other events and series being established around us, which we are, generally speaking, happy about. "But we are the backbone of the sport between the major championships, including the Olympics. We have track and field, that's one. We are truly global. "With one event in Jamaica and three in the United States I think it depends how you define global," he said in reference to the Grand Slam Series. "I see there a substantial difference. Being truly global means that you have athletes from a lot of countries and so far we've had it in the Diamond League -- athletes from 142 countries competing. I don't see that happening, at least for now, anywhere else." While the athletes in Kingston served up some high-quality performances, Johnson's opening event failed to capture the imagination of spectators, with swathes of empty seats at the National Stadium on all three days of competition. There is also an absence of several high-profile athletes, including Olympic men's and women's 100m champions Noah Lyles and Julien Alfred, among the 48 racers contracted, with $30 million in funding. Their absence suggest both will soon be plying their trade on the Diamond League circuit, with a long season featuring meets that are often sold out ending with the September 13-21 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. The second Series meet will be between May 2-4 in Miami before rounding off in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Stastny said that "competition is good, we welcome that", regretting however that the Miami meet clashed directly with the second Diamond League meeting of the season. "What we would have liked to avoid is a day clash with the Grand Slam Track," he added. "When we have our second Chinese meeting in Shanghai/Keqiao, it has a direct date clash with Grand Slam Track. "We do establish our calendars well in advance, the main reason being that we allow ... other organisers to look for dates which don't clash. In this case, we have one clash. There's not much we can do about it." Clash or not, the likes of Norway's Karsten Warholm, US hurdling star Grant Holloway and Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana have spurned the Grand Slam Track by opting to compete in China. Also taking to the track on the weekend will be Kenya's three-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, in the 1,000m, while teammate Beatrice Chebet, a two-time Olympic gold medallist will face Ethiopia's 5,000m world record holder -- and two-time world champion -- Gudaf Tsegay over 5km. Grand Slam champions from inauagural meet in Kingston included, from left-to right, Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone, Grant Fisher, Melissa Jefferson, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Ejgayehu Taye, Sasha Zhoya, Danielle Williams and Alison Dos Santos AFP
