Further global athletics stars have confirmed that they will open their 2017 IAAF Diamond League seasons in Doha, setting up an unmissable start to the 14-meeting series on 5th May at Qatar Sports Club. Rio 2016 Olympic Champions Christian Taylor and Kerron Clement will be amongst a total of ten global medallists that will star in the men’s triple jump, 400m hurdles and 100m. Tickets are on sale now at www.q-tickets.com to be part of the action-packed evening of world-class athletics.
The men’s triple jump promises yet another exciting competition when all three Rio 2016 medallists – Christian Taylor, Will Claye and Bin Dong - meet again. The USA’s Taylor has been in unstoppable form in the triple jump over recent years and last year became the youngest back-to-back winner of Olympic triple jump titles following his victory in Rio. The 2015 World Champion has won the last five successive overall IAAF Diamond League titles and will be looking to win his third Doha Diamond League crown. Taylor’s main challenges will come from teammate Will Claye, who finished runner up to Taylor in the Rio 2016 and London 2012 Olympic Games, and China’s Bin Dong, the reigning World Indoor Champion who jumped just one centimetre short of the Asian record in Rio to claim the bronze.
The men’s 100m also promises to set Qatar Sports Club alive with a thrilling line-up that features sprint legends and rising stars. Justin Gatlin, whose silver at the Rio 2016 saw the then 34-year-old become the oldest man ever to win an Olympic 100m medal, will face fierce competition from 22-year-old sprint sensation Andre de Grasse of Canada, who claimed 200m silver and 100m bronze at Rio 2016 to add to his 2015 World Championship bronze. Also challenging will be former world-record holder, Rio 2016 4x100m Champion and last year’s Diamond Race winner Asafa Powell, six-time Olympian and former World Champion, Kim Collins, and Qatar’s Asian record-holder, Femi Ogunode.
There will be further Qatari action in the men’s 400m hurdles when new sensation Abdulrahman Samba lines up against Rio 2016 Olympic Champion Kerron Clement of the USA and Rio 2016 Olympic silver medallist, Bonface Mucheru of Kenya. 21-year-old Samba stunned the world in South Africa just last week when he ran a world-lead time and a huge personal best of 48.31 in just his third race at this distance. Kerron Clement’s Rio 2016 Olympic victory ended a seven-year wait between his last global success which came at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin. Clement also won the 2007 World Championships in Osaka and won silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympics and was touted as the man to dominate his event for a generation before injury hampered his progress. However, Clement came back with a vengeance last year with further victory in the 2016 IAAF Diamond Race, and an exciting season awaits with the London 2017 World Championships on the horizon.
This year’s Doha Diamond League will take place on Friday 5th May from 5-9pm at Qatar Sports Club. Tickets are priced from just QR40 and can be bought online now at www.q-tickets.com. Further athlete announcements will be made in the build-up to the event and you can keep up to date on all news on the Diamond League website and social media channels.
For more information, please contact:
Shrief Fadl
Email: Shrief.fadl@hkstrategies.com
Tel: +974 6608 7496
Nicola Milan
Senior Consultant
Email: nicola.milan@hkstrategies.com
Tel: +974 5030 4619
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics iswww.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
