Bekele and Powell lead the men’s field, Vlašić, Felix and Richards head the women’s
Delighted to host the first leg of the Diamond League, featuring the stars of athletics, in Doha
The organising committee has completed preparations to showcase our country’s civilised sporting face
We are confident of the organisational and technical success of this global event
Local media are a genuine partner in our promotional campaign to attract crowds
Cars, phones, cash prizes and other gifts await fans of the sport
Preparations have gathered pace within the Qatar Athletics Federation for hosting the eagerly awaited first “Diamond League meeting” 
on the IAAF’s calendar. Abdullah Al Zaini, head of the organising committee for the Diamond League challenge, revealed details of hosting the major event in Doha, the first city in the world to stage a leg of the newly launched 14-meeting Diamond League, which has replaced the Super Grand Prix. Al Zaini spoke at a wide-ranging press conference held at the Qatar Olympic Committee’s conference hall yesterday morning, stressing that the world sporting capital of “giving Doha” would once again be the focus of the world’s attention on 14 May, when it hosts the first leg of the Diamond League on the track and field at Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium at Qatar SC. Al Zaini noted that 60 journalists from around the world would attend the championship to cover it, in addition to 38 satellite channels broadcasting the event, alongside five television crews that would monitor and cover the major event from Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium.
A major global event
Al Zaini added that the championship also relies on outstanding media coverage, especially after the excellent coverage of the recent World Indoor Championships in Doha, in which the Qatari press showed a wonderful level of coverage and engagement with the major event and won praise from the IAAF. He noted at the same time that the world and the IAAF expect that earlier success to continue with this first edition of the Diamond League. He added that the world expects distinguished media coverage of the championship from Qatar, given the country’s excellence in the media and organisational side of various sporting events.
World stars in Doha
Al Zaini confirmed that the Doha Diamond League challenge, in its opening leg at Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium, would see strong participation from the sport’s leading champions, numbering 180 athletes — 100 men and 80 women — representing the elite of world athletics.
Diamond League ambassadors
Al Zaini went on to say that a group of Diamond League ambassadors would take part in the meeting, led by Ethiopia’s Bekele, holder of the 5,000m and 10,000m world records, Jamaica’s Asafa Powell in the 100m, the Czech Republic’s Barbora, the Olympic champion and world record holder in the javelin, America’s Allyson Felix, the world 200m champion, and her compatriot Sanya Richards, with the two champions competing against each other in the 400m, and Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlašić, the world champion and world record holder in the high jump. The federation president called on the local media to promote the event positively through their outlets, to encourage crowds to attend, cheer on the champions and follow a major global event.
Valuable prizes for fans
The federation president said the organising committee had set aside major prizes for fans at this first edition, with intensive work being carried out by the fan committee led by former Olympic champion Mohammed Sulaiman, a member of the championship’s organising committee and of the Qatar Athletics Federation’s board, who is expected to rally Qatari and resident fans to attend the major event being held on Qatari soil. He noted that the prizes would range from three cars to phones, travel tickets and cash sums for the lucky fans present at Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium on 14 May.
He stressed that what mattered most was not the prizes but the crowd support for the championship.
Qatar’s ambassadors in the Diamond League
Al Zaini confirmed that a number of Qatari athletes would take part in the championship: Ahmed Hassan, Isa Ismail Rashed and James Kwalia in the 5,000m and 3,000m, Musaab Balla and Hamza Driouch in the 800m, well-known shot put champion Khalid Habash, and champion Samuel Francis in the 100m. The federation president said they expected a strong Qatari showing in the championship.
Bolt to race in Doha next year
On the participation of Jamaican champion and current world legend Usain Bolt, Al Zaini said the athlete would take part in the upcoming Shanghai leg of the Diamond League, which was not a slight on Doha’s standing but rather a way of spreading the stars across the various Diamond League legs. Al Zaini added that the IAAF had distributed the stars across the 14 Diamond League meetings to ensure fans in every country could follow the world’s athletics stars.
The Qatar Athletics Federation president confirmed that the legendary Bolt would lead the field at next year’s Diamond League leg in Doha.
A new vision for athletics
The IAAF, headed by president Diack, devised the “Diamond League” meetings to replace the Golden League from 2010 onward, naming it the “IAAF Diamond League”.
IAAF president Diack said he hoped leading athletes would take part in three or four meetings a year in addition to the Olympics or World Championships, stressing that this was the first step in a number of changes aimed at making athletics a more exciting sport.
This pioneering step came as a means of achieving one of the IAAF’s most important goals — strengthening and promoting athletics worldwide by holding some of the championship’s events outside Europe, after the six Golden League meetings had been confined to Europe. The Diamond League will play a major role in supporting and promoting the World Athletics Championships as well as the athletics competitions at the Olympic Games.
Prize money
Prize money is equal across all events and races, at $416,000 each, with a guarantee that the best stars of both sexes will take part in every race and event under signed contracts. At the end of all the meetings in the championship, each athlete with the highest number of points in each of the 32 events will receive $80,000.
Diamond League calendar – 2010 meetings
Doha meeting, Friday 14 May = Shanghai (China), Sunday 23 May = Oslo (Norway), Friday 4 June = Rome (Italy), Thursday 10 June = New York (United States), Saturday 19 June = Eugene (United States), Saturday 3 July = Lausanne (Switzerland), Thursday 8 July = Gateshead (Britain), Saturday 10 July = Paris (France), Friday 16 July = Monaco (Monday), Thursday 22 July = Stockholm (Sweden), Friday 6 August = London (Britain), Friday 13 and Saturday 14 August = Zurich (Switzerland), Thursday 19 August = Brussels (Belgium), Friday 27 August.
Championship format
The Diamond League meetings are held in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
Among the new innovations included in the Diamond League is the ability of athletes to compete in 32 different races and events, thanks to the careful distribution of these events across the various meetings in this championship. As a result, the new Diamond League meetings will see a larger number of athletes take part, and there will be greater chances of winning.
Technical regulations for the meeting
On the scope of the championship and what it means for Qatar, which is hosting the first edition of the Diamond League after its introduction by the IAAF, Al Zaini said there was no technical difference between the Diamond League and the Super Grand Prix, but that the number of athletes per country is capped at no fewer than 15, and that the Diamond League gives athletes the chance to accumulate points from one meeting to the next in order to win the prize, with the IAAF’s aim being to focus media attention on its championships.
Al Zaini added that the goal is to focus media coverage in a marketing sense on a global scale through the championship’s 14 different legs around the world.
For his part, Dr Jabbar Al-Kaabi, chairman of the championship’s technical committee, said there is a big difference in scoring between previous championships and the Diamond League in terms of points, with rankings determined by athletes’ points totals, and the athlete with the most points winning the diamond.
Major coordination to rally the crowds
On crowd attendance, fan committee chairman Mohammed Sulaiman said arrangements were progressing well and that attendance would be far better than on previous occasions, noting that the great interest shown by crowds at the recent World Indoor Championships, and the large numbers who followed it, would boost the chances of a strong turnout at the current championship, despite the big difference between the Aspire indoor hall and Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium at Qatar SC. He said they would benefit greatly from the widespread awareness and interest among fans in athletics and its champions, and would work to fill the stadium with spectators to achieve the success required for this first edition, stressing that the stadium would be full of fans.
Sulaiman confirmed that cash prizes and a draw for three cars would await fans at the championship, alongside cash prizes and travel tickets. He said there was close coordination between the fan committee and the communities present in Doha regarding attendance to follow the major event from inside Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium at Qatar SC.
Sheraton Hotel the official headquarters
The Qatar Athletics Federation has chosen the Sheraton Hotel as the championship’s official hotel, and has arranged for delegations to stay there alongside the championship’s main media centre, in addition to a smaller media centre at Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium at Qatar SC. The federation will announce the start of the championship at a press conference on the twelfth of this month, two days before it begins, while the hotel will start receiving the world’s delegations taking part in the championship from 12 May onward.
Diamond League general assembly to meet on the sidelines of the championship
The Diamond League’s board of directors will hold its meetings in Doha on the sidelines of the championship. The Qatar Athletics Federation has announced the launch of the championship’s promotional campaign over the next two days.
$63.6 million total in incentives
The IAAF’s Diamond League consists of 14 legs spread across the continents of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, with competitions in 32 athletics events carefully distributed among the legs so that each event has a “diamond race” based on the points accumulated over the course of the season. The winner of each diamond race will receive a prize of four carats of diamond, but more importantly, the champion must produce their best over the whole season to be crowned the world’s number one champion. From 2010 onward, the Diamond League will provide athletes with more opportunities for stardom and more chances to win prizes totalling $63.6 million. The IAAF has also signed a group of major stars to take part in its legs, on condition that the best (two leading athletes) are guaranteed to appear in every event (track or field race or competition), to ensure an exciting and challenging clash between the world’s best champions on a regular basis throughout all the legs of the 2010 Diamond League season, which runs from mid-May to the end of August.
Fahad Al Hajri:
A world-class media centre for the Diamond League
Fahad Al Hajri, head of the media committee for the Diamond League meeting, confirmed his committee’s readiness for the challenge ahead, noting that the Qatar Athletics Federation, headed by Abdullah Al Zaini, had provided all the facilities and support needed to ensure the event is showcased in a distinctive and exceptional way, especially since the Doha meeting is the first event to launch the Diamond League, which the IAAF regards as a new test of its capabilities and a way of putting its vision for the coming period into practice. The federation is relying heavily on the media to help it carry out this unique strategy by inviting the sport’s biggest stars to compete in a high-level meeting. Al Hajri said the media centre for the Diamond League meeting at the Sheraton Doha would be equipped with the best modern communication facilities in line with IAAF requirements, with an elite group of the world’s best-known athletics broadcasters and journalists expected to attend, so the committee must be ready to provide the best and finest service for the comfort of the guests of giving Doha.
Preparing to rally the crowds for the Diamond League
Fan committee, chaired by Sulaiman, honours Sixt manager
As part of its preparations to rally crowds for the Diamond League athletics championship, which Doha is hosting for the first time at Qatar SC on 14 May, the fan committee, chaired by Mohammed Sulaiman, a board member of the Qatar Athletics Federation, and coach Abdulhamid Khamis, the committee’s deputy chairman, visited a number of companies and institutions. The committee recorded a visit to Sixt, the global construction company, yesterday, during which it presented details of Qatar’s hosting of the Diamond League and the major role Qatar has come to play in hosting world athletics championships, and the success it has achieved.
The committee was received by Mr Emmanuel Francis, the company’s chief executive, who announced his company’s readiness to contribute to the major event by having all of its staff take part in the crowd attendance at the stadium, noting that the company’s role in contributing to any event in the community is inseparable from its role in construction. He stressed the company’s full readiness to give its staff the opportunity to contribute to Qatar’s success in hosting the championship.
For his part, Mohammed Sulaiman thanked Mr Emmanuel for the company’s responsiveness and presented him with a shield from the Qatar Athletics Federation in recognition of the company’s major role in the community and its cooperation in providing all the company’s services for the success of this first edition of the championship. Sixt staff are expected to form a notable presence at Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium at Qatar SC on 14 May.
12 Arab champions in Doha
The championship’s technical committee chairman, Dr Jabbar Al-Kaabi, announced the participation of 12 Arab athletes in the current championship: five from Saudi Arabia, two from Algeria, one from Morocco and the same from Sudan — Olympic champion Ismail Ahmed Ismail — alongside two from Bahrain and one from the UAE. On the women’s side, five athletes will take part: three from Morocco led by Hasna Benhassi and two from Bahrain, one of them Maryam Yusuf Jamal.
Diamond League ambassadors
The IAAF has chosen a number of elite athletes to be Diamond League ambassadors: Kenenisa Bekele, Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Steve Hooker, Yelena Isinbayeva, Asafa Powell, Sanya Richards, Andreas Thorkildsen and Blanka Vlašić
