World champions Allyson Felix and Dafne Schippers will meet in the 100m at the 2016 Doha Diamond League meeting on Friday 6 May, a race that promises a great deal and will be one of the anticipated clashes at the opening round of the Diamond League’s fourteen-meeting series. A number of athletes have come to know the conditions in Doha at this time of year well, just as Felix has — she will be chasing her twelfth win on the Qatar SC track, and her fourth in the 100m.
“It’s always great to come back to Doha to start my international season here,” said Felix, whose eleven wins in the Qatari capital include three 200m victories and five consecutive 400m wins from 2007 to 2011. In 2012, she won the 100m in a time of 10.92s, which remains the Doha meeting record, before going on to win Olympic gold in London that year. In 2015, the 30-year-old added the world 400m title to her long list of achievements, seen as a step on the way to the 200m/400m Olympic double she hopes to complete later this coming summer.
“It will be an excellent stage early in the season, three months before the Olympic Games get under way. Conditions in Doha are always ideal and just right, and the competition is always fierce.”
This test is certain to be tough for the three-time world 200m champion, 2012 world athlete of the year and three-time Diamond League race winner, as she takes on Schippers, the rising sprint star who won the world 200m title last summer in Beijing, clocking an excellent 21.63s that made the 23-year-old Dutch sprinter the third-fastest in the event’s history, in only her second season since specialising in the sprints.
Schippers said: “I have heard a lot of great things about Doha, about the competition there, and about the fast track.” The Dutch sprinter also won 100m silver last year, setting a personal best of 10.81s, and her rapid, seamless rise to become an international sprint star came just two years after she won heptathlon bronze at the 2013 World Championships.
Schippers came out on top in the pair’s last meeting, beating Felix in the Diamond League final in Brussels last September, 22.12s to 22.22s, and says: “I’m looking forward to racing Allyson, one of the greatest sprinters in history. As usual, all the entrants in the race will be in top form.”
Also among the entrants will be Tori Bowie, the United States champion and 2015 world bronze medallist over the same distance, as well as Côte d’Ivoire’s Murielle Ahouré, who won silver in both the 100m and 200m at the 2013 World Championships, alongside Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, whose long list of achievements includes back-to-back Olympic 200m titles in 2004 and 2008, in addition to bronze at the 2015 World Championships.
The Doha Diamond League meeting has also announced a high-level field for the men’s 110m hurdles, including Jamaica’s Omar McLeod, who will try to continue the form that took him to the top when he won gold at the World Indoor Championships in Portland last month, as he carries that success into the start of the 2016 outdoor season.
McLeod, who will line up on the back of a career-best 12.97s, said: “As a fan of this sport, I’m always amazed to see the level of participation in the sprints and hurdles at the Doha meeting, and I’m excited to be among the entrants for the 2016 season, and can’t wait for the competition to start.”
Also among the entrants will be American Aries Merritt, the Olympic champion and world record holder, who underwent a kidney transplant just four days after winning bronze at last year’s World Championships. His time in Beijing (13.04s) was his fastest since his stunning world record of 12.80s, set at the Brussels Diamond League meeting, despite the fact that he was racing with a kidney operating at 20% of its capacity.
American David Oliver, meanwhile, returns to competition seeking a fourth win in Doha. The 33-year-old former world champion has held the Doha meeting record since 2008, with a time of 12.95.
McLeod’s training partner Hansle Parchment (12.94), runner-up at last year’s World Championships and 2012 Olympic bronze medallist, along with Frenchmen Dimitri Bascou and Darian Garfield, who finished fifth and eighth respectively at the last World Championships, will also be among the leading entrants in this race.
The women’s 400m hurdles field is led by the winner of the last two world titles, Zuzana Hejnová. The 29-year-old Czech runner, who won bronze at the London Olympics, will look to break the Doha meeting record (54.27s), which has stood since Ionela Târlea-Manolache set it in 1999.
In an exciting clash, her rival will be Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya, who won gold in the 400m at last month’s World Indoor Championships. Adekoya also won this race in Doha two years ago.
Other entrants in this race include American Cassandra Tate, bronze medallist at last year’s World Championships, Jamaica’s Olympic and World Championship finalist Kaliese Spencer, and Denmark’s Sara Petersen, who finished fourth at last year’s World Championships.
In the men’s 200m, the spotlight will be on home favourite Femi Ogunode, who is looking for a strong start to the season on home soil and in front of his own fans.
Ogunode, who finished seventh in last year’s World Championship final in the best season of his career, said: “I really want to give the home fans a big win at the Qatar Diamond League meeting on our own soil.” The 24-year-old sprinter clocked 9.91s in the 100m in June, and closed his campaign with a win at the Brussels meeting in 19.97s — both Asian records.
The race also includes Panama’s Alonso Edward, winner of the Diamond League title in this event in 2014 and 2015, alongside Jamaica’s Nickel Ashmeade, who won the Doha race in 2014.
