DIAMOND RACE UPDATE AHEAD OF THE SECOND 2015 FINAL IN BRUSSELS – IAAF DIAMOND LEAGUE

The 2015 IAAF Diamond League is about to reach its climax, with 13 of the 14 meetings having taken place.

Last Thursday, Zurich staged the first of two finals and there was the coronation of 16 Diamond Race champions. On Friday night (11), the remaining 16 will take their place on the podium in Brussels.

Dominant Diamond Race leaders

Friday‘s Diamond Race action will kick off with the women’s discus.

With five victories and a 15-point lead, Sandra Perkovic has been dominant in this year’s competition. She needs only to compete in Brussels to claim a fourth consecutive Diamond Trophy.

The same is essentially true of Sifan Hassan in the women’s 1500m and Caterine Ibargüen in the women’s triple jump.

Both women hold leads of eight points or more and participation alone is required for them to win the Diamond Race in their respective disciplines.

Nail-biting duels

In the men’s shot put, David Storl and Joe Kovacs are equal on 14 points and have three victories each.

Whoever finishes ahead of the other in Brussels will take the Diamond Trophy and the US $40,000 winner-takes-all cheque, a duel made all the juicier by the fact that Kovacs relieved Storl of his world title in Beijing barely two weeks ago.

Renaud Lavillenie is looking for port-Beijing redemption.

The only athlete to have won the Diamond Race in every year since it was inaugurated in 2010, Lavillenie needs only to win in Brussels to secure a sixth Diamond Trophy.

However, the French world record holder and 2012 Olympic champion only holds a three-point lead over Greece’s Konstantinos Filippidis.

Perhaps the most brilliant double act of the season in any discipline has come in the men’s triple jump.

Christian Taylor and Pedro Pablo Pichardo have delivered a wonderful, season-long battle fro supremacy during 2015. It was Taylor who claimed the major prize when they faced each other in Beijing, but Pichardo still has a two-point lead in the Diamond Race.

In the women’s 200m, meanwhile, one of the heroines of Beijing will be out to rekindle the old fire in the Diamond Race.

Allyson Felix hasn’t had her hands on a Diamond Trophy since she claimed two of them in 2010 but the 400m world champion could change that on Friday.

She leads the women’s 200m Diamond Race, but only by a single point, with Jeneba Tarmoh hot on her heels and 200m world champion Dafne Schippers is also in reach.

Nowhere are the margins closer, however, than in the women’s 100m hurdles.

After six rounds of Diamond League competition, three athletes have shared the spoils exactly among themselves. Jasmin Stowers, Dawn Harper-Nelson and Sharika Nelvis all have two victories and ten points under their belt.

The Diamond Trophy will simply go to whichever of them crosses the line first in Brussels.

© Victah Sailer

Six is the magic number

In six of the Diamond Race events to grace Brussels this year, the winner is close to taking the crown. Bershawn Jackson is five points ahead in the men’s 400m hurdles, while Justin Gatlin, Ruth Beitia, Virginia Nyambura, Francena McCorory, Nijel Amos and Vítezslav Veselý all hold leads of six points.

Amos looks highly likely to claim his second consecutive Diamond Trophy in the men’s 800m, having missed out on the chance to claim gold in Beijing. His six-point lead could be enough, particularly in the absence of David Rudisha.

Beitia’s consistence over the season has been outstanding and, despite a thoroughly competitive field, few would doubt that she could rise to the occasion in the high jump and claim Diamond Race glory.

Likewise, Gatlin, McCorory, Nyambura and Vesely, all of whom have the quality to claim the minimum requirement of a third place in the Belgian capital and transform their six point lead into a Diamond Trophy in the sixth year of the IAAF Diamond League.

Final flourish

The final Diamond Race event of the evening will be arguably the most gripping.

In the men’s 5000m, there has been a different winner in each of the six rounds so far, and five of them – Ben True, Thomas Longosiwa, Caleb Ndiku, Yomif Kejelcha, Hagos Gebrhiwet – will be present in Brussels.

With none of them having reached eight points, however, it is not just these five who can claim the Diamond Trophy.

In theory, any of the athletes on the startlist could win the Diamond Race in Brussels, even those who are currently without any points.

It is by far the most open Diamond Race of the season.

As a final flourish, with some of the most even Diamond Races, some potentially epic duels, and some of the most dominant athletes, the 2015 season finale should be a night of the superlatives in Brussels.

DIAMOND RACE UPDATE AFTER 12 MEETINGS – IAAF DIAMOND LEAGUE

The season-long marathon is nearly over; it is time for the sprint on the home straight.

In London and Stockholm, the last few points were gathered before September’s IAAF Diamond League finals, and the scene is set for an exhilarating climax to the 2015 season. Events in the past week have provided proof that, in the Diamond Race, anything can happen.

IAAF DIAMOND LEAGUE
© Philippe Fitte

Take Anaso Jobodwana, for example. After briefly losing his Diamond Race lead to Zharnel Hughes in London, the South African’s second-place finish in Stockholm means that he once again tops the table in the men’s 200m Diamond Race, despite not having won a single race in the IAAF Diamond League this year. In five out of six meetings, though, Jobodwana has finished in the top three. Top spot is a fitting reward for his consistency.

Piotr Malachowski, too, knows the value of consistent performance. Having struggled to shake off Robert Urbanek despite repeated victories, Malachowski finally put daylight between himself and his compatriot with a win in Stockholm. He now leads the men’s discus Diamond Race on 17 points to Urbanek’s 11.

Stockholm also saw Greg Rutherford finally establish a lead which should see him take his first Diamond Trophy. By far the stand-out performer in the men’s long jump Diamond Race this season, Rutherford’s defeat in London meant that his lead remained achingly slender. The Brit came back fighting in Sweden, though, to claim victory and a five-point advantage at the top of the table.

Five points is also the lead held by Mutaz Essa Barshim in the men’s high jump Diamond Race, though Barshim will be less content than Rutherford with that advantage. The Diamond Trophy holder has failed to fully impose himself on this year’s Diamond Race, and it is only by virtue of the fact that Marco Fassinotti and Jacorian Duffield shared the victories in London and Stockholm that he remains so clearly ahead.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou, meanwhile, extended their leads with victories in Stockholm and London respectively. Fraser-Pryce leads the women’s 100m table by four points, while Kyriakopoulou has held off main rival Fabiana Murer in the women’s pole vault to grasp a six-point lead.

In the women’s javelin, three-time Diamond Race winner Barbara Spotáková, who is looking this season to successfully defend the Diamond Trophy for the first time, made up for a slow start with victories in Paris and Stockholm. Her second place in London means she holds a four-point lead going into the final.

Even that seems a big lead when compared to Ayanleh Souleiman, who is now just one point clear of Silas Kiplagat and two of Asbel Kiprop in the men’s 1500m. Souleiman will nonetheless be happy with his position, having overtaken the two Kenyans for the first time this season with a win in Stockholm.

2015 IAAF DIAMOND LEAGUE © Gladys von der Laage

The 1500m is one of three Diamond Races in which four men could still claim the overall victory, alongside the 100m and the 110m hurdles. The latter has seen a late comeback from Orlando Ortega, with the Cuban wrapping up four points in Stockholm and closing in on leader David Oliver.

With 27 of the 32 Diamond Races still to be decided going into the finals, there are only a handful of athletes who have managed to fully dominate their fields this season. Caterine Ibargüen (women’s triple jump), Tianna Bartoletta (women’s long jump), Eunice Sum (women’s 800m), Christina Schwanitz (women’s shot put) and Sandra Perkovic (women’s discus) have all refused to falter this year, and need only turn up to the finals to claim the Diamond Trophy.

Their achievement is even greater considering how fragile even the largest of leads can be in the Diamond Race. Kaliese Spencer and Kirani James, for example, have seen their early season dominance evaporate into thin air over the past two meetings.

James’ lead was shortened to just two points after Wayde van Niekerk’s victory in the 400m in London, while Spencer had led the women’s 400m hurdles Diamond Race by ten points at the start of July. That was before Zuzana Hejnová stormed to three consecutive victories. The Czech is now two points ahead at the top of the table.

Those turnarounds are testament to the unpredictability of the Diamond Race. Few narratives have run as expected this year, and as the finals loom, there is a whole host of Diamond Race stories which are yet to reach their climax.

2015 IAAF DIAMOND LEAGUE – ONE MONTH TO GO: FANTASY DIAMOND RACE OPENS

With one month to go before the start of the 2015 IAAF Diamond League, the excitement is already starting to mount and the traditional opening meeting in Doha, Qatar, has already assembled some of the sport’s top stars to get proceedings underway for the sixth year of the series.

World athlete of the year Renaud Lavillenie and double world and Olympic champion Mo Farah are just two of the names that have already been announced to compete in Doha on 15 May.

With just a month to go, the IAAF is also happy to announce the return of IAAF Fantasy Athletics.

The 2015 edition of Fantasy Diamond Race follows the athletes who compete in the 32 event disciplines of the Diamond Race at the 14 meetings of the IAAF Diamond League in 2015.

This provides players with the chance to compare their athletics knowledge against fellow track and field fans from around the world. As well as the overall leader board, players can also set up private leagues with their friends and colleagues.

Players have to identify nine athletes at each IAAF Diamond League meeting who they think will place highest in their events and, just as with the real Diamond Race itself, points are then awarded to those finishing in the podium positions.

credit iaaf.org

New for 2015: players will now have to assign an event to each team member, so if an athlete is doubling up at a meeting, you will have to choose which event represents their best chance of scoring points.

There are prizes on offer for players whose teams have the highest scores at each of the 14 meetings, and for the season winner who accumulates the best overall points score across all meetings.

Log in or register for the 2015 Fantasy Diamond Race

If you took part in last year’s Fantasy Diamond Race, then you are able to log in now and select provisional teams based upon the list of athletes who competed last year in the IAAF Diamond League. But it is advisable to wait until the official entry lists for Doha, the first meeting of the season, are released before making your final selections.

EXISTING PLAYERS – login is open now

NEW PLAYERS – registration opens on Monday 20 April

The IAAF Diamond League is composed of 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 compose the top tier of the IAAF’s global one-day meeting competition structure.

This series of 14 meetings, which began in 2010, showcases 32 event disciplines which are carefully distributed among the meetings.

In each discipline, there is a Diamond Race with points available throughout the 14-meeting season. Winners of each Diamond Race receive a $40,000 USD cash prize and a spectacular Diamond Trophy.

IAAF

Diamond Race Update Ahead Of Second Final In Brussels – IAAF Diamond League

On Friday 5 September, Brussels will host the second of two finals for the 2014 IAAF Diamond League series as 16 more Diamond Race winners will be crowned.

Of those 16 events, the Diamond Race champions have already been decided in eight of them, but athletes must compete in their discipline in Brussels to secure the USD$40,000 bonus and the Diamond Race trophy.

Those eight athletes are sprint hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, 400m runner Novlene Williams-Mills, steeplechaser Jairus Birech, 800m runner Eunice Sum, pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer, triple jumper Caterine Ibarguen and shot putter Valerie Adams.

But the Diamond Race for eight other disciplines in Brussels is still undecided, so a victory in the Belgian capital will take on extra significance.

Diamond Race Update Ahead Of First Final In Zurich – IAAF Diamond League

Zurich will host the first of two finals for the 2014 IAAF Diamond League series as 16 Diamond Race winners will be crowned.

The Diamond Race champions in some events have already been decided, but athletes must compete in the IAAF Diamond League final for their discipline to secure the USD$40,000 bonus and the Diamond Race trophy.

A first-place finish at an IAAF Diamond League meeting is worth four points, with two points going to the second-place finisher and one to the third-place finisher. But at the IAAF Diamond League finals, those points are doubled.

If, at the end of the series, athletes are tied on points, then the Diamond Race goes to the athlete with most victories. If athletes are still tied, then the title will go to whichever athlete performed better at their event’s Diamond Race final.

In Zurich, two athletes – discus thrower Sandra Perkovic and 400m runner LaShawn Merritt – need only to line up for their events to secure their Diamond Race victories.

But the Diamond Race for 14 other disciplines in Zurich is still undecided, so a victory in the Swiss city will take on extra significance.