The IAAF Diamond League has announced the distribution of diamond disciplines for the 2019 season. Diamond disciplines per meeting (PDF) Meetings for each diamond discipline (PDF) Road to the final infographic – men (PDF) Road to the final infographic – women (PDF) The 10th season of the series, which will once again commence in Doha, […]
via DISCIPLINES CONFIRMED FOR 2019 IAAF DIAMOND LEAGUE — finixsportsblog
Doha is preparing to stage a spectacular IAAF World Championships next year, when it will become the first city in the Middle East to host athletics’ premier showcase event. A large team of IAAF event and technical experts has spent the last two days conducting an extensive site visit with the Doha 2019 Local Organising […]
via DOHA STEPS UP PREPARATIONS FOR 2019 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS — finixsportsblog
The United States now has the great good fortune to have discovered two outstanding young male sprinting talents in consecutive years: first last year’s IAAF World Championships 100m silver medallist Christian Coleman and now 20-year-old Noah Lyles, who last weekend became the youngest man in 34 years to claim the US 100m title in a […]
via NEW 100M STAR NOAH LYLES RISES AT USA CHAMPIONSHIPS — newfanzoneblog
Each day during the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 fans from around the world had the opportunity to vote for their favourite performances of the session via the IAAF website http://www.iaaf.org.
Fans inside the Bird’s Nest stadium could also vote live via WeChat (a Chinese social media channel).
The nine winners of the daily vote were then pooled together for a ‘champion of champions’ vote, which was open from Monday 31 August until Friday 4 September, for fans around the world to vote via the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 page and spikes.iaaf.org
Almaz Ayana’s stunning triumph over her Ethiopian compatriot and 1500m winner Genzebe Dibaba in the 5000m received 23.84% of the overall votes and she wins Performance of the Championships, powered by adidas.
The vote for the top three performances were completed by Ashton Eaton’s decathlon world record on Day 8 (17.15%) and Dafne Schippers’ championship record 200m run on Day 7 (14.68%).
Ayana will be invited to the World Athletics Gala in November to receive a special Golden Shoe award from adidas.
IAAF and Spikes
Sunday 30 August represented the final session of the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015, and the finalisation of the extensive anti-doping programme put in place by the IAAF which included both sample collection and education activities.
The doping control programme implemented by the IAAF in Beijing was the largest implemented in a single sporting event BY ANY SPORT since the IAAF World Championships in Moscow two years ago.
A total of 1405 doping controls were carried out in Beijing which included the following breakdown of tests and analysis:
• 662 blood tests for screening purposes in the context of the Athlete Biological Passport, all carried out at the athletes’ hotels prior to the event
• 161 blood tests for the detection of Human Growth Hormone and Erythropoiesis stimulating agents
• 54 urine tests conducted out-of-competition
• 528 urine tests conducted at the stadium, 239 of which will be specifically analysed for EPO and related substances.
As forecast by the IAAF prior to the championships, the programme was highly targeted in nature. Thousands of samples were collected out-of-competition in the lead-up to the event, and the IAAF then implemented an intelligence-led programme in Beijing which will see the samples frozen and stored for future re-analysis as science and technology progresses.
Such a large testing programme could only have been implemented with the assistance and support of local partners in China. The IAAF would like to thank and acknowledge the Chinese National Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA). The CHINADA staff and a team of volunteers successfully and professionally managed the sample collection process pre-competition at three separate athlete hotels, as well as the main stadium itself.
The WADA-accredited laboratory in Beijing managed the sample analysis process efficiently and effectively, providing accurate and quick reporting to the IAAF anti-doping staff on site. As of 1 September, the Beijing laboratory has notified the IAAF of two positives tests, both of which have been publicly released by the IAAF:
Koki Manunga (KEN)
Joyce Zakary (KEN)
Should any of the remaining samples be reported as positive, the IAAF will make a public announcement when the rules allow.
In addition to the doping control programme, the IAAF also continued the athlete outreach programme at all three athlete hotels. Again the assistance of CHINADA was invaluable to the successful programme, with their enthusiastic staff on site each day to provide advice and assistance to the hundreds of athletes and support personnel that visited. The outreach teams presented the WADA quiz, educational resources from CHINDA and the IAAF, as well as being on hand to discuss anti-doping issues and answer questions.
The IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 is over. But the show goes on. There is more top-level athletics to be enjoyed over the next two weeks with the IAAF Diamond League finals in Zurich and Brussels.
All season long, the world’s top track and field stars have vied for valuable Diamond Race points in the first 12 IAAF Diamond League meetings. Even with just the two finals to go, however, much could still change. Double points are on offer in the finals, meaning only an eight-point lead at this stage guarantees overall victory in the Diamond Race.
The finals are the perfect conclusion to the 2015 season. They are a chance for the victors of Beijing to garner yet more success. A chance for those who were disappointed to claim redemption. A chance for all athletes to get their hands on a $40,000 cash prize and the spectacular Diamond Trophy.
New Diamond Race champions to be crowned
The first of the two finals takes place on Thursday 3 September in Zurich. At the Weltklasse meeting, 16 different Diamond Races will reach their ultimate conclusion, and the first 16 Diamond Race champions of 2015 will be crowned.
Among them will almost certainly be Christina Schwanitz, Tianna Bartoletta and Eunice Sum, who have all been imperious in this season’s Diamond Race.
Both shot putter Schwanitz and 800m runner Sum have won four out of six Diamond League clashes this season, while long jumper Bartoletta has three wins to her name, her points tally bolstered by second-place finishes in New York and Monaco.
All three athletes now have a lead of eight points or more, meaning that they only need to compete in Zurich in order to claim the Diamond Trophy.
But in many of the disciplines which will conclude in Zurich, there is barely a hair’s breadth between those still in the running for the Diamond Trophy.
In the men’s 200m, there have been four different victors over the six races so far, leading to a field so open that it is led by a man who hasn’t a single victory to his name. Anaso Jobodwana has finished second four times this year. He is now on nine points, just a whisker ahead of Alonso Edward and Zharnel Hughes.
The men’s 400m is nearly as close. The first half of the season was dominated by Diamond Trophy holder Kirani James, but after his shock defeat in Paris to Wayde van Niekerk, the Olympic champion has seen his lead shortened dramatically. He is now just two points ahead of the young South African.
Two other world champions who will be gunning for the Diamond Trophy in Zurich are Asbel Kiprop and Zuzana Hejnova. Kiprop is third in the men’s 1500m Diamond Race, having been outgunned so far by Ayanleh Souleiman and Silas Kiplagat. With only a two-point gap between him and the top, though, the newly re-crowned world champion will be confident of winning the Diamond Trophy.
Hejnova, meanwhile, overturned Kaliese Spencer’s 10-point lead with three straight wins since Paris. She is now two points ahead of Spencer, and the battle between the two of them is one to look forward to in Zurich.
Favourites can still fall
There is a wealth of athletes who remain agonisingly close to Diamond Race glory. Steeplechaser Jairus Birech and pole vaulter Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou have leads of seven and six points in their respective Diamond Races. Despite both failing to win gold in Beijing, they are both expected to take the Diamond Trophy. Piotr Malachowski, who is six points ahead in the men’s discus, is in a similar position.
Others are less certain of success. Greg Rutherford has had to fight at times this season, but the new world champion has come out on top with a five-point lead in the men’s long jump. The same goes for Mutaz Essa Barshim, whose disappointment in Beijing mirrored his travails in the Diamond Race since Oslo after an early period of dominance.
Genzebe Dibaba and Barbara Spotakova may also have expected to be sitting more comfortably in their Diamond Races by this stage. Dibaba only has a six-point lead in the women’s 5000m to show for her excellent season, while three-time Diamond Race winner Spotakova has been challenged by an open field, and holds a lead of only four points.
Leads of four, five, six or seven points are perhaps the best illustrations of the excitement of the Diamond Race. Those holding them have had to work all season to establish their advantage, yet one bad performance in Zurich could see them blown away in an instant.
Today is my first day of office as President of the IAAF. I am very excited and proud to have been given an opportunity to lead our great sport into the new era that lies ahead. I am looking forward to working closely with my colleagues on the IAAF Council, who yesterday accepted my recommendation to appoint Sergey Bubka as our Senior Vice President.
Beijing has been a wonderful edition of the IAAF World Championships. The stadium has been full over nine days, morning and evening, with an energetic and enthusiastic crowd who have been enthralled by the world’s greatest athletes.
Athletics has been at the centre of my life since I was a young boy. Everything I am today can be credited to my experiences and successes in this sport and my mission now is to enhance the sport’s ability to inspire and entertain. Athletics is about sporting performance and success but also about values which have the strongest ethical foundations.
With the support of my Council colleagues, I am determined to ensure that athletics remains at the heart of the Olympic Movement. We will continue to put the interest of athletics first and retain the level of independence necessary to help us do the right thing for our sport.
Our approach will be a simple one: to ensure that the IAAF works in the service of the Member Federations and the athletes.
And I am determined to get out of the starting blocks quickly, so today we begin a detailed review of our existing management structures and use of resources to ensure that within the next 100 days, IAAF Council can approve new systems and teams which are necessary for delivering our ambitious plans. We are committed to ensuring good governance in everything that we do and, as a starting point, our legal team has been asked to conduct an in-depth review of the IAAF Constitution and related governance.
A new Member Federations Relations team has also been created to ensure Member Federations are fully engaged and involved in shaping the future of the sport.
Work has also began on a review and enhancement of our current IAAF Commissions and working groups to ensure that the IAAF Council gets the best possible advice and support moving forwards.
Finally, a working group has been set up to look into the possibility of establishing a new over-arching integrity unit for athletics which would house an anti-doping operation with greater independence and have access to a newly formed independent tribunal to hear doping cases of international level athletes (and support personnel). This will be done without impeding or in any way delaying investigations currently underway.
These are exciting times for athletics and I am delighted to be in a position to help the sport break new barriers.
Seb Coe
IAAF President
The concluding joint IAAF and Local Organising Committee (LOC) press conference at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 took place before the start of the last day of athletics in the Bird’s Nest stadium on Sunday (30).
Guests included IAAF President Lamine Diack, IAAF President elect Sebastian Coe, IAAF General Secretary Essar Gabriel, LOC Executive Chairman and Assistant Director of General Administration of Sport of China Gao Zhidan, LOC Deputy Chairman and Director of the Athletic Administration Centre of General Administration of Sport of China Du Zhaocai, and LOC Executive Secretary General and Vice Minister of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports Chen Jie.
“The IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 have been wonderful,” opened President Diack, who spoke about the spectator number in the stadium, the increased TV audiences of these championships and also the IAAF’s medical and anti-doping programme in Beijing.
“The testing figures are interim data. We will confirm full anti-doping statistics by press release on Tuesday but this is the most comprehensive testing programme of any sport in the past two years,” emphasised Diack.
“More than 650 blood tests were conducted at the athlete hotels prior, and during, the world championships. More than 520 urine tests conducted at the stadium and at the hotels,” he added.
IAAF President elect Coe announced major increases in the IAAF website and social media audiences over the previous edition of the championships two years ago in Moscow.
“The IAAF’s strategy to attract a younger audience to athletics via the online promotion of the sport has received a massive boost in Beijing. The IAAF’s responsive website, which fits on any device, has got users around the world,” said Coe.
IAAF’s Athletics for a Better World making donation to The Jesse Owens Foundation
Olympic hero Jesse Owens is being represented by Beverly Owens Prather, his middle daughter, and Donna Prather Williams, his granddaughter, who are currently attending the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015.
Ms Prather will present the gold medal during the men’s 4x100m victory ceremony on Sunday 30 August.
The Owens family members’ visit will also commemorate the signing of an agreement between the Jesse Owens Foundation and the IAAF’s Social Responsibility programme, Athletics for a Better World. The programme will be making a donation to the Foundation.
At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Jesse Owens won gold medals in the 100m, 200m, long jump, and 4x100m, setting a world record in the latter. Owens, who died in 1980, was among the first inductees into the IAAF Hall of Fame in 2012.
The legendary athletics superstar’s story is told for the first time in a feature film in Race, to be released in the US by Focus Features on 8 April 2016.
Jesse Owens’ quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him on to the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy. Race is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one man’s fight to become an Olympic legend.
Directed by Stephen Hopkins, Race stars Stephan James (of Selma) as Jesse Owens, Jason Sudeikis, and Academy Award winners Jeremy Irons and William Hurt.
A total of USD $7,194,000 in prize money will be paid* at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 to the leading athletes and teams in the 47 events being contested in the Chinese capital.
Individual Events
Gold: USD $60,000
Silver: USD $30,000
Bronze: USD $20,000
Fourth place: USD $15,000
Fifth place: USD $10,000
Sixth place: USD $6000
Seventh place: USD $5000
Eighth place: USD $4000
Relays (per team)
Gold: USD $80,000
Silver: USD $40,000
Bronze: USD $20,000
Fourth place: USD $16,000
Fifth place: USD $12,000
Sixth place: USD $8000
Seventh place: USD $6000
Eighth place: USD $4000
In addition, for the 15th edition of the IAAF’s flagship event, which is set to be staged in Beijing from 22-30 August, the IAAF is proud to again present its World Record Programme.
Athletes achieving a world record will be eligible for a special world record bonus worth USD $100,000.
The World Records Programme is presented with the support of Official IAAF Partners TDK (men’s events) and Toyota (women’s events).
It should be noted that the performance must be an improvement on the existing IAAF world record. Performances which equal the existing record will not be eligible for an award.
*The payment of prize money and bonuses is dependent upon athletes clearing the usual anti-doping procedures.
With just a few days to go before action kicks off at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015, fans can get even more immersed in the excitement through the IAAF’s Fantasy World Championships game.
Throughout this summer, the IAAF Fantasy Diamond Race has offered athletics fans all over the world the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the sport by predicting which athletes will perform best at each of the IAAF Diamond League meetings.
The IAAF Fantasy World Championships game works in a similar way, as players are required to identify a squad of athletes who they believe are destined for glory in Beijing. There are no restrictions in terms of countries, event groups or gender.
Each squad must be composed of nine athletes, one of whom is the designated team captain. Athletes score points depending upon their final positions and whether they produce world, area or championship records, with the team captain scoring double.
At the end of the championships, the overall top finisher will win a trip for two people to the International Athletics Foundation Gala in Monaco in November.
But hurry, because entries close at 23:00 UTC on 1 August.
For more information and to register, head to FantasyBeijing2015.com.
IAAF
Setting a world record at an IAAF World Championships is an extremely rare feat.
In fact, in the 32-year history of the event, barely 20 world records have been posted making the accomplishment one well worth rewarding.
For the 15th edition of the IAAF’s flagship event, set to be staged in Beijing from 22-30 August, the IAAF is proud to present its World Record Programme where athletes achieving a world record will be eligible* for a special world record bonus worth USD $100,000 with the support of IAAF partners TDK (men’s events) and Toyota (women’s events).
The performance must be an improvement on the existing IAAF World Record. Performances which equal the existing IAAF World Record will not be eligible for a World Record Award.
The last World Record Award to be presented was to the Jamaican 4x100m quartet at the 2011 World Championships, who shared US $100,000 after running a 37.04 and trimming 0.06 from the time the Jamaican quartet set when striking gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
TDK’s involvement in the IAAF World Athletics Championships goes beyond the World Record Award as it has been the main bib sponsor (men’s events) for all 14 previous editions and will maintain that involvement in Beijing.
The Japanese multi-national electronics company have been involved in the IAAF’s flagship competition in an unbroken period of 32 years.
Mr Kazutoshi Kogure, the Senior Manager Corporate Communication Group TDK Corporation, commented: “TDK has continued in its long support of the World Championships because we have felt that the championships, which see the world’s top athletes competing to win through their great skills and spirit has a resonance with TDK’s own efforts to overcome international competition through the technology and spirit of our winning technology.”
Toyota Motor Corporation believes that Toyota shares the same passionate philosophy as the athletes, who strive to push their limits in pursuit of new records. Toyota’s support of the competition comes from the respect for the dedicated athletes and the ambition for the further growth of competition.
The Toyota Motor Corporation has sponsored the women’s bibs at each and every IAAF World Championships since the Paris edition in 2003.
A Toyota spokesperson said: “The World Championships are an event where the best athletes from all over the world vie to be the world’s best and the fans bond together by supporting athletes challenging limits. It is a pleasure for Toyota, as an Official IAAF Partner, to be able to share the “one-mind” experience with sports fans around the world. Toyota will continue to support the development of events where world-class athletes aim to achieve the pinnacle of mind and body.”
Toyota will also provide 200 vehicles during the IAAF World Championships, which will be used for a variety of purposes including transporting athletes and officials during the competition.
* The payment of prize money and bonuses is dependent upon the usual ratification process, including athletes clearing the relevant anti-doping procedures.
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