Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium have been named the male and female World Athletes of the Year at the IAAF Athletics Awards 2017, held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Friday (24). Barshim, 26, was one of the most consistent and dominant athletes of the year. Starting with a 2.35m […]
via BARSHIM AND THIAM NAMED 2017 ATHLETES OF THE YEAR — newfanzoneblog
With just three days to go before the start of the 2015 IAAF Diamond League, the excitement is already starting to mount and the traditional opening meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha has already assembled some of the sport’s top stars to get proceedings underway for the sixth year of the series on Friday (15).
Mohammed Aman, Asbel Kiprop, Mo Farah, Christian Taylor, Allyson Felix, Sanya Richards-Ross, Sifan Hassan and Sandra Perkovic are just some of the sport’s star names that will be competing in Doha.
The likes of Kirani James, Jairus Birech, David Oliver, Mutaz Essa Barshim, Eunice Sum, Caterine Ibarguen and Yarisley Silva will be in action in Shanghai just two days later on Sunday (17).
The IAAF is also happy to announce the return of IAAF Fantasy Athletics.
The 2015 edition of the Fantasy Diamond Race is similar to last year and 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 via the overall leader board, and 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.
There are unique prizes for those 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
Select your provisional team
The provisional entry lists for the opening meetings in Doha and Shanghai are now available, but it is recommended that players keep checking the start lists as changes sometimes occur and corrections can be made up to the start of a meeting.
Click here to login or register for the 2015 Fantasy Diamond Race
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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 USD$40,000 cash prize and a spectacular Diamond Trophy.
IAAF
2015 IAAF Diamond League calendar
Doha, QAT – 15 May
Shanghai, CHN – 17 May
Eugene, USA – 30 May
Rome, ITA – 4 June
Birmingham, GBR – 7 June
Oslo, NOR – 11 June
New York, USA – 13 June
Paris, FRA – 4 July
Lausanne, SUI – 9 July
Monaco, MON – 17 July
London, GBR – 24-25 July
Stockholm, SWE – 30 July
Zurich, SUI – 3 September
Brussels, BEL – 11 September
The IAAF is excited to launch its third season of IAAF Inside Athletics, the online track and field show hosted by Ato Boldon.
There will be 20 episodes in this year’s series and they will be released on the first and third Tuesday of every month, appearing on both the IAAF website and the IAAF World Athletics Club Facebook page.
Each episode will feature a prominent personality within the sport. This week’s episode is the first of a four-part series focusing on the high jump and features world indoor champion Mutaz Essa Barshim.
Subsequent episodes in that mini-series will feature 1968 Olympic champion Dick Fosbury, world record-holder Javier Sotomayor and 1987 world champion Patrik Sjoberg.
IAAF Inside Athletics has been a huge success over the past two years, engaging athletics fans across the world. Individual episodes were regularly seen by more than 60,000 people and several episodes topped 120,000 viewers.
Host Ato Boldon won the world 200m title in 1997 and is now a respected broadcaster, working for television networks around the world.
With less than two weeks to go until the IAAF Continental Cup, the teams are close to being finalised and many of the world’s best athletes are set to compete in Marrakech on 13-14 September.
The European team is yet to be finalised, but it will feature Polish hammer thrower Anita Wloarczyk, who yesterday set a world record of 79.58m in Berlin.
Other world-leading European athletes who will be invited to compete in Marrakech – based on their results at the European Championships – include pole vault world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie, Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers, Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford, Dutch distance runner Sifan Hassan, Spanish high jumper Ruth Beitia, hammer thrower Pawel Fajdek and discus thrower Sandra Perkovic.
World indoor high jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim, who currently shares the world lead of 2.42m, will be one of Asia-Pacific’s biggest hopes for maximum points. Team-mate Valerie Adams, who leads the 2014 shot put list with 20.46m, is another big favourite.
World champion Caterine Ibarguen, who earlier this year produced the best triple jump for six years with 15.31m, will be expected to bag valuable points for the Americas team.
She will be joined on the squad by several other world leaders, including US shot putter Joe Kovacs, 400m hurdler Javier Culson, world indoor 400m champion Francena McCorory, US 800m runner Ajee Wilson, sprint hurdler Dawn Harper Nelson, 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer, Brazilian pole vaulter Fabiana Murer and long jumper Tianna Bartoletta.
The African team’s best chances are expected to come in the track events, and their line-up boasts seven athletes who currently top the world list in their respective events.
Jairus Birech, the fastest steeplechaser in the world this year, will be one of their top hopes, along with world indoor champion Genzebe Dibaba, 3000m world leader Hellen Obiri, African 800m champion Nijel Amos, world indoor 3000m champion Caleb Ndiku, African javelin record-holder Ihab Abdelrahman and Ethiopian steeplechaser Hiwot Ayalew.
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