Berihu Aregawi, Timothy Cheruiyot, Lamecha Girma, Selemon Barega and Soufiane El Bakkali
Even by Wanda Diamond League standards, the quality of the fields at the series opener in Doha on Friday (5) is breath-taking.
More than 30 global gold medals have been amassed in the past two years alone by the athletes heading to Doha, and they will renew their rivalries in the Qatari capital as they get their World Championships season under way.
Fred Kerley and Shericka Jackson, the world champions in the 100m and 200m respectively, will take on strong fields in the sprints, while middle-distance superstar Faith Kipyegon opens her 2023 campaign in the 1500m. Full World Championship podiums, meanwhile, will be reunited in the men’s javelin, men’s triple jump and women’s pole vault.
But perhaps the strongest field of all – and even that is a tough one to call – is the men’s 3000m.
Three months on from his world indoor 3000m record, Lamecha Girma takes on the same distance outdoors and faces a field that includes four winners of global titles. The Ethiopian clocked 7:23.81 in Lievin in February and hasn’t raced since. A lack of prior races didn’t seem to do the Ethiopian any harm back then, so the fact this is his outdoor season debut shouldn’t necessarily work against him.
Especially as the same applies to many other athletes in the field, including world and Olympic steeplechase champion Soufiane El Bakkali. The Moroccan is more at home when jumping over barriers, but he is speedy enough on the flat to be competitive in a race such as this.
Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega, 2021 Diamond League 5000m champion Berihu Aregawi and fellow Ethiopians Getnet Wale and Telahun Haile Bekele add further depth to the field, as do 2019 world 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot, world U20 cross-country champion Ishmail Kipkirui and Oceanian record-holder Stewart McSweyn.
The meeting record of 7:27.26 has stood for 12 years, but there are several athletes capable of challenging that mark on Friday.
Faith Kipyegon is no stranger to the Qatari capital, having raced at the Diamond League meeting five times across three different distances, winning twice. But the Kenyan ace is yet to win there at her specialist distance.
Faith Kipyegon in action at the Diamond League meeting in Doha (© AFP / Getty Images)
Nevertheless, she still has fond 1500m memories in Doha. It’s where, in 2013, she recorded her first sub-four-minute performance, clocking an African U20 record of 3:56.98. She also set a Kenyan record of 3:54.22 in Doha when taking world silver in 2019.
Kipyegon, who improved her own national record to 3:50.37 last year, will take on world indoor 3000m champion Lemlem Hailu, as well as four Ethiopian women who broke four minutes last year: Diribe Welteji, Freweyni Hailu, Hirut Meshesha and Axumawit Embaye. Germany’s European 5000m champion Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Australian duo Jessica Hull and Abbey Caldwell should also be in contention in a competitive field.
Oregon field event flashback
If the line-ups for the triple jump, javelin and pole vault bring a certain sense of déjà vu, it’s because all of the athletes who reached the podium in those events at the World Championships in Oregon will be in action in Doha.
Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will open his season in the javelin. The Indian superstar extended his national record to 89.94m last year and was incredibly consistent in the high 80s, so he will be keen to join the 90-metre club at some point this season.
Two men who joined that club for the first time at the 2022 Doha meeting will be back in the Qatari capital this week. Two-time world champion Anderson Peters threw 93.07m to win in Doha last year in a thrilling competition with world and Olympic medallist Jakub Vadlejch, who set a PB of 90.88m.
Anderson Peters in action at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha (© AFP / Getty Images)
Trinidad and Tobago’s 2012 Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott and Kenya’s 2015 world champion Julius Yego – two more 90-metre performers – are also in the line-up, as are Germany’s European champion Julian Weber and Finland’s Oliver Helander.
The top five women from the pole vault at the 2022 World Championships will once again clash. World and Olympic champion Katie Moon set a meeting record of 4.84m when she won at this meeting last year, so she’ll be hoping to put down a similarly impressive marker on her outdoor season debut.
The US vaulter will take on world indoor champion and former training partner Sandi Morris, Australia’s world bronze medallist Nina Kennedy, Olympic bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw, European indoor and outdoor champion Wilma Murto, and world indoor bronze medallist Tina Sutej.
The three triple jumpers who earned global medals in Oregon and Tokyo – Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Hugues Fabrice Zango and Zhu Yaming – will face off on the runway. Pichardo, the world and Olympic champion, and Zango will be opening their outdoor seasons, while Zhu will be hoping to improve on his 16.88m season’s best.
The field also includes world indoor champion Lazaro Martinez, fellow Cuban Andy Diaz and multiple world and Olympic champion Christian Taylor.
Sprint showdowns
Global champions from three different distances will meet in the middle in the men’s 200m, where the meeting record of 19.83 could be living on borrowed time.
World 100m champion Fred Kerley and world 400m champion Michael Norman will race over 200m in a field that includes Andre De Grasse, the Olympic champion at that distance.
Fred Kerley, winner of the 200m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Melbourne (© AFP / Getty Images)
Kerley has raced, and won, twice so far this year. He ran an incredibly easy looking 20.32 over 200m in Melbourne, then won over 400m in Sydney two weeks later with 44.65. Norman, who is just as versatile as Kerley across the three sprint distances, opened his season last month with a wind-assisted 10.03 over 100m. De Grasse, meanwhile, clocked 20.41 for 200m in Gaborone last week.
Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek, Canada’s world 4x100m champion Aaron Brown and world mixed 4x400m champion Alexander Ogando are some of the other sub-20-second performers in the line-up.
Shericka Jackson, Dina Asher-Smith and Sha’Carri Richardson have already made statements with their sprinting so far in 2023.
World 100m silver medallist Jackson sped to a world-leading 10.82 in Kingston last month, just 0.11 shy of the PB she set last year. Asher-Smith enjoyed an undefeated indoor season earlier this year, reducing the British 60m record to 7.03. Richardson, meanwhile, breezed to a wind-assisted 10.57 clocking in Miramar a few weeks ago.
The talented trio will once again let their feet do the talking as they toe the line in Doha alongside US champion Melissa Jefferson, Oceania record-holder Zoe Hobbs and USA’s Abby Steiner.
World and Olympic silver medallist Rai Benjamin will be the overwhelming favourite in the men’s 400m hurdles. World bronze medallist Trevor Bassitt, France’s Wilfried Happio, USA’s Khallifah Rosser and South Africa’s Sokwakhana Zazini add further quality to the field.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn takes on 2019 world champion Nia Ali, Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper, European indoor champion Reetta Hurske, and rising US duo Alaysha Johnson and Tonea Marshall.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Britany Anderson battle in the women's 100m hurdles at the Wanda Diamond League in Rome (© Getty Images)
One year after beating Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo in Doha, Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino will aim to win again over 400m. The world and Olympic silver medallist takes on world bronze medallist Sada Williams and fellow sub-50-second performers Candice McLeod, Natalia Kaczmarek and hurdles specialist Shamier Little.
Barshim ready to delight adoring fans
No one will be surprised when Mutaz Barshim gets the biggest reception from the crowd on Friday night.
The Qatari high jumper has competed sparingly in recent years, mainly due to various injury concerns, but he has managed to get it right when it matters, winning the past three world titles as well as the Olympic title in 2021. He last competed in September 2022, so it remains to be seen what kind of form he is currently in, but he isn’t easy to beat.
Qatari high jumper Mutaz Barshim (© Getty Images)
World indoor champion Woo Sanghyeok beat Barshim at this meeting last year, so will want to show that wasn’t a fluke. But USA’s JuVaughn Harrison heads to Doha in great form, having already cleared 2.33m this year.
In the men’s discus, world champion Kristjan Ceh clashes with Sweden’s Olympic gold and silver medallists, Daniel Stahl and Simon Pettersson. USA’s Sam Mattis, Britain’s Lawrence Okoye and Australia’s Matthew Denny are also ones to watch.
Another Olympic champion, Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai, will be in action in the women’s steeplechase, where she’ll face world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech, world bronze medallist Mekides Abebe, Commonwealth champion Jackline Chepkoech, Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi, and 2017 world champion Emma Coburn of the USA.
Elsewhere, world silver medallist Djamel Sedjati of Algeria takes on world indoor silver medallist Noah Kibet – the winner here last year – in the men’s 800m.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics
