The traditional pre-meeting press conference of the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha took place on Thursday (5) and the emphasis was very much on how the series, now in its seventh season, directly laid the foundations for many an elite athlete’s road to Rio.

Bogdan Bondarenko, the 2013 world high jump champion and a silver medallist in Beijing just over a week ago, provided the highlight of the Palio Città della Quercia meeting in Rovereto with a 2.31m clearance at Italy’s oldest meeting on Tuesday (8).

Sprinters from Qatar produced the most eye-catching performances on the second day of the Asian Championships in Wuhan on Thursday (4) with 18-year-old Abdalelah Haroun claiming the 400m title and Femi Ogunode setting an Asian record in the men’s 100m.

China won four of the eight gold medals on offer on the opening day of the Asian Championships in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Wednesday (3).

Many of the world’s leading athletes will be in action in Doha on 15 May for the opening fixture of the 2015 IAAF Diamond League, but there will be plenty for the local fans to cheer for too as a handful of Qatar’s top athletes will be set to compete.

The men’s and women’s 800m finals at the Asian Games in Inchon on Wednesday (1), the fifth day of athletics, could not have been more different.

Qatari sprinter Femi Ogunode provided the biggest highlight of an entertaining second day of the 2014 Asian Games athletics programme when he sped to an Asian 100m record of 9.93 in the South Korean city of Inchon on Sunday (28).

James Dasaolu won the closest ever men’s 100m at an IAAF Continental or World Cup to become the first British winner of this event since Linford Christie completed his World Cup hat-trick in 1994.

Great Britain's Richard Kilty went from third at the 2014 UK Championships to first on the global stage when he rose to the occasion and flew to a 6.49 lifetime best to capture the men’s 60m gold medal.

Jamaica’s world indoor silver medallist Nesta Carter found his best form at exactly the right time and laid down a fine 6.50 season’s best marker to confirm that he is intent on capturing the gold medal this time around.