David Rudisha wins the 800m at the 2012 Samsung Diamond League in Doha (© Jiro Mochizuki)
There is exactly one week to go before the start of the 2013 season of the IAAF Diamond League on Friday 10 May in Doha, Qatar, a meeting which will be highlighted by the presence of 10 London 2012 Olympic Games champions.
The IAAF Diamond League is comprised 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 are 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 amongst the meetings.
The Diamond Race – How it works
In each of the 32 event disciplines 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 created by Beyer, one of the oldest and most respected jewellers in the world, but more importantly, they will have shown season long consistency to earn the unchallenged honour of being the World Number 1.
Each of the 32 event disciplines is staged seven times with the top three athletes being awarded the same amount of points at each meeting with the exception of the Final where the points are doubled.
Points per event discipline at each meeting
1st place - 4 points (Final: 8 points)
2nd place - 2 points (Final: 4 points)
3rd place - 1 point (Final: 2 points)
The athlete with the highest number of points in each event discipline at the end of the IAAF Diamond League season wins the ‘Diamond Race’.
In case of equality on points, the number of victories decides the winner. If there still is a tie, the better result at the Final acts as the tie-breaker. For an athlete to win a Diamond Race and its associated prize, and/or to be ranked in the final points standings, he / she must compete in the final (Zürich or Brussels) of their event discipline.
Click here for full information about the Diamond Race.
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To follow all the results and news throughout the IAAF Diamond League season…
Click here for the IAAF website’s dedicated Diamond League section
Click here for the official IAAF Diamond League website
2013 IAAF Diamond League Calendar
Doha, QAT – Fri 10 May
Shanghai, CHN – Sat 18 May
New York, USA – Sat 25 May
Eugene, USA – Sat 1 Jun
Rome, ITA – Thu 6 Jun
Oslo, NOR – Thu 13 Jun
Birmingham, GBR – Sun 30 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – Thu 4 Jul
Paris, FRA – Sat 6 Jul
Monaco, MON – Fri 19 Jul
London, GBR – Fri 26 / Sat 27 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – Thu 22 Aug
Zürich, SUI – Thu 29 Aug
Brussels, BEL – Fri 6 Sep
