The Peninsula
Doha’s Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium is expected to be filled with spectators when it hosts the opening meet of the Diamond League 2022 as the organisers are receiving an overwhelming response to ticket sales for the high-profile athletics action set to take place on Friday.
Preparations are underway to host the first meeting of the season at the 15000-capacity venue where several world and Olympic champions will be seen in action in eight track and field disciplines.
The organisers have said tickets, with prices ranging from QR50 to QR200, are selling fast as arrangements are on track for what will be one of the best Diamond League meetings in the Qatari capital.
The Doha meet has attracted the world’s best field with joint Olympic high jump champions Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi set to thrill fans in men’s high jump event. The pair, who shared one of the greatest sporting moments of all time when they topped the podium in Tokyo, will reunite in competition at the weekend.
“There will be no sharing this time,” joked Barshim as both appeared together in a promotional video for the Doha meeting.
Tamberi said: “We are really looking forward to the first meeting and we will fight until the end, we promise.”
Qatar’s World Championships bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba (pictured) will also hope to make a winning return in front of home fans when he will be up against a tough line-up including America’s Olympic and world 400m hurdles silver medallist Rai Benjamin in men’s 400m hurdles. World and European champion Dina Asher-Smith will headline a star-studded women’s 200m that also features Olympic medallists Christine Mboma (NAM) besides Gabrielle Thomas (USA) and Shericka Jackson (JAM).
Fans will also see Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, Olympic pole vault champion and world record holder besides India’s Olympic, Asian and Commonwealth Games javelin champion Neeraj Chopra in action on Friday. Chopra finished fourth at the Doha Diamond League meet in 2018, achieving a then-lifetime best and improving his national record (at the time) to 87.43m.
A stellar line-up in men’s 200m including Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse, world champion Noah Lyles (USA) and Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley (USA) will also battle in Doha. The Suheim bin Hamad Stadium has been hosting top athletics action since the Doha Grand Prix which was held in 1997.