The Peninsula
The much-anticipated Ooredoo Doha Meeting, the opening event of the 2022 Wanda Diamond League series, takes place on Friday.
Seven reigning Olympic champions and a host of Olympic and world medallists will compete at the Qatar Sports Club where six world leading performances, three meeting records, and six area and national records were set 12 months ago.
Among the highlights at the Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium on Friday will be the men's high jump face off between the reigning Olympic champions Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy – who shared one of the greatest sporting moments of all time when they topped the podium in Tokyo.
Double world champion Barshim was outstanding when winning global gold in Doha in 2019 to become the first man to successfully defend a world high jump title. Remarkably, it followed a devastating ankle injury in 2018. Twice an Olympic silver medallist (2012 and 2016), he is the Qatari national record holder with a best of 2.43m, the second highest jump of all time.
Tamberi, the former World Indoor and European Championships gold medallist, is the Italian national record holder with a best of 2.39m.
He was enjoying his best year ever when he suffered an horrific injury ahead of the Rio Games in 2016. His journey back to fitness was gradual and challenging, but he returned to medal-winning form with a European indoor title in Glasgow in 2019. He most recently finished third at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade (2022).
Joint world leaders Sanghyeok Woo (KOR) and Hamish Kerr (NZL), the world indoor champion and world indoor bronze medallist respectively, are also in the field.
Meanwhile, Swede Mondo Duplantis, Olympic pole vault champion and world record holder, will kick off his outdoor campaign in the Qatari capital.
The 22-year-old, who was crowned world indoor champion in March, has dominated the pole vault in recent years. In 2020 he set world records of 6.17m and 6.18m during the indoor season, then went on to clear 6.15m in Rome, the highest outdoor vault in history. He cleared a new world record height of 6.19m in early March before improving that mark to 6.20m, another world record, to win gold at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
Olympic silver medallist Chris Nilsen (USA), the 2022 world indoor bronze medallist and current world leader with a personal best of 6.00m, and Piotr Lisek (POL), the 2019 World Championships bronze medallist, will also compete.
In the first men’s 400m hurdles meeting since the historic Olympic final in August 2021, Olympic and world 400m hurdles silver medallist Rai Benjamin (USA) and Qatar’s World Championships bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba will line up in the 400m hurdles at the Ooredoo Doha Meeting– joined by Olympic bronze medallist Alison Dos Santos (BRA).
Benjamin, an Olympic and world 4 x 400m relay gold medallist, finished runner-up to Norwegian superstar Karsten Warholm in Tokyo. His time of 46.17 - an American national record - was inside the previous world record which Warholm obliterated when winning gold (45.94).
Samba has been at the vanguard of progression in the men’s 400m hurdles. The 26-year-old was the second athlete behind America’s former world record holder Kevin Young to run under 47 seconds when he clocked a lifetime best and Qatari national record of 46.98 in 2018. He ran a season’s best (47.12) to finish fifth in Tokyo.
Men’s 200m Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse (CAN) will take on world champion Noah Lyles (USA) and Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley (USA) in a star-studded men’s 200m.
Women’s 200m World and European champion Dina Asher-Smith headlines an impressive women’s 200m, an event that also features Olympic medallists Gabrielle Thomas (USA) and Shericka Jackson (JAM).
Unfortunately, Olympic, Asian and Commonwealth Games javelin champion Neeraj Chopra has withdrawn.
“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved at this event in recent years, but we must also look to the future. It’s important for us to build on our success as we continue to grow the reputation of the Ooredoo Doha Meeting on the global circuit and demonstrate our ability to host world class sporting events in Qatar," Qatar Athletics Federation President Mohammed Al Fadhala said as the country gears up to host a blockbuster athletics event once again.