Track and Field’s elite endorse IAAF Diamond League at sparkling launch
The top stars of international athletics were on display this
evening at the Fairmont Hotel, Monaco, to give their backing to the
IAAF Diamond League, with the organisers of the new global track and
field circuit honoured to announce those same athletes as its
Ambassadors and as contracted participants for 2010.
IAAF Diamond League Ambassadors are Kenenisa
Bekele, Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Steven Hooker, Yelena Isinbayeva, Asafa
Powell, Sanya Richards, Andreas Thorkildsen, Blanka Vlasic.
Weltklasse Zürich will stage one of two finals in the prestigious
Diamond League: The hunt of the first 16 Diamond Trophys will be
concluded at Weltklasse Zürich on Thursday, 19 August 2010.
The
announcement of the signing of this swathe of the sport’s elite
performers took place, along with the opening of the IAAF Diamond
League website - www.diamondleague.com
- during a sparkling launch ceremony and dinner which began at 20:30hrs
(GMT +1hr), Saturday 21 November in the Salle d'Or of the Fairmont
Hotel.
The IAAF Diamond League is composed of 14 meetings spread
across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA, and will showcase 32
athletics disciplines which have been carefully distributed amongst the
meetings. In each discipline there will be an IAAF Diamond Race with
points available throughout the season. Winners of each Diamond Race
get a Diamond Trophy which will include 4 carats of diamonds but more
importantly, they will have showed season long consistency to earn the
unchallenged honour of being the World Number 1.
Starting in
2010, the IAAF Diamond League will offer more athletes, more earning
opportunities with prize money totalling 6.63 MILLION dollars. The IAAF
Diamond League will be discussing central contracts with at least the
top two athletes in each discipline to secure exciting head to head
confrontations between the world’s best on a regular basis throughout
the IAAF Diamond League season which in 2010 stretches from mid-May to
the end of August.
Bolt, Gay and Powell throughout the season
The
IAAF Diamond League is especially pleased to confirm that with the
racing commitments of Bolt, Gay and Powell secured, every one of the 14
meetings will see at least one of these sprint stars compete; many
meetings will have two of them in action and a lucky few will have the
three fastest men on show.
Across all disciplines the details of
exactly which athlete is competing in which meetings next year will be
delivered in further announcements between now and the first meeting of
the IAAF Diamond League in Doha on 14 May 2010.
Statement Patrick K. Magyar, Meeting Director Weltklasse Zürich
“We are proud to present the very first final in the history of the IAAF Diamond League. And we are convinced that the new structure for one-day athletics will increase both the awareness for and prestige to our sport. Weltklasse Zürich will still be Weltklasse Zürich; but at the same time, our meeting will benefit from the strengths of the new series.”
IAAF Diamond League -- Calendar 2010
Doha (QAT) – Fri 14 May
Shanghai (CHN) – Sun 23 May
Oslo (NOR) – Fri 4 June
Rome (ITA) – Thu 10 June
New York (USA) – Sat 12 June
Eugene (USA) – Sat 3 July
Lausanne (SUI) – Thu 8 July
Gateshead (GBR) – Sat 10 July
Paris (FRA) – Fri 16 July
Monaco (MON) – Thu 22 July
Stockholm (SWE) – Fri 6 Aug
London (GBR) – Fri 13 and Sat 14 Aug
Zürich (SUI) – Thu 19 Aug
Brussels (BEL) – Fri 27 Aug
Weltklasse Zürich 2010: IAAF Diamond League Disciplines
Men: 200 m, 400 m, 5000 m, 3000 m steeplechase, 110 m hurdles, high jump, long jump, discus.
Women: 100 m, 400 m, 1500 m, 400 m hurdles, pole vault, triple jump, shot put, javelin.
