2010 Diamond League | |
---|---|
Edition | 1st |
Dates | 14 May–27 August |
Events | 32 |
Meetings | 14 |
Records set | 0 |
Individual Prize Money (US$) | 6.63 million |
2011 → |
The 2010 Diamond League season was the first season of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 14 May in Doha, Qatar and ended on 27 August in Brussels, Belgium. [1]
Superseding the European-centred IAAF Golden League, the Diamond League was the IAAF's first intercontinental series of one-day track and field meetings. Expanding upon the idea of the former Golden League jackpot, there were 32 separate Diamond Races, involving 16 men's and 16 women's track and field events – each of the events featured seven times only over the course of the fourteen meetings of the 2010 Diamond League, and the best athlete in each event won a Diamond Trophy. [2] League winners were decided via a points system, with four points going to the winner, two to the runner-up, and one to the third place finisher, with points doubled at the final two meetings in Brussels and Zurich. [3] The total available prize money for the series was US$6.63 million. [4]
For infrastructure reasons the men's and women's hammer throw events were not included in the IAAF Diamond League. For this reason the IAAF created a Hammer Throw challenge. [5]
For the first time, some of the world's foremost track and field athletes were centrally contracted to an athletics meeting series. For the 2010 series the contracted athletes – called Diamond League Ambassadors – included figures such as Usain Bolt, Kenenisa Bekele, Yelena Isinbayeva and Blanka Vlašić. [4] [6]
Prior to the series, former World Champion Steve Cram stated that he believed that, through greater television exposure, and mutual responsibility between the IAAF and promoters, the 2010 Diamond League would raise the profile of the sport of athletics. [7]
Date | Meet | Stadium | City | Country |
---|---|---|---|---|
14 May | Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix | Qatar SC Stadium | Doha | Qatar |
23 May | Shanghai Golden Grand Prix | Shanghai Stadium | Shanghai | China |
4 June | Bislett Games | Bislett Stadion | Oslo | Norway |
10 June | Golden Gala | Stadio Olimpico | Rome | Italy |
12 June | Adidas Grand Prix | Icahn Stadium | New York City | United States |
3 July | Prefontaine Classic | Hayward Field | Eugene | United States |
8 July | Athletissima | Stade Olympique de la Pontaise | Lausanne | Switzerland |
10 July | British Grand Prix | Gateshead International Stadium | Gateshead | United Kingdom |
16 July | Meeting Areva | Stade de France | Paris | France |
22 July | Herculis | Stade Louis II | Fontvieille | Monaco |
6 August | DN Galan | Stockholm Olympic Stadium | Stockholm | Sweden |
13–14 August | London Grand Prix | Crystal Palace | London | United Kingdom |
19 August | Weltklasse Zürich | Letzigrund | Zürich | Switzerland |
27 August | Memorial van Damme | King Baudouin Stadium | Brussels | Belgium |
A total of fourteen athletes were given Diamond League Ambassador status, with the intention of bringing attention to some of the sport's foremost competitors. There are seven male and seven female athletes, and the division between track and field specialists is also evenly divided. [8]
Diamond Race track events | |||||||||
Men | 100 m | 200 m | 400 m | 800 m | 1500 m | 5000 m | 110 m hurdles | 400 m hurdles | 3000 m steeplechase |
Women | 100 m | 200 m | 400 m | 800 m | 1500 m | 5000 m | 100 m hurdles | 400 m hurdles | 3000 m steeplechase |
Diamond Race field events | |||||||
Men | Pole vault | High jump | Long jump | Triple jump | Shot put | Discus throw | Javelin throw |
Women | Pole vault | High jump | Long jump | Triple jump | Shot put | Discus throw | Javelin throw |
In Oslo, Eugene and London, mile races are counted to the Diamond League standings for the 1500m.
In Lausanne and Monaco, 3000m races are counted to the Diamond League standings for the 5000m.
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