Doha // The Diamond League returns on Friday with its annual Qatar curtain-raiser but with the real focus this year on the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, taking place in just three months’ time.
A strong field of some 80 current and former Olympic medallists will be competing in Doha, all with an eye on securing a good start before Brazil and, in some cases, imminent qualifiers ahead of Rio.
In total, eight Olympic gold medallists will compete, as well as more than 40 athletes with world championship medals.
Much of the focus in Doha could fall on Kenyan stars, especially the middle-distance events.
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Almost 30 Kenyan athletes are expected in Doha, and as many as eight could run in the men’s 1,500 metres. Among these are Asbel Kiprop, though he may drop down to the 800m, Elijah Manangoi and Silas Kiplagat.
Kiprop is the 2008 1,500m Olympic champion and also a three-time world champion over the same distance. He has already stated that Olympic gold is his aim for the year.
Manangoi is a former 1,500m world silver medallist and is competing in just three races before the Olympic trials.
Kiplagat, meanwhile, is the second fastest man in the field, behind Kiprop.
In the 3,000m steeplechase, Kenyans Ezekiel Kemboi and Conseslus Kipruto, rivals and training partners, head a strong field.
The women’s 100m includes the Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers, who recently took silver at the world indoors 60m, and Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, the 200m Olympic gold medallist in Beijing.
Among the other big names competing on the track is LaShawn Merritt of the United States in the 400m, who will compete against compatriots Tony McQuay and David Verburg.
Among the local stars are Qatar’s great gold medal hope for Rio, high-jumper Mutaz Barshim and rapidly improving Abdelalelah Haroun, who won silver at the 400m in the recent world indoors.
The Diamond League returns at a grim time for athletics, a sport which has been ravaged by the latest round of doping allegations.
IAAF president Sebastian Coe is expected in Doha and next month his organisation will decide whether to ban one of the sports biggest powers, Russia, from competing in Rio amid allegations of a “state-sponsored” doping programme for athletes.
But there should be at least one good news story coming out of today’s event.
Aries Merritt, the gold medallist at the 110m hurdles in London, returns to international action following a kidney transplant last year.
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