Ooredoo Doha Meeting set for sensational season-opener

Doha: The much-anticipated Ooredoo Doha Assembly, the opening occasion of the 2022 Wanda Diamond League collection, takes place on Friday. 

Seven reigning Olympic champions and a number of Olympic and world medallists will compete on the Qatar Sports activities Membership the place six world main performances, three assembly information, and 6 space and nationwide information had been set 12 months in the past.

Among the many highlights on the Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium on Friday would be the males’s excessive soar face off between the reigning Olympic champions Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy – who shared one of many best sporting moments of all time after they topped the rostrum in Tokyo.

Double world champion Barshim was excellent when profitable world gold in Doha in 2019 to turn out to be the primary man to efficiently defend a world excessive soar title. Remarkably, it adopted a devastating ankle damage in 2018. Twice an Olympic silver medallist (2012 and 2016), he’s the Qatari nationwide document holder with a greatest of two.43m, the second highest soar of all time.

Tamberi, the previous World Indoor and European Championships gold medallist, is the Italian nationwide document holder with a greatest of two.39m. 

He was having fun with his greatest yr ever when he suffered an horrific damage forward of the Rio Video games in 2016. His journey again to health was gradual and difficult, however he returned to medal-winning type with a European indoor title in Glasgow in 2019. He most lately completed third on 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 additionally within the subject. 

In the meantime, Swede Mondo Duplantis, Olympic pole vault champion and world document holder, will kick off his out of doors marketing campaign within the Qatari capital.

The 22-year-old, who was topped world indoor champion in March, has dominated the pole vault in recent times. In 2020 he set world information of 6.17m and 6.18m throughout the indoor season, then went on to clear 6.15m in Rome, the best out of doors vault in historical past. He cleared a brand new world document peak of 6.19m in early March earlier than enhancing that mark to six.20m, one other world document, to win gold on the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.

Olympic silver medallist Chris Nilsen (USA), the 2022 world indoor bronze medallist and present world chief with a private better of 6.00m, and Piotr Lisek (POL), the 2019 World Championships bronze medallist, may also compete.

Within the first males’s 400m hurdles assembly for the reason that historic Olympic remaining 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 within the 400m hurdles on the Ooredoo Doha Assembly– joined by Olympic bronze medallist Alison Dos Santos (BRA).

Benjamin, an Olympic and world 4 x 400m relay gold medallist, completed runner-up to Norwegian famous person Karsten Warholm in Tokyo. His time of 46.17 – an American nationwide document – was contained in the earlier world document which Warholm obliterated when profitable gold (45.94). 

Samba has been on the vanguard of development within the males’s 400m hurdles. The 26-year-old was the second athlete behind America’s former world document holder Kevin Younger to run beneath 47 seconds when he clocked a lifetime greatest and Qatari nationwide document of 46.98 in 2018. He ran a season’s greatest (47.12) to complete fifth in Tokyo.

Males’s 200m Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse (CAN) will tackle world champion Noah Lyles (USA) and Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley (USA) in a star-studded males’s 200m.

Girls’s 200m World and European champion Dina Asher-Smith headlines a formidable ladies’s 200m, an occasion that additionally options Olympic medallists Gabrielle Thomas (USA) and Shericka Jackson (JAM).

Sadly, Olympic, Asian and Commonwealth Video games javelin champion Neeraj Chopra has withdrawn. 

“We’re pleased with what we’ve achieved at this occasion in recent times, however we should additionally look to the long run. It’s necessary for us to construct on our success as we proceed to develop the repute of the Ooredoo Doha Assembly on the worldwide circuit and exhibit our skill to host world class sporting occasions in Qatar,” Qatar Athletics Federation President Mohammed Al Fadhala mentioned because the nation gears as much as host a blockbuster athletics occasion as soon as once more.