Stage set for Seashore Group Doha Meeting

Doha: As the event continues to grow its reputation and profile on the global athletics circuit, the 2023 edition lived up to high expectations with seven world leading performances, three meeting records, four national records and a vocal sell-out crowd.

On this occasion, a host of Olympic and world medallists will again be welcomed to the Qatar Sports Club where organisers aim to provide the perfect stage for top quality performances. In a packed programme, event highlights are expected to include the men’s javelin, men’s long jump, women’s 800m, men’s 400m, men’s 1500m and women’s pole vault.

Men’s javelin

The Doha javelin competition has built a reputation for its high quality in recent years and conditions permitting, much will be expected of the key protagonists at the Qatar Sports Club on 10 May. 

Reigning Olympic, world and Asian Games javelin champion Neeraj Chopra - India’s record holder with a best of 89.94m - will make a welcome return to action alongside former world champion Anderson Peters (GRN) and Olympic and world medallist Jakub Vadlejch (CZE).

Inspirational Chopra set the tone for his gold medal-winning summer with victory in the opening meeting of the 2023 Wanda Diamond League in Doha ahead of Vadlejch and Peters. Peters, who finished third 12 months ago with 85.88m, had delivered a national record and the fifth-longest throw in history in 2022 (93.07m), while 2023 Wanda Diamond League champion Vadlejch, who was runner-up to Chopra in 2023 with 88.63m, recorded a personal best in the memorable 2022 meeting with his first ever throw over 90m (90.88m).

Chopra’s goal for the summer is to defend his Olympic title, but to break the elusive 90m barrier would also mean a lot. European champion Julian Weber (GER), fourth in the Olympic Games and World Championships, will also compete.

Men’s long jump

Olympic, world and European long jump champion Miltiádis Tentóglou (GRE) will star at the Seashore Group Doha Meeting for the first time when he competes at the Qatar Sports Club on Friday 10 May.

The 26-year-old Greek athlete - who retained his world indoor title with victory in Glasgow on 2 March - boasts a personal best of 8.60m from 2021. 

In recent years he has gained a reputation for being an exceptional championship performer and in particular, for his final jump heroics. He first set hearts racing when he won Olympic gold on his last attempt at the Tokyo Games in 2021 (8.41m) and impressively repeated that feat at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest with a jump of 8.52m. 

In the interim period, he was crowned 2022 world indoor champion in Belgrade and backed that up with a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon later that summer. He has seven continental titles to his name dating back to 2017.

With thoughts on defending his Olympic title later this summer, Tentóglou is aiming to get his outdoor season off to a strong start. Jamaica’s national record holder Tajay Gayle (8.69m) – world champion in Doha 2019 and bronze medallist in Budapest 2023 – will provide tough competition, although Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, 2023 Wanda Diamond League champion and heptathlon gold medallist at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March, is also one to watch.

Women’s 800m

World champion Mary Moraa (KEN) and World Indoor Championships silver medallist Jemma Reekie (GBR) are the standout names in the 800m at the Seashore Group Doha Meeting.

Moraa is the Kenyan record holder over 400m (50.38) and won the All-African Games 400m title in March 2024. In recent years she’s become a dominant force in the 800m, lowering her personal best from 2:03.27 in 2020 to 1:56.03 with victory at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest (2023). In 2022, the charismatic 23-year-old - who has become known for her dancing celebrations - finished third at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, won Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham, and was crowned Wanda Diamond League champion.

Reekie, the British indoor mile record holder (4:17.88) rose to prominence as a double gold medallist over 800m and 1500m at the 2019 European Under-23 Championships. She has since delivered a series of impressive championship performances including finishing runner-up at the 2024 World Indoors in Glasgow and reaching the finals of the Olympic Games in Tokyo (2021) and World Championships in Budapest (2023), finishing fourth and fifth respectively. Her lifetime best over 800m is 1:56.90, the fourth-fastest ever by a British woman.

While Moraa has defeated Reekie five times out of seven in their most recent head-to-heads, Reekie is fast returning to the form that saw her narrowly miss the Olympic podium in Tokyo. 

The field also includes World Indoor Championships bronze medallist Noélie Yarigo (BEN); Olympic finalist and Jamaican record holder Natoya Goule-Toppin (JAM); and 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi (UGA).

Men’s 400m

Olympic 400m champion and former world champion Steven Gardiner (BAH) will return to Qatar for the Seashore Group Doha Meeting on Friday 10 May.

Gardiner clocked a national record of 43.48 with victory at the World Athletics Championships in Doha 2019. It was an impressive upgrade to the silver he’d won in London two years earlier and a performance that made him the sixth-fastest man in the history of the event.

In the lead up to the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, the 28-year-old - who owns the fastest indoor 300m time in history (31.56) - had been in fine form. He was unbeaten over 400m and recorded the second-fastest performance of his career one month out from the global showpiece (43.74). He cruised through the opening round but was injured in the semi-final and failed to finish. 

He returned to competitive action with a 31.99 300m in Florida in March 2024 ahead of the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas on 4/5 May. The Seashore Group Doha Meeting, he says, is a ‘perfect opportunity’ to build his confidence with a strong early season performance.

Vernon Norwood and Quincy Hall – members of the USA’s gold medal winning 4 x 400m relay quartet at the 2023 World Athletics Championships – will also compete.

Men’s 1500m 

In a men’s 1500m field bursting with youth and experience, Olympic silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN) – the world champion in Doha 2019 – will line up against world bronze medallist Narve Gilje Nordås (NOR) and teenage record-breaker Reynold Cheruiyot (KEN) at the Seashore Group Doha Meeting.

28-year-old Timothy Cheruiyot was a 1500m silver medallist at the World Athletics Championships in London 2017 before upgrading to gold in Doha. He finished sixth in Eugene in 2022 and has a lifetime best of 3:28.28 (2021). He ran a 3000m personal best of 7:36.72 in Doha last year. 

While he admits his race fitness isn’t quite where he’d like it to be at this time of year - he opened his season with a 1:46.56 800m at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi on 20 April after recovering from a knee injury that was affecting his performances last summer - he’s looking forward to putting down an important marker as he builds towards the Kenyan Olympic trials.

Nordås excelled in 2023 with lifetime bests across a range of distances from 1500m (3:29.47) to 5000m (13:05.38). His World Championships bronze came in a memorable race in Budapest which saw him finish just three one-hundredths of a second behind countryman Jakob Ingebrigtsen. In March 2024 he finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

19-year-old Reynold Cheruiyot – the world under-20 1500m champion and a finalist at the 2023 World Championships – has made his own headlines over the past 12 months. He set a world age-group record in the mile (3:48.06) at the Prefontaine Classic in September 2023 and more recently won the Kip Keino Classic 1500m in 3:31.96.

Other notable names on the start list include two-time world indoor 1500m champion and Ethiopian indoor record holder Samuel Tefera; Spain’s 1500m indoor record holder Adel Mechaal, fifth in the Tokyo Olympic Games; and Olympic and World Championships fourth-place finisher Abel Kipsang (KEN).

Women’s pole vault

World and Commonwealth champion Nina Kennedy (AUS) and newly-crowned world indoor champion Molly Caudery (GBR) will go head to head at the Seashore Group Doha Meeting.

Caudery, who finished fifth in Budapest, has been exceptional in 2024 and is the current world leader with a best of 4.86m. A Commonwealth Games silver medallist in Birmingham (2022), she won her first global title – and Britain’s first world indoor gold in a field event since 2012 – in Glasgow with a 4.80m clearance. 

Kennedy, who has never been beaten by Caudery, is the Australian record holder with 4.91m. Her best this year is 4.65m which was good enough to win the Australian Championships title.

Unfortunately, Olympic and world champion Katie Moon - ranked fifth all-time with a best height of 4.95m – has withdrawn after her recovery from an Achilles injury has taken longer than expected. 

Kennedy and Caudery will be joined at the Qatar Sports Club by the USA’s 2016 Olympic silver medallist Sandi Morris (PB 5.00m), a three-time world silver medallist and double world indoor champion; Slovenia’s national record holder Tina Šutej (4.82m), fourth in the 2023 World Championships and fifth in the Olympics; and USA’s Bridget Williams (PB 4.83m), the 2023 Pan American Games champion. 

Elsewhere in the programme, stars include 3000m steeplechase world record holder Lamecha Girma (ETH), the Olympic and world silver medallist (3000m SC); Kenya’s cross country and road running world champion and World Championships 5000m medallist Beatrice Chebet (5000m); world indoor champion Freweyni Hailu (ETH), fourth-place finisher at the Olympic Games and World Championships (1500m); USA’s Olympic silver medallist Kenneth Bednarek (200m); and 2022 world high jump champion Eleanor Patterson (AUS), runner-up in Budapest 2023 (high jump). 2022 world champion Kristjan Čeh will compete in the pre-programme non-Diamond League discus. 

Of those previously announced, Qatar’s 400m hurdles record holder Abderrahman Samba has also withdrawn due to injury, in addition to world U20 1500m indoor record-holder Biniam Mehary (ETH) and Olympic and world 3000m steeplechase champion Soufiane El Bakkali (MAR).

The Seashore Group Doha Meeting is the third meeting of the 2024 Wanda Diamond League. The series comprises 15 meetings in total across four different continents and started with Xiamen (China) on 20 April. It concludes with a single final across two days in Brussels (13-14 September). Each of the 14 series meetings will be broadcast globally in a live two-hour programme.
 

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