2023 Doha Diamond League: Preview, schedule, how and who to watch
Olympic gold medallist Andre De Grasse and world 200m champion Shericka Jackson plus Fred Kerley and Neeraj Chopra are among the track and field stars who will open their Diamond League campaign in Doha on 5 May.
Athletics
Olympic and world champions headline a star-studded 2023 Diamond League opener in Doha on Friday 5 May.
Olympic champion Andre De Grasse made a disappointing season debut over 200m, finishing seventh in the Botswana Golden Grand Prix.
The Canadian will be hoping for better when he takes on Fred Kerley in the Qatari capital with reigning world champions Shericka Jackson, Michael Norman, Faith Kipyegon and Soufiane El Bakkali also in action.
India's Olympic javelin champion Neeraj Chopra will also make his first competitive appearance of 2023.
Athletes to watch:
Shericka Jackson leads a star-studded 100m women in Doha
The women’s 100m should be one of the races of the night.
Jackson, the reigning world 200m champion, headlines the Doha field in the absence of fellow Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce and Elaine Thompson Herah.
Otherwise, it's a line-up full of talent including 2019 200m world champion Dina Asher-Smith and American star Sha’Carri Richardson.
Jackson goes to Qatar with a world lead of 10.82 from her opening race in a meet in Kingston on 22 April, but Richardson clocked a wind-assisted 10.57 in Miramar two weeks previously.
“After starting my season with a few 400m races, I’m excited to drop down in distance to race over 100m in Doha. I know I’m in good shape after running my quickest 400m since 2019 this year, but now it’s time to sharpen up and run really fast," Jackson told the organisers,
Besides the two world gold medallists and Richardson, three members of Team U.S. that topped the women’s 4x100m relay - Melissa Jefferson, Abby Steiner and Twanisha Terry - will also be on the starting line.
Fred Kerley, Andre De Grasse headline men's 200m in Doha
The men’s 200m match-up is another clash to relish with De Grasse saying he has "unfinished business at the Worlds" before looking ahead to Paris 2024.
World 100m champion Kerley has yet to run the short sprint this season, winning a 200m in Melbourne in February and a 400m in Sydney in March.
He returns to 200m with world and Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek also competing after he was third in the 100m in Botswana.
Liberian record holder Joseph Fahnbulleh, who blazed to his first sub-10 100m last month in Florida, was third behind Letsile Tebogo in the 200m in Botswana and lines up in Doha having finished fourth at last year's Worlds in Eugene.
Olympic champions Faith Kipyegon and Katie Nageotte-Moon also in Doha
Faith Kipyegon returns to Doha where she began her unbeaten 2022 season.
The Kenyan won her fourth world medal, and her second title in Eugene, before running the second fastest 1500m in history - 3:50.37 - in Monaco.
Another 2022 Diamond League champion, unbeaten last season, is Moroccan steeplechase star Soufiane El Bakkhali.
He goes in a hot 3000m which has attracted Ethiopia’s Olympic and world steeplechase silver medallist and indoor 3000m world record holder Lamecha Girma, Olympic 10,000m champ Selemon Barega and Yomif Kejelcha plus Kenya's former world 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot and rising star Ishmael Kipkurui, the 2023 world cross country U20 champion.
An equally stellar field will light up the men’s javelin in Doha with Neeraj Chopra going up against Grenada's reigning world champion Anderson Peters and Olympic silver medallists Jakub Vadlejch and Julius Yego.
Another exciting field event should be the women’s pole vault bringing together the podium finishers from Eugene: world and Olympic champion Katie Nageotte-Moon, fellow American Sandi Morris and Nina Kennedy of Australia.
2023 Doha Diamond League Doha programme
The action at Qatar Sports Club stadium will begin at 18:00 Arabian Standard Time which is 15:00 GMT/UTC, 16:00 in London, 17:00 in Paris, 11:00 in New York, and 08:00 in Los Angeles.
A full schedule of discipline start times can be found here. The disciplines being contested in Qatar are:
Men's events at 2023 Doha Diamond League
- 200m
- 400m (non-Diamond League)
- 800m
- 3000m
- 400m Hurdles
- 400m Hurdles B Race (non-Diamond League)
- High Jump
- Triple Jump
- Discus
- Javelin Throw
Women's events at 2023 Doha Diamond League
- 100m
- 400m
- 1500m
- 100m Hurdles
- 3000m Steeplechase
- Pole Vault
The full list of Diamond League 2023 season events and results are here.
How to watch the 2023 Doha Diamond League
The meeting will be streamed in a number of territories on the Wanda Diamond League YouTube page. The meeting will also be broadcast live in a number of territories on broadcast partner channels.