WeeklySA_AdminDIAMOND LEAGUE SERIES: A packed programme is expected to include highlights such as the men’s 200m and notably the women’s 100m features Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in her final year of competition
By Sports Reporter
Forty-five individual and relay medallists from the 2024 Olympic Games and 2023 World Athletics Championships are set to compete at the Jetour Doha Diamond League Meeting – the third stop of the 2025 Wanda Diamond League series – this Friday (May 16).
Last year’s event brought a party-like atmosphere to the Qatar Sports Club, with athletes treating the sell-out crowd to four world-leading performances and two meeting records.
Organisers have confirmed that, for the first time in 2025, athletes who set new meeting records in Doha (across all disciplines) will be awarded a $5,000 bonus. Along with a record prize pot of $9.24 million across the Wanda Diamond League series, the announcement marks another welcome addition for athletes.
A packed programme is expected to include highlights such as the men’s 200m, men’s high jump, men’s javelin, women’s steeplechase, women’s pole vault, and men’s discus. Notably, the women’s 100m features Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, one of the most decorated athletes of all time, giving Doha athletics fans the chance to celebrate the global track icon in her final year of competition.
Olympic 200m champion and World Athlete of the Year Letsile Tebogo (BWA) is the standout athlete in the men’s 200m.
The 21-year-old, a world 100m silver and 200m bronze medallist in 2023, clocked an area record of 19.46 to take victory in Paris, making history by claiming his country’s first Olympic gold medal in any sport. It was the fastest time in the world in 2024 and moved him to fifth on the world all-time list.
Demonstrating his incredible range, the two-time world U20 100m champion – who owns the fastest 300m time in history with 30.69 – finished sixth in the Olympic Games 100m in 9.86, also a national record, and won 4x400m relay silver. His anchor leg split of 43.04 is one of the fastest ever recorded.
Tebogo, who will race in the Doha Diamond League for the first time, ran sub-20 seconds for 200m on nine occasions in 2024.
“Last year was tough both emotionally and physically but I’m excited to compete and to see how the season develops,” he said. “It’s going to be a very long season, but I’m more experienced and mature and I’m ready to push my body to its limits and make every moment count,” said the Botswana sprinting star.
Challenging him in Doha will be Canada’s Aaron Brown and US athletes Courtney Lindsey and Kyree King, who all competed at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou last weekend, plus South Africa’s Olympic relay silver medallist Shaun Maswanganyi.ultiple Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM) will open her 2025 Wanda Diamond League season in Doha. The global track icon, now 38, is competing in her final year of competition, making her appearance in Doha a momentous occasion.
Doha Diamond League Men’s High Jump
Reigning Olympic champion Hamish Kerr (NZL) and former Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim (QAT) headline the men’s high jump field.
The 28-year-old Kerr – who has rightly grown in confidence over the past 12 months – won the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships with a national record and Oceania best of 2.36m, upgrading his 2022 bronze. He matched that height in Paris, winning Olympic gold after a jump-off. He finished second at the 2025 World Indoors in China following a series of early-season victories.
Men’s Javelin
Olympic javelin silver medallist Neeraj Chopra (IND), the reigning world and Asian Games champion, will compete at the Jetour Doha Meeting for the third successive year.
Chopra is India’s national record holder with a best of 89.94m and has a massive following in Qatar. He was the first Indian track and field athlete to set a world record (under-20) when he threw 86.48m to win the 2016 World U20 Championships, which was also the first time an Indian athlete had won a global track and field title. He made history in Tokyo (2021) when he became the country’s first Olympic gold medallist in track and field.
Although finishing runner-up to Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem in Paris 2024, Chopra delivered the second-best throw of his career with 89.45m. He impressively improved that mark to 89.49m at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne two weeks later.
Women’s Steeplechase
Olympic champion Winfred Yavi (BRN) will be reunited with Paris silver and bronze medallists Peruth Chemutai (UGA) and Faith Cherotich (KEN) in a high-quality women’s 3000m steeplechase field.
Yavi – the Asian record holder with a best of 8:44.39 (Rome, 2024) – is the second-fastest women’s steeplechaser of all time and holds three of the ten quickest times ever recorded.
Ugandan record-holder Chemutai, who won the Olympic title in Tokyo (2021), is ranked third-fastest all-time with a best of 8:48.03 achieved at the 2024 Diamond League event in Rome, where she finished second to Yavi.
The Jetour Doha Meeting marks the third stop of the 2025 Wanda Diamond League series, promising world-class performances under the lights of the Qatar Sports Club.
