The International Athletics Association Federation (IAAF) Diamond League released its calendar and the distribution of events disciplines for the 2014 season on Thursday.
The IAAF Diamond League is an annual series of track and field meetings designed in 2010 to replace the Golden League, which was held annually since 1998, and enhance the worldwide appeal of athletics by going outside Europe for the first time.
The Series of 14 meetings showcases 32 event disciplines (sixteen for male athletes, sixteen for females) which are carefully distributed among the meetings.
Each of the 32 event disciplines is staged seven times with the top three athletes at each meetings being awarded a ‘Diamond Race’ points throughout the 14-meeting season, and in the case of the Finals in Zurich (Switzerland) on 28 August and Brussels (Belgium) on 5 September the points are doubled.
Aside Finals, the winner gets four points, runner-up; two and one for the third-placed athlete.
The first Diamond Race Meeting has been scheduled for Doha (Qatar) on Friday, May 9th, 2014.
The meetings returns to Shanghai (China) in May as athletes contest for points in each of the 32 disciplines; Eugene (USA) follows up in the same month, Oslo comes alive in June, Paris (France); July, Stockholm (Sweden); August. London (UK) will host a two-day event on the 11th and 12th July.
The winners of the 2014 Diamond Race- the athlete with the highest number of points in each discipline at the end of the season- will be decided in Brussels (Belgium) on September 5.
Only Rome (5th June) and Stockholm (21st August) will host the same male’s and female’s disciplines in one meeting- the Triple and Long Jump respectively.
