Doha Diamond League: 45 Olympic and World medallists to be on show

Qatar Tribune

13-05-2025

Dohadiamondleague
Last year's event brought an incredible party atmosphere to the Qatar Sports Club and the athletes responded by treating the sell-out crowd to four world leading performances and two meeting records.
Organisers have confirmed that in 2025, for the first time, athletes who set new meeting records in Doha (across all disciplines) will be awarded a $5000 bonus. Together with a record prize pot of $9.24 million across the Wanda Diamond League series, the announcement marks another welcome addition for athletes.
Across a packed programme, highlights are expected to include 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, and gives Doha athletics fans the chance to celebrate the global track icon in her final year of competition.
Men's 200m
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 and in doing so made 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. Tebogo, who will race in the Doha Diamond League for the first time, ran sub-20 seconds for 200m on nine occasions in 2024.
Men's high jump
Reigning Olympic champion Hamish Kerr (NZL) and former Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim (QAT) are the headline names in the men's high jump field.
The 28-year-old Kerr – an athlete 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 in New Zealand.
Barshim, who finished third in Paris, is also a two-time Olympic silver medallist (2012 and 2016). A true championship performer, he won an unprecedented third successive global title with victory at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene 2022. A great ambassador for the sport and his country, the 33-year-old launched his own innovative event in 2024 – the 'What Gravity Challenge' – bringing together a group of the world's best high jumpers at the spectacular Katara Amphitheatre in Doha. The 2025 edition of the 'What Gravity Challenge' took place on Friday 9 May and was won by Korea's Sanghyeok Woo (2.29m). Ryoichi Akamatsu (JPN) and Raymond Richards (JAM) – who will both take part in the Jetour Doha Meeting – finished second and third respectively with 2.26m.
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 he 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 and that trend continued at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest when he became the first athlete from India to strike gold.
Although finishing runner-up to Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem in Paris 2024, Chopra delivered the second-best throw of his career (at the time) with 89.45m. He impressively improved that mark to 89.49m at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne two weeks later.
The Doha javelin competition has built a reputation for its high quality in recent years and this year's edition should be no different as Chopra – who is now coached by Jan Zelezny (CZE), the world javelin record holder (98.48m) and a multiple Olympic and world champion – headlines a field that includes Olympic bronze medallist, former world champion and Diamond League champion Anderson Peters (GRN); former Olympic and world silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch (CZE); former European champion Julian Weber (GER); former world champion and Olympic silver medallist Julius Yego (KEN); and former Olympic champion Keshorn Walcott (TTO).
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 top-quality women's 3000m steeplechase field in Doha. 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. She is currently the reigning Olympic, world and Asian Games champion and has said she wants to 'run fast and set a high standard' in her Diamond League season-opener.
Ugandan record-holder Chemutai, who won the Olympic title in Tokyo (2021), is ranked third-fastest all-time with a best 8:48.03 achieved at the 2024 Diamond League event in Rome where she finished second to Yavi.
Women's pole vault
Katie Moon (USA) and Alysha Newman (CAN) – who won silver and bronze medals respectively at the Olympic Games in Paris – will clash again in Doha alongside last season's victor Molly Caudery (GBR), the British record holder (4.92m) and 2024 world indoor champion.
Moon, a two-time world champion (Eugene 2022 and Budapest 2023), was Olympic champion in Tokyo 2021 and has a best of 4.95m. She was a world indoor medallist in 2022 (silver) and 2024 (bronze) and was crowned Diamond League champion in 2023.
She had her best ever indoor season but chose to forego the World Indoor Championships with her ultimate goal for the year to retain her world title in Tokyo.
Men's discus
Olympic discus bronze medallist Matt Denny (AUS) – ranked second on the world all-time list after his impressive 74.78m throw in Ramona in April – will compete against reigning world champion and former Olympic champion Daniel Stahl (SWE) and 2022 world champion Kristjan Ceh (SLO) at the Jetour Doha Meeting.
Women's 100m
All eyes will be onmultiple Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM) as she opens her 2025 Wanda Diamond League season in Doha.
The global track icon, now 38-years-old, became the first Jamaican woman to win an Olympic women's 100m title at the Beijing Games in 2008 and successfully defended her title in London 2012. She has won a record five global 100m titles to date, including at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha (where she also won 4 x 100m relay gold), and was named Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year at the prestigious 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards.
Third-fastest of all-time over 100m with a best of 10.60s (Lausanne, 2021), she last competed at the Diamond League meeting in Doha in 2021 where she took victory in the 100m in 10.84s (+1.1m/s).
'Doha holds a special place in my heart, and I'm truly excited to return for this year's Diamond League,' said the 'Pocket Rocket' who will be up against recently crowned world indoor 60m champion and reigning European champion Mujinga Kambundji (SUI).
Eight reigning individual Olympic and world champions will compete at the Jetour Doha Meeting and in addition to those already mentioned are Thea LaFond (DMA), Olympic triple jump gold medallist in Paris, and Serbia's Ivana Spanovic (Vuleta), world long jump gold medallist in Budapest (who will compete in the triple jump in Doha).
The Jetour Doha Meeting is the third meeting of the 2025 Wanda Diamond League. The series – which started in Xiamen on 26 April – comprises 15 of the most prestigious events in global track and field across four different continents and concludes with a single final across two days in Zurich (27-28 August).