he 16 Diamond Race winners from the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels (Giancarlo Colombo) © Copyright
ZURICH, May 3 – The 2016 edition of the IAAF Diamond League gets underway on Friday in Doha and is followed by a meeting in Shanghai on Saturday May 14, providing an outstanding curtain-raiser to this year’s series.
Once again, the series of 14 meetings are each offering Sh48.2 million (US$480,000 in prize money and the IAAF Diamond League showcases 32 event disciplines which are carefully distributed among the meetings.
In each of the event disciplines, there is a Diamond Race with points available throughout the season.
Each of the 32 event disciplines is staged seven times with a new scoring system being adopted this year to make each competition even more interesting and competitive.
In the previous six seasons of the IAAF Diamond League, points were given to the top three athletes in Diamond Race disciplines, but the new system will reward athletes finishing in the top six.
The same number of points will be awarded at each meeting, with the usual exception of the finals in Zurich and Brussels where the points are doubled.
The overall winner of each of the 32 Diamond Races will receive a Sh 4 million (US$40,000) cash prize and a spectacular Diamond Trophy.
Combine the individual meeting prize money with the Diamond Race cash, and the IAAF Diamond League is offering a total of Sh 808.4 million (US$8 million) in prize money in 2016.
To find out more, download the 2016 IAAF Diamond League media guide (6.5MB PDF).
This year’s media guide includes a plethora of useful figures, including all-time statistics on wins, points and appearances.
This all goes to show the global appeal of the IAAF Diamond League and our sport.
You can follow all the results and news throughout the season on this website’s dedicated IAAF Diamond League section and the official IAAF Diamond League website.
The IAAF Diamond League meetings in Doha and Shanghai will also be the first two meetings in the 2016 edition of the popular Fantasy Diamond Race.
2016 IAAF Diamond League calendar
6 May – Doha, QAT
14 May – Shanghai, CHN
22 May – Rabat, MAR
28 May – Eugene, USA
2 Jun – Rome, ITA
5 Jun – Birmingham, GBR
9 Jun – Oslo, NOR
16 Jun – Stockholm, SWE
15 Jul – Monaco, MON
22-23 Jul – London, GBR
25 Aug – Lausanne, SUI
27 Aug – Paris, FRA
1 Sep – Zurich, SUI
9 Sep – Brussels, BEL
