A new circuit of elite athletics meetings known as the “IAAF Diamond League” began this year. The IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) intends the new Diamond League to enhance the worldwide appeal of athletics with fixtures outside Europe, in contrast to the Golden League of 6 meetings that it replaces, which has run annually since 1998.
The biggest stars of the sport have been engaged with centralised contracts to ensure that the best athletes take part. Athletes from 32 different athletics events compete with each event receiving the same prize money from a total fund of $416,000 per meeting.
The BBC has coverage via the 'red button' of the meeting tonight (9-11pm) at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon where amongst other events Chris Solinsky on home turf will take on a world class field that includes world leader (12:51:21) Eliud Kipchoge in the 5000m.
The remaining meetings are:
Lausanne (SUI) 08th July
Gateshead (GBR) 10th July (British Grand Prix)
Paris (FRA) 16th July
Monaco (MON) 22nd July
Stockholm (SWE) 6th August
London (GBR) 13th August (London Grand Prix -Crystal Palace)
Zurich (SUI) 19th August
Brussels (BEL) 27th August
At next weekends British Grand Prix in Gateshead Chris Thompson is expected to chase the European Championship qualifying 'A' standard of 13:20:00 in a 5000m race which is to include fellow Brits Mo Farah and Andy Vernon, as well as Kipchoge, Vincent Chepkok, Imane Merga and 2010 World Cross champion Joseph Ebuya. The meeting will be televised live on BBC2 at 4:30pm.
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