Neeraj Chopra wins javelin event: What is the Diamond League, how are global athletic events organised?

What is the Diamond League?

The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field competitions. It was started in 2010 as a replacement for the previous IAAF Golden League and IAAF World Athletics Final events. The Diamond League is organised by World Athletics (formerly IAAF or International Association of Athletics Federations), the international governing body for athletics.

This year, it consists of 14 (13 series meetings plus one final), one-day meets, to be held between May and September, with men and women competing in a total of 32 disciplines. The host cities include Doha, Rabat, Rome/Florence, Paris, Oslo, Lausanne, Stockholm, Silesia, Monaco, London, Zurich, Shenzhen, Brussels, and Eugene.

The season opener at Doha hosted 14 events (six for women and eight for men). The events were: Pole Vault (w), Discus (m), Triple jump (m), 400m (w), 3000 m Steeplechase (w), High Jump (m), 400m Hurdles (m), Javelin (m), 100m Hurdles (w), 800m (m), 100m (w), 3000m (m), 200m (m) and 1500m (w).

Each event/discipline is not held at each Diamond League Competition. For instance, Neeraj Chopra will not participate in the next two Diamond League meets as they will not host Men’s Javelin Throw.

At each meeting, the top eight athletes are awarded points (Rank 1 gets 8 points, Rank 2 gets 7, and so on). The top six in the field events, top eight for 100m-800m and the top ten for 1500m and long distance events, qualify for the Final, which is a winner-takes-all competition to be crowned Diamond League Champion in one’s chosen discipline. In the final, the points are doubled (Rank 1 gets 16) and the one with the highest total number of points over the season wins the prestigious Diamond Trophy, $30,000 prize money, and a wild card for the World Athletics Championships.

What are the competitions that athletes participate in?

While the Diamond League is like bread and butter for a top track and field athlete – it is held annually to provide elite athletes the chance to frequently compete against each other – athletes participate in multiple competitions. These include:

• The Olympic Games, organised by the International Olympic Association, are the most prestigious and highly anticipated international multi-sport event. They are held once every four years. For track and field athletes, this is the most prestigious tournament.
• The World Championships, organised by World Athletics, are held every two years. They are the most prestigious track and field competition in the world and are generally considered to be second only to the Olympics as a personal achievement.

• Continental Championships are held on each continent. These include the European Athletics Championships, Asian Athletics Championships, African Championships in Athletics, North American, Central American and Caribbean Championships (NACAC), and Oceania Athletics Championships.
• Major Games like the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, African Games, Pan American Games and European Games are multi-sport events that feature athletics as one of the included sports. They are generally held once in four years.
• The Diamond League showcases high-level competition in track and field, annually attracting some of the best athletes.

Among the previous three competitions, the Diamond League will generally be most competitive as it features the top athletes globally. However, Continental Championships or Major Games may get greater publicity due to their quadrennial organisation or multi-sport nature.

• Lastly, elite athletes may compete in National and Regional Championships. While the talent pool will generally be of lower quality, these competitions prepare elite athletes and also act as a place where budding athletes can perform well to get selected/invited to higher levels of competition.