Mutaz Essa Barshim reacts after winning gold in High Jump final at World Athletics Championships at Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar October 4, 2019. Reuters/ Pawel Kopczynski.jpeg
Paris: Next season’s Diamond League athletics series will kick off in Doha on April 17 as the organisers yesterday announced that it will expand to 15 meetings. The 2020 season will see an additional event in China, organisers have announced.
The IAAF said in a statement that 15 meetings will be staged between April 17 and September 11, one more than this year with an additional date in China at a venue yet to be decided.
The Stockholm Diamond League meeting is retained despite a plan announced earlier this year to exclude it for 2020 in a bid to streamline the series while widening its appeal.
A decision to replace the traditional two-meeting final of the league by one final meeting in Zurich is maintained.
The second event in China, scheduled for May 10 in addition to the Shanghai meeting a week later, follows the announcement of a new sponsorship deal with China’s Wanda Sports Group, the statement said.
The IAAF also decided to cut the broadcast time of individual meetings from two hours to 90 minutes.
