Sprint stars Letsile Tebogo and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are among the 45 reigning world and Olympic medallists who will compete at the Jetour Doha Meeting – the third leg of this year’s Wanda Diamond League series – on Friday (16).
After racing the 100m at the Diamond League meetings in Xiamen and Shanghai/Keqiao, Botswana’s Tebogo will step back up to his favoured distance in Doha. The world athlete of the year won Olympic 200m gold and 100m silver in Paris last year and dipped under 20 seconds in nine 200m races in 2024. He will be looking to break that barrier for the first time this year when he makes his Doha Diamond League debut.
“Last year was tough both emotionally and physically but I’m excited to compete and to see how the season develops,” he said. “It’s going to be a very long season, but I’m more experienced and mature and I’m ready to push my body to its limits and make every moment count.”
Challenging him in Doha will be Canada’s Aaron Brown and US athletes Courtney Lindsey and Kyree King, who all competed at the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou last weekend, plus South Africa’s Olympic relay silver medallist Shaun Maswanganyi.
The Jamaican quartet of Fraser-Pryce, Natasha Morrison, Tia Clayton and Tina Clayton also ran at the World Relays and return to individual action in the 100m in Doha. Multiple Olympic and world gold medallist Fraser-Pryce is among the stars making their Diamond League season debuts at the Qatar Sports Club, in what is set to be her final year of competition. They will line up alongside two-time world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji.
The 400m will pit two-time world medallist Sada Williams against Natalia Bukowiecka, Lieke Klaver and Salwa Eid Naser, while the 400m hurdles features Carl Bengtstrom, who was third in Shanghai/Keqiao, plus CJ Allen and Malik James-King. The 110m hurdles includes a clash of Olympic medallists, as Daniel Roberts and Rasheed Broadbell renew their rivalry.
In the high jump, New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr and Jamaica’s Raymond Richards will compete again after respectively claiming silver and bronze at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing in March.
The entry list also includes home favourite Mutaz Barshim – Kerr’s predecessor as Olympic champion – although Barshim did not compete at his own What Gravity Challenge meeting in Doha last week and he may also miss this Diamond League event as he continues to work towards a return later this season. Contenders also include Japan’s Ryoichi Akamatsu, who like Richards cleared 2.26m at the What Gravity Challenge.
Doha has hosted many thrilling javelin contests in recent years and the 2025 meeting looks set to offer another. Czechia’s Jakub Vadlejch had been the runner-up in Doha the previous two years but in 2024 he beat defending champion Neeraj Chopra by just two centimetres to clinch victory and they both return this year. Vadlejch is a multiple world and Olympic medallist, while India’s Chopra is the world and Tokyo Olympic champion, and in Doha they will take on Olympic bronze medallist Anderson Peters, Keshorn Walcott, Julian Weber and Julius Yego.
Big clashes are also on the cards in the discus and pole vault. In the discus, Australia’s Olympic bronze medallist Matt Denny – who moved to second on the world all-time list with his 74.78m throw in Ramona in April – will compete against Sweden’s two-time world champion and Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Daniel Stahl plus Slovenia’s 2022 world champion Kristjan Ceh, who won in Doha in both 2023 and 2024.
Two Paris Olympic medallists go head-to-head in the pole vault, too, as USA’s Katie Moon and Canada’s Alysha Newman compete again, joined by Great Britain’s 2024 world indoor champion Molly Caudery – the 2024 winner in Doha – and USA’s Sandi Morris.
Three athletes to have surpassed 15 metres in the triple jump –Olympic champion Thea LaFond, silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts and world silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk – will clash in a field also featuring world long jump champion Ivana Spanovic, testing herself in the triple jump for the first time since 2022.
The full Paris Olympic podium will meet in the 3000m steeplechase – Bahrain’s gold medallist Winfred Yavi taking on Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai and Kenya’s Faith Cherotich in a contest that also includes World Athletics Rising Star award winner Sembo Almayew, who finished fifth in Paris.
The top two from Shanghai/Keqiao – Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Berihu Aregawi and Kuma Girma – go in the 5000m against Dominic Lobalu, who finished fourth at the Olympics. The 800m stars another Olympic fourth-place finisher in Bryce Hoppel, as he races Tshepiso Masalela, Slimane Moula and Andreas Kramer. Olympic and world indoor finalist Susan Ejore races her Kenyan compatriot Nelly Chepchirchir plus Adelle Tracey and Jemma Reekie in the 1500m.
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