Doha: Mohammad Aman and Asbel Kiprop, the current men’s 800 metres and 1,500 metres world champions, race each other in Doha on Friday as a stellar field gathers for the 2015 Diamond League opener.
The pair’s race is among a number of highlights in a meet that has attracted some of the sport’s biggest names, including controversial US sprinter Justin Gatlin, Britain’s double Olympic champion Mo Farah and America’s 200-metre Olympic champion Allyson Felix, who will be seeking an 11th victory in Qatar.
Even the late withdrawal through injury this week of French pole vault world record holder Renaud Lavillenie has failed to dampen expectations over the athletics season’s curtain-raiser.
Ethiopia’s Aman and Kenya’s Kiprop clash in the 800 metres, the distance which the former is currently the world champion, both indoors and outdoors.
But it is the 21-year-old’s first race of the season and, although he won at the same meet in Qatar last year, he is likely to come under pressure from Kiprop, who won over 800 metres in Doha in 2011.
Local interest in this race will come in the shape of Qatar’s Musaeb Abdul Rahman Balla, who won the Arab Championships title in April.
Another middle-distance highlight is the Doha debut of Farah.
The Briton, the current world, Olympic and European champion at 5,000 and 10,000 metres said on Twitter that he was “good to go” on Friday and has been pictured enjoying himself on a Doha beach.
But he has been warned he will be challenged by Kenya’s Isaiah Kiplangat, who was reported as saying earlier this week: “I will see where I belong at the Doha meeting.
“The season is starting and every athlete wants to win. But I have to see how I fare with the best and that is why it is important to put in my best against Farah.”
In the men’s 100 metres, Gatlin will try to continue the exceptional form he showed last season.
The resurgent American won all of his fifteen 100-metre races last year and set the world’s fastest time over the distance in 2014, clocking 9.77 seconds.
The 33-year-old, who has seen out a four-year doping ban, already looks to be in good form in 2015, having been part of a victorious US team at the World Relays earlier this month.
Among those he will be up against is a teammate from the relays, Michael Rodgers, Britain’s European champion James Dasaolu and the veteran sprinter from St Kitts & Nevis, Kim Collins.
In the women’s events, Felix will be seeking a third 200-metre Doha victory to go with her three over 100 metres and five at 400 metres in Qatar.
“It’s no secret I love competing in Doha,” she said on Twitter earlier on Wednesday.
Another athlete making a Doha debut is the 400-metre Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross, who, unlike many of the athletes who are just starting out their 2015 season, has already shown she is in top form.
Last weekend, at the Jamaica Invitational, she ran 49.95s at 400 metres, the best time so far this year.
“I’d really like to win the Diamond League trophy this season,” she said earlier this week. “Everyone that follows me knows I love diamonds so it’s only right!”
