Molly Caudery and Jemma Reekie set for Doha Diamond League

The Diamond League circuit hits the Qatari capital today with a strong presence of British athletes set to compete

The 2024 Diamond League season kicked off last month (April), with Xiamen and Suzhou being the first cities to see athletes chase Olympic standards.

We are now about to hit the meat of the schedule as five Diamond League meets will be held over the next 24 days, starting with today’s competition in Doha.

With the European Championships in Rome a little over a month away, and of course the Olympics fast approaching, athletes will be using this competition to finalise their preparations and put their rivals on notice.

There will also be a strong number of Brits in action, including newly crowned indoor world champions Molly Caudery and Jemma Reekie.

With a current world-leading mark of 4.86m in the pole vault, Caudery will be looking to aim for the 4.91m achieved by USA’s Katie Moon and Australia’s Nina Kennedy at last year’s world championships.

The pair will also be present in Doha, proving for an exciting competition. Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Moon will attempt to make her way back to the top this afternoon after an injury forced her to sit out during the indoor season.

Kennedy will be looking to improve on the 4.65m mark she set at Australian nationals last year.

There will also be a clash of champions in the women’s 800m as current indoor world champion Jemma Reekie, who won on home turf in Glasgow, will take on reigning outdoor world champion Mary Moraa.

Reekie will hope to establish herself on the outdoor track for the first time this year.

2022 Diamond League champion Moraa will be looking to regain the Diamond trophy after losing the title to Reekie’s GB teammate Keely Hodgkinson in 2023.

The Kenyan record holder over 400m (50.38) has become a dominant force in the 800m in recent years with a PB of 1:56.03. Reekie is not far behind with a time of 1:56.90 which was set back in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympic Games, which saw her finish fourth.

Fellow Brits Alexandra Bell and Isabelle Boffey have also made the trip to Doha as they will join Reekie on the start line.

With British middle-distance running so strong at the moment, there is also set to be a strong British team in the women’s 1500m.

British indoor champion Georgia Bell will be set to go head to head with training partner Sarah Healy from Ireland. The pair will be joined alongside Melissa Courtney-Bryant and Revee Walcott-Nolan.

However it won’t be an easy race with a strong Ethiopian field making the trip. World silver medallist Dribe Welteji, who has already ran 3:55.47 this year will race against current indoor champion, Freweyni Hailu.

Elliot Giles will represent GB in the men’s 1500m race as he will face Kenya’s 2020 Tokyo silver medallist, Timothy Cheruiyot, 2022 indoor bronze medallist Abel Kipsang and Spain’s Adel Mechaall.

World cross country champion from Kenya, Beatrice Chebet will return to track action for the first time since the Diamond League final in September. The 24-year-old clocked 14:05.92 in that race to finish second in a race which was won by Gudaf Tsegay in a record time of 14:00:21.

She will face Ethiopia’s world U20 champion Medina Eisa and world 10,000m bronze medallist Ejgayehu Taye.

When it comes to sprinting, Daryll Neita enters the women’s 100m with the third fastest time of 10.90. Those quicker than her on paper are Jamaica’s Natasha Morrison (10.85) and USA’s Tamari Davis (10.83).

Neita has already seen success in the competition as she ran 22.62 in the 200m in Suzhou last month (April 27) to beat a field which included world 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the United States.

British indoor champion, Amy Hunt will also return to Doha to compete in her second ever Diamond League in the 100m.

On the field, British record holder Laurence Okoye will compete in the discus after already competing in Australia, New Zealand and America this year. He became the first ever British athlete to win a medal in discus at a European Championships during Munich 2022.

In the long jump the current world outdoor and indoor champion Miltiádis Tentóglou will make his first appearance in Doha. The Greek jumper will hope to establish himself as the favourite for the gold medal in Paris.

Reigning world champion and Olympic gold medallist, India’s Neeraj Chopra will also be looking to set his standards for Paris in the javelin.

In the women’s high jump Morgan Lake takes on Yuliia Levchenko of Ukraine and Eleanor Patterson of Australia.

The event is set to be shown on BBC Two for UK viewers at 5pm, and the timetable is here.

Molly Caudery and Jemma Reekie set for Doha Diamond League appeared first on AW.