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Organisers of the Doha Diamond League Meeting on May 8 have confirmed that athletes who set new meeting records at the 2026 event will be awarded a $5000 bonus, an innovative concept that was first introduced in 2025.The Diamond League series broke new ground in 2025 with $9.84mn awarded in prize money across the series as a whole, the largest prize pool in Diamond League history.While the introduction of meeting record bonus payments in Doha provided another welcome incentive for athletes, the high standard of past-performances meant that only Bahrain’s Olympic silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser came close. Her winning time of 49.83 in the women’s 400m matched the meeting record set by Allyson Felix of USA in 2008, but it wasn’t quick enough for the outright best required to meet the criteria for the $5000 bonus payment.Mohammed al-Fadala, Qatar Athletics Federation president, said: “The Doha Meeting has established itself as one of the leading Wanda Diamond League fixtures and feedback from our athletes, their coaches and their managers, repeatedly tells us that our exceptional hospitality is a key factor in them wanting to return.“As Mutaz Barshim said in last year’s press conference, track and field isn’t an easy job, so it’s very important that we value our athletes and take care of them, as well as providing the perfect stage for top quality competition. By continuing to award bonus payments for new meeting records we are incentivising athletes to perform, but we are also rewarding them for their efforts.“Mutaz acknowledged that change is positive and that as a meeting, and across the sport as a whole, we were moving in the right direction. We in Doha remain committed to innovation and change and that remains crucial if we’re to continue to grow our reputation and profile globally.”Earlier, multiple Olympic, world and European champion Mondo Duplantis of Sweden confirmed he will compete in Doha. The 26-year-old, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and six-time world champion, is also the meeting record holder in Doha with 6.02m, set in 2022. He arrives following another standout season, having broken the world record for the 14th time, most recently with 6.30m at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.Duplantis is unbeaten in this Doha Diamond League fixture, but it’s been far from plain sailing. The 2020 event was postponed due to the pandemic (he won the rescheduled competition with a best of 5.82m), while in 2022 the men’s pole vault was delayed by one day and moved indoors due to high winds. Duplantis cleared 6.02m for the win on that occasion – a mark that still stands as the meeting record.“We’ve had a couple of challenges in the past for sure, but I’ve always loved coming to Doha,” said the 2025 World Athlete of the Year. “Last year was amazing for me. I ticked off a couple of really big goals, stuff that was high up on my bucket list, but my hunger and motivation is still 100% there. My training has gone well over the winter and I’m looking forward to competing indoors – it’s important to have something new to aim for, and for me, I want to successfully defend my European title. Doha will follow and it’s the perfect meet to kick off my outdoor season. I definitely prefer the warm weather to the cold, so hopefully conditions will be conducive to jumping high, challenging my meeting record, and setting a solid benchmark – and new goals – for the year ahead.”The azzraty Doha Meeting is the opening meeting of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League. The series comprises 15 of the most prestigious events in global track and field across four different continents. It concludes with a single final across two days in Brussels on September 4 and 5. 

The 2026 Diamond League season will begin in Doha on May 8 and finish at the two-day series final in Brussels on September 4-5. The world’s greatest athletes will return to the global stage next year as they embark on another continent-crossing Wanda Diamond League campaign in 2026.Following another record-breaking year in 2025, many of the sport’s biggest names will be hoping to make history once again as athletics’ premier one-day series returns for its 17th season. As in previous years, athletes will compete for points at 14 meetings as they bid to qualify for the series final in Brussels and a shot at the iconic Diamond Trophy.The 2026 Road to the Final will begin in Asia, with Doha hosting the season opener on May 8 before back-to-back Chinese meetings in Shanghai and Xiamen. The African leg of the series will take place in Rabat on May 31, before the first European meeting of the season in Rome the following week.After stops in Stockholm, Oslo and Paris, the world’s biggest stars will head to Eugene on the US west coast for a meeting which has seen five world records in the past three seasons alone. The series then returns to Europe for meetings in Monaco and London, before the Road to the Final enters the home straight in August.Lausanne, Silesia and Zurich will be the last stops before the world’s biggest stars assemble in Brussels for the Wanda Diamond League Final on September 4-5. With meetings on four different continents, the Diamond League is one of the most truly global series in world sport.In 2025, it welcomed 400,000 spectators to some of the planet’s most iconic arenas and was broadcast on television in 170 different countries. It also reached an online fanbase of five million social media followers worldwide, notching up more than one billion impressions and more than 900mn video views across all platforms.In 2026, that global reach will only grow as the sport’s biggest names return to Diamond League action. Swedish pole vault sensation Mondo Duplantis will be out to claim a sixth successive Diamond League title in 2026, as he looks to improve on his latest world record of 6.30m.US sprint star Noah Lyles became the most successful track athlete in Diamond League history with his sixth series title in 2025, and now has the chance to equal or even surpass the overall record of seven Diamond Trophies.For newly crowned world champions such as the USA’s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, the 2026 Diamond League offers the chance to confirm their top-dog status in a season-long struggle for one of the sport’s biggest prizes. With no Olympic Games or World Championships, the Diamond Trophy will be one of the biggest global titles up for grabs in 2026.Schedule:May 8 – Doha; May 16 – Shanghai; May 23 – Xiamen; May 31 – Rabat; June 4 – Rome; June 7 – Stockholm; June 10 – Oslo; June 26 – Paris; July 4 – Eugene; July 10 – Monaco; July 18 – London; August 21 – Lausanne; August 23 – Silesia; August 27 – Zurich; September 4-5 – Final in Brussels

Pole vault world record holder Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis will aim to win a fifth successive Diamond League title Wednesday in Zurich, the Swiss city hosting the circuit's finals just two weeks before the world championships in Tokyo."I have to be focused, I can't slack," said the US-born Swede, who has been in electric form, setting a 13th world record, of 6.29m, in Budapest earlier this month."High expectations are better than no expectations. It's a good problem, honestly," he said of the public's perception of the current state of the pole vault competition."It's bringing people to watch us, jumping high."Asked whether the 6.30m barrier could soon be breached, Duplantis played a straight bat."I try to maximise my days as much as I can. And if I feel like that on the day, it's a day that I have the possibliity to break the world record, I'll go after it."It would be amazing to do it here, it'd probably even more amazing to do it in Tokyo."It really is just a beautiful circus act that we do and I think we can entertain anyone anywhere in the world."Duplantis will compete in one of six field disciplines held at a street event on Zurich's Sechselautenplatz, directly in front of the city's iconic opera house.Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh will resume her rivalry with Australia's Nicola Olyslagers in the women's high jump while there is also the men's long jump, the women's pole vault, and the shot put for both male and female throwers."I'm ready to jump!" said Mahuchikh, the Ukrainian who set a world record of 2.10m last year."I started my season very well. The main thing now is to get in shape for Tokyo," she added in reference to the September 13-21 worlds in the Japanese capital."It's exciting, it's the main competition of the season. I'm going to Tokyo to protect my title."Lyles v TebogoThe remaining 26 Diamond League champions will be crowned in the course of a bumper programme at the Letzigrund Stadium tomorrow.The array of global stars on show includes the likes of Olympic 100m and 200m champions Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo.They face off in the men's 200m, with Botswana's Tebogo hunting a first ever Diamond League title and US sprinter Lyles looking to win the trophy for a record-breaking sixth time."With Weltklasse Zurich being the last race before the world championships, I am looking to run something special," said Lyles, who had to be happy with 200m bronze at the Paris Olympics in a race won by Tebogo.Olympic and Diamond League champion Julien Alfred also lines up in the women's 100m, while 800m star Emmanuel Wanyonyi and 400m hurdles ace Femke Bol will also be looking to defend their series titles.The majority of athletes have qualified for the Diamond League finals thanks to points accrued in the 14 meets to date, while a handful will compete in Zurich on global or national wildcards.There is, however, no place for Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men's 1,500m.The Norwegian, who has struggled with an achilles injury since winning double world indoor golds in Nanjing in March, was refused a wildcard because rules stipulate that he must have competed in at least one Diamond League meet during the outdoor season.He instead heads to a training camp in the Japanese city of Kyoto ahead of Tokyo to fine-tune preparation for a tilt at a 1,500-5,000m double.