IAAF Decides To Drop Triple Jump, 3 Other Events From 2020 Diamond League

IAAF: The Athletics’ governing body IAAF has announced that eight disciplines have been removed from the core program of the 2020 Diamond League season.

According to the latest development, Diamond League meetings will no longer hold events for 200 m, 3,000 m steeplechase, discus or triple jump in 2020.

The judgment was made by IAAF following a research that was conducted by the global body to decide which disciplines should be a part of the 2020 season.

IAAF claims that the study clearly illustrated that triple jump , discus throw, and 3000 m steeplechase were the least popular disciplines, while high jump, 100 m, long jump emerged as the most popular disciplines.

As a result it was decided that 3,000 m steeplechase, discus or triple jump will be dropped from the Diamond league.

Furthermore, the organizers decided to give 200 m discipline a miss as they thought the event will be too congested with Tokyo Olympics which is also scheduled in the same year.

The IAAF then confirmed that next year’s upcoming 15 Diamond League events will see athletes contest only in 12 disciplines, which would be the 100 m, 100 m/110 m hurdles, 400 m, 400 m hurdles, 800 m, 1500 m, 3000 m, long jump, javelin, high jump, pole vault and shot-put.

The athlete who scores the highest in each discipline will be eligible for a wild card entry into the World Championships.

Justifying the decision, Lord Coe, the IAAF president and the Diamond League chairman, informed that the whole idea of the committee is to construct a high-speed, more exhilarating global league.

He added that they are planning a league that presenters want to televise and fans want to gaze at.

The decision by the organizers did not go well with a number of athletes as some of them took to twitter to show their dissatisfaction. The British sprinter Adam Gemili tweeted a GIF of actor Tom Hanks mouthing “really?”.

The 2020 Diamond League kicks-off in Doha on 17th of April.