The new Diamond League will take place in 14 cities in Europe, the United States, China and the Middle East when it is launched next year, the IAAF said on Tuesday. Germany, long an athletics stronghold, was the most notable absentee from the schedule after Berlin Golden League meeting organizers said they would not be joining the Diamond League. “After long considerations and many talks, we have decided to not join the Diamond League at present,” Gerhard Janetzky, managing partner of meeting organiser LVG GmbH, said in a statement on the website. Organizers will continue discussions with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) about the future integration of the Berlin meeting into the international athletics calendar. More than 60,000 attended Sunday's launch of this year's Golden League circuit in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, which will host the IAAF world championships from Aug. 15-23. Berlin is the only member of the current six-city Golden League not participating in the new Diamond League. The Diamond League's General Assembly approved the addition of Doha and Rome to the original 12 venues at a session in Berlin on Monday. “The meetings in Doha and Rome fulfilled the necessary criteria of membership and were accepted into the IAAF Diamond League,” the IAAF said. The league is scheduled to begin its inaugural season in Doha on May 14 and conclude in Brussels on Aug. 27. Britain, the United States and Switzerland each have two meetings on the circuit. The British meetings will take place in Gateshead and London with Lausanne and Zurich hosting meets in Switzerland. New York City and Eugene, Oregon are the US venues. Athletes with the most points in each event at the end of the series will be awarded a four-carat diamond worth approximately $80,000, the IAAF has said. Diamond League Calendar: Doha May 14; Shanghai May 23; Oslo June 4; Rome June 10; New York June 19; Eugene July 3; Lausanne July 8; Gateshead July 11; Paris July 16; Monaco July 22; Stockholm August 6; London August 13,14; Zurich August 19; Brussels August 27. Athletes interests important The decision as to who will host the 2016 Summer Olympics will be down to which city seems best for the athletes, and not purely economic reasons, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said in Switzerland on Tuesday. The Belgian said the Olympics represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the athletes and it would be the city out of the quartet of Chicago, Madrid Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo that appeared to be the best for the athletes that would prevail in the vote in Copenhagen on October 2. “Economics will not drive our decision. We have shown in the past that we don't always go for the richest candidate,” said Rogge. “I am not fond of geopolitical aims. They play a part but not a huge one and I am not fond of them playing too large a role.”
