The bold new world of the Samsung Diamond League encompassed 32 individual events staged within 14 meetings around the globe. In a three-part review, IAAF correspondent Mike Rowbottom takes a look back at the inaugural season beginning with the meetings in Doha, Shanghai, Oslo, Rome and New York.

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Each discipline was staged seven times, with double points on offer in the two mandatory concluding competitions in Zurich and Brussels, and the athletes who scored the most to win the Diamond Race in their respective events stood to earn a Diamond Trophy - created by Beyer, established as jewellers in Zurich in the 18th century - and $40,000 prize money.

Usain Bolt, hampered by injuries to his Achilles tendon and then his lower back, was not a Diamond Race winner, but he made vivid contributions to the Diamond League with a 200m victory at Shanghai in 19.76, and to the meeting in Stockholm where he suffered his first 100m defeat in two years at the hands of Tyson Gay, after which he withdrew from competition to nurse his troublesome back condition.

If Bolt v Gay in Stockholm was the highest profile athletics event of the year, the meeting of David Rudisha and Abubaker Kaki over 800 metres in Oslo was the highest quality showdown, with both men breaking Seb Coe’s 31-year-old meeting record and former World record of 1:42.33. Rudisha, narrowly the winner, finished his season by lowering the World record to 1:41.09, and then to 1:41.01.

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14 May

Doha, Qatar

The inaugural IAAF Samsung Diamond League event saw nine World leading performances, with David Rudisha and Asafa Powell providing two of the outstanding performances in the 800 and 100m respectively.

Rudisha, who had finished 2009 as African record holder with 1:42.01, maintained control throughout his race, finishing well clear of his nearest challenger, fellow Kenyan Asbel Kiprop. Rudisha clocked a meeting record of 1:43.00, with Kiprop recording 1:43.45. South Africa’s World champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was fourth in 1:43.78.

There was also a memorable 5000 metres, run in Doha’s stifling evening heat (31 C at the start). The conditions didn’t affect Kenyans Eliud Kipchoge and Vincent Chepkok, who turned the race into a duel which was narrowly won by Kipchoge, the 2003 World champion, who won in 12:51.21, with Chepkok  just a stride back in 12.51.45, a career best by four seconds. They were the two fastest times of the year – and they remained so all year.

?Albeit that he was assisted with following winds over the legal limit of 2mps for record purposes, Powell demonstrated outstanding early season form in clocking 9.75 in his heat (+2.6mps) and 9.81 in the final (+2.3).

Kenya’s Olympic champion Nancy Langat, who had won only two 1500m races since Beijing and was making a comeback from illness, overcame the challenge of Ethiopia’s raucously supported Gelete Burka, outsprinting her to finish in 4:01.63.

?World Shot Put champion Christian Cantwell reached a world-leading 21.82m twice to dispense with the field. Even his shortest effort, a 21.32m in the opening round, would have sufficed for the win.

?Pacemaker Patrick Langat almost ran away with the 3000m Steeplechase, only being caught with 300m remaining and taking third place behind the winner, Kenya’s World champion Ezekiel Kemboi, who won in 8.06.28, and Paul Kipsiele Koech, who finished one hundredth of a second behind.

Yarelis Barrios of Cuba will be remembered as the first Diamond League winner after her victory in the discus with 64.90m.

23 May

Shanghai, China

Two years after making his name with three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, Usain Bolt returned to China promising “a fast time” in the 200m. He was as good as his word, winning in 19.76.

“It was a good run overall,” said Bolt, who just four days earlier had recorded the fastest 100m of the year, 9.86, in Daegu, and who had recorded 19.56 in Kingston on 1 May.

“In Kingston it was my first race and in front of my home crowd, and it wasn’t windy,” he said. “And here it was a little chilly.”

Chinese idol Liu Xiang, the former Olympic 110m Hurdles champion, had indicated before his race that he was far from fully fit. He struggled to stay on terms with eventual winner David Oliver, who won in a meeting record of 12.99. China’s Shi Dongpeng was second in 13.39, with Liu Xiang third in 13.40.

?Reigning World champion Ryan Brathwaite didn’t have a good day, crashing into the third hurdle, and out of the race.

?World silver medallist Lashinda Demus won the 400m Hurdles in a World leading 53.34, finishing one-and-a-half seconds clear of the field.

?Nadezhda Ostapchuk defeated World and Olympic Shot Put champion Valerie Vili for the second straight time. The 29-year-old from Belarus reached a World leading 20.70m, with Vili only managing 19.72.

Other World leading performances came in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase, won by Gladys Kipkemoi of Kenya in 9:12.82, the 5000m, where Sentayehu Ejigu won in 14:30.96, and the men’s 1500m, where Augustine Choge beat Kiprop in 3:32.20.

Hungary’s Zoltan Kovago achieved a final throw of 69.69m to win a discus event where three others bettered 68m, and Carmelita Jeter of the United States held off Jamaica’s World and Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser to win the 100m in 11.09 for her seventh straight win.

In the Pole Vault, an effort of 5.70m earned Germany’s Malte Mohr an unexpected win over World and Olympic champion Steven Hooker.

4 June

Oslo, Norway

David Rudisha and Abubaker Kaki produced one of the finest – and fastest – 800m races of all-time as they lived up to their billing as the event’s “next generation.”

Their first meeting of the season threatened Sebastian Coe’s 1:42.33 meeting record, set as a World record 31 years earlier.

This they both achieved, with Coe watching from the stands, but it was the manner in which they raced each other full pelt down the home straight that was unforgettable.

At 21, Rudisha, was African record holder with 1:42.01, while his 20-year-old rival from Sudan had already won two World Indoor titles and had set a personal best and World junior record of 1:42.69 on the Bislett Stadium track two years earlier.

As expected, Rudisha, took the initiative after the break, tucking behind pace-setter – and training partner – Sammy Tangui to assume his familiar front-running strategy. With Kaki two metres behind.

Reaching the midway point in just under 49 seconds, Rudisha’s advantage was to two-and-a-half metres down the back straight, and stretched further as the pair entered the final turn.

?Kaki, teeth bared with effort, closed the gap all the way down the straight, but a final surge of Rudisha’s long legs took him clear in 1:42.04, with Kaki setting a national record of 1:42.23.

?Asafa Powell won the 100m in 9.72 with a following wind that was only fractionally over the legal limit for records at +2.1mps.

“Coach (Francis) told me to bring the man who makes jokes and clowns around off the track, onto the track, to relax and enjoy it,” Powell said. “That’s what I’m doing.”

?Asbel Kiprop won the Dream Mile in 3:49.56, and Blanka Vlasic earned her first High Jump win of the season against Chaunte Lowe with 2.01m.

Imane Merga of Ethiopia overhauled fellow countryman Tariku Bekele to win the 5000m in a personal best of 12:53.81, with Bernard Lagat setting a US record in third with 12.54.12.

Andreas Thorkildsen, the World and Olympic champion, needed a final throw of 86.00m to win the javelin in front of his home crowd from the Czech Republic’s Petr Frydrych, who achieved 85.33 in the fifth round.

Renaud Lavillenie of France won the Pole Vault on his international seasonal debut with 5.80m, with Steven Hooker failing to make his initial height of 5.40, and Christian Cantwell won the first Shot Put to be held in Oslo in a decade with 21.31m.

10 June

Rome, Italy

Asafa Powell and Lashinda Demus were among six athletes who achieved World leading performances on an ideal late spring evening before a crowd of nearly 30,000 at Rome’s Olympic stadium.

Despite a sluggish start (0.214 reaction), Powell won the 100m in 9.82 to lower his previous 2010 World best time by 0.01.

?“I got a very good time despite a very, very bad reaction time,” said Powell whose run the 63rd wind-legal sub-10 of his career, and the 70th overall. “But I had a very good second part.”

Demus won her 400m Hurdles in 52.82, her second fastest time after the 52.63 she had recorded at the previous year’s Herculis meeting, which put her fifth on the all-time list. Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer finished second in a career best of 53.48.

The 27-year-old American surpassed the meeting record of 53.05 set by Nezha Bidouane back in 1999. Kim Batten’s 52.61 US record and Yuliya Pechonkina's 52.34 World record remained in her sights.

Blanka Vlasic and Chaunte Lowe continued their newfound rivalry, and although both cleared 2.03m, the Croatian remained unbeaten in the season as she took the result on countback.

Sharing a laugh, the two performed an unrehearsed dance for the enthusiastic fans along the stadium’s south end.

Dwight Phillips had publicly pledged that a World leading distance would occur in the Long Jump, and the World champion delivered on his prediction as he won with 8.42m, with Panama’s Olympic champion Irving Saladino a distant second with 8.13m.

The evening’s other World leads came in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase, where Milcah Chemos ran 9:11.71, the men’s 400m, where Jeremy Wariner edged fellow American Angelo Taylor in 44.73, and women’s 800m, where Halima Hachlaf of Morocco clocked 1:58.40.

Imane Merga finished three thousandths of a second ahead of Kenya’s Sammy Mutahi to win the 5000m in 13:00.12, while in the 200m, Walter Dix broke Michael Johnson’s 1999 meeting record of 19.93 as he recorded 19.86 to defeat fellow American Wallace Spearmon.

Dayron Robles won his Diamond League debut over the high hurdles in 13.14 and Christian Cantwell extended his winning run to 15 with a Shot Put of 21.67m which equalled Ulf Timmerman’s meeting record of 1986.

12 June

New York, United States

Just as he had in the final minutes of the World Indoor Championships in Doha three months earlier, Teddy Tamgho stole the show at the Icahn Stadium.

The World Indoor record holder for the Triple Jump, who was already the World leading performer at 17.63m coming into the competition, established himself in the lead with a 17.61m leap in the third round, underlined it with a 17.60m in the fourth, and then got into even more serious action.

?First he shattered his World lead and the French national record with 17.84m on his fifth attempt, and then, on his last attempt, he recorded 17.98m (+1.2mps), the best mark in a decade, to reach third on the all-time list behind the World record of 18.29m by Britain’s Jonathan Edwards and 1996 Olympic champion Kenny Harrison.

Tamgho left Christian Olsson well back at 17.62m and World champion Phillips Idowu third in 17.31m.

Both Veronica Campbell-Brown and Allyson Felix beat the former World leading mark for 200m, but it was Campbell-Brown who won in 21.98, with Felix recording 22.02.

Renaud Lavillenie narrowly failed to join Tamgho as a French record breaker on the night, missing out on 6.02m in the Pole Vault.

But his 5.85 saw him win from Steven Hooker, who achieved 5.80.

Olympic champion Nancy Langat held off Meseret Defar on the final straight to run 4:01.60 in the women's 1500m, improving her own World leading time by 0.03.

Lolo Jones fought off a late-race challenge from Perdita Felicien of Canada to win the 100m Hurdles in 12.55.

A javelin throw of 87.02m was enough to earn Olympic and world champion Andreas Thorkildsen another victory, and 800m World champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi won in a meeting record of 1:44.38.

Kerron Clement overcame fellow American Bershawn Jackson to win the 400m Hurdles in 47.86, with Jackson clocking 47.94. These were the second and third fastest times of the year.

Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF

The bold new world of the Samsung Diamond League encompassed 32 individual events staged within 14 meetings around the globe. In the second of his three-part review, IAAF correspondent Mike Rowbottom looks back at the meetings in Eugene, Lausanne, Gateshead, Paris and Monaco.

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Each discipline was staged seven times, with double points on offer in the two mandatory concluding competitions in Zurich and Brussels, and the athletes who scored the most to win the Diamond Race in their respective events stood to earn a Diamond Trophy - created by Beyer, established as jewellers in Zurich in the 18th century - and $40,000 prize money.

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3 July

Eugene, United States

In a meeting which produced five World leading marks, David Oliver and Walter Dix were the outstanding performers.

Oliver won the 110m Hurdles in 12.90, lowering his personal best by 0.03 and equalling Dominique Arnold’s national record. Only two men had run faster – Liu Xiang, and Dayron Robles, World record holder with 12.87.

Dix had arrived in Eugene tied with Usain Bolt at the top of the Diamond Race standings for the 200m, but left with a clear lead after passing fellow American Tyson Gay, back after a hamstring injury, to win in 19.72, with the 2007 double World champion recording 19.76.

Christian Cantwell was among the World leaders, putting the shot out to 22.41m on his sixth and last attempt.

Veronica Campbell-Brown ran 10.78 in the 100m to finish narrowly ahead of fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser and 2009 World leader Carmelita Jeter, who recorded 10.82 and 10.83 respectively. All three marks bettered the previous World leader of Kelly-Ann Baptiste, who ran 10.84.

Jeter continued to lead the Diamond Race thanks to her third-place finish, with five points ahead of Campbell-Brown's four.

In the women's 800m, Mariya Savinova held off the Kenyan duo of Nancy Jebet Langat and Diamond Race leader Janeth Jepkosgei to set a new World leading time of 1:57.56, lowering the previous meet record belonging to Maria Mutola by 0.01.

The fifth World leading mark of the afternoon came outside the Diamond League schedule, as Sudan's Abubaker Kaki won the 1000m in 2:13.62.

Lashinda Demus maintained her dominance in the 400m Hurdles, winning in 53.08, and fellow American Allyson Felix took the 200m in 50.27, with Amantle Montsho recording 50.30.

Milcah Chemos beat World champion Marta Dominguez in the 3000m Steeplechase, recording 9:26.70.

Tariku Bekele led an Ethiopian sweep in the 5000m, winning in 12:58.93, a North American all-comers record, ahead of his countrymen Dejen Gebremeskel (12:59.30) and Diamond Race leader Imane Merga (13:00.18).

Olympic 1500m champion Asbel Kiprop ran 3:49.75 to win the Bowerman Mile.

Piotr Malachowski seized the Diamond Race lead in the men's discus with a 67.66m winning mark, and Irving Saladino earned a victory over Diamond Race leader Dwight Phillips in the Long Jump with an 8.46m leap.

8 July

Lausanne, Switzerland

Usain Bolt, returning to action after six weeks out with an Achilles tendon injury, made the most of his comeback as he equalled the World leading 100m time set by fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell with a winning time of 9.82.

“It was more than I expected,” said Bolt, who produced one of eight world-leading or equalling performances on the night. “I was a little nervous before the race but after a good warm-up I felt better.”

Bolt was originally scheduled to run the 200m, but heeding doctors’ orders to avoid running a bend - even the wide curve on the Stade de la Pontaise track - he requested and was granted a late hour switch to the shorter distance. It was his first 100m race in nearly two months.

Bolt’s training partner Yohan Blake performed admirably as well, clocking 9.96 for second, a season’s best just shy of his 9.93 personal best from last year.

Gelete Burka’s late surge won her the 1500m in 3:59.28, with Morocco’s Ibtissam Lakhouad second in a national record of 3:59.28, nearly four seconds faster than her previous best, and Kenya’s Olympic champion Nancy Langat third in a personal best of 4:00.13.

But there was a Kenyan winner in the 3000m as World 5000m champion Vivian Cheruiyot set a 2010 best of 8:34.58, with Alemitu Bekele of Turkey taking second in 8:35.19 ahead of Meseret Defar, who clocked 8:36.09.

The first World lead of the night had come courtesy of two-time World Triple Jump champion Yargelis Savigne, who leapt 14.99m.

David Rudisha had announced the previous day that he would always run from the front in his career. “I learned my lesson in Berlin last year,” he said, referring to his failure to advance from the IAAF World Championship semi-finals. Front-running earned him victory here in 1:43.25 ahead of a field which included World champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi.

Carmelita Jeter won her second Diamond Race victory at 100m in 10.99, and fellow American Walter Dix collected his third  Diamond League win at 200m in 19.86, with Churandy Martina clocking a 20.08 national record for the Netherlands Antilles.

10 July

Gateshead, Britain

The much anticipated 100m meeting of Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay ended in the first defeat of the season for the laid-back Jamaican. Gay moved past his Jamaican rival in the closing stages to win in 9.94, with Powell recording 9.96 on the track where he had equalled his World record of 9.77 four years earlier. Both men were contending with a -1.7mps headwind.

“I think I forgot it was Tyson Gay out there,” admitted Powell. “In the last 20-30m I should have run differently. But he’s a great sprinter and I gave him a chance. I didn’t see him coming.”

Next stop for Powell was a showdown with the World record holder Usain Bolt in Paris five days later. Gay, meanwhile, said that the hamstring problem which had delayed his start to the season still felt tight.

There were two meeting records in the field events, including a Polish record of 69.83m for Piotr Malachowski, which secured victory over Zoltan Kovago and kept him at the top of the Diamond Race.

The other meeting record went to Nadezhda Ostapchuk who defeated Valerie Vili with a best of 20.57 to draw level in the Diamond Race.

Phillips Idowu earned victory in the Triple Jump over Alexis Copello while Fabrice Lapierre long-jumped 8.20m to beat Irving Saladino.

Vincent Chepkok came out on top in a desperate sprint finish with Eliud Kipchoge to take the 5000m in 13:00.20, 14 seconds quicker than the previous meeting record by South Africa’s Shadrack Hoff, and 0.04 ahead of Kipchoge.

Linus Chumba won the Steeplechase in 8:19.72 from his Kenyan team-mate Michael Kipyego, eclipsing a meeting record of 8:27.68 that had stood since 1981.

Asbel Kiprop narrowly defeated fellow Kenyan Augustine Choge in the 1500m, recording 3:33.34, and Britain’s World Championships silver medallist Lisa Dobriskey won her 1500m in 4:03.69.

Walter Dix continued his winning form in the 200m, clocking 20.26 to hold off Wallace Spearmon by 0.03 and maintain a healthy advantage in the Diamond Race.

The performance of the women’s sprints came in the 100m heats when Kelly-Ann Baptiste took advantage of a temporary switch in the wind direction to clock 10.93 (+1.2), a meeting record. Carmelita Jeter fought back in the final, beating the Trinidadian by five hundredths in 10.95.

16 July

Paris, France

Asafa Powell may have made the early running in the 100m Diamond Race, but five days after suffering his first defeat at the hands of Tyson Gay he was beaten again by fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt on a night when David Oliver came tantalisingly close to Dayron Robles’s World 110m Hurdles record of 12.87.

Despite a mediocre start, Bolt was already a half step ahead by the midway point before extending his lead over Powell even further over the final 30 metres. His time of 9.84 – 0.02 shy of his co-World lead from Lausanne eight days earlier - wasn’t as quick as was expected, but Bolt was satisfied.

“I had a good race, but my strength still isn’t at my normal level,” he said.

Accepting defeat, Powell eased up over the final 10 metres to record 9.91, with Bolt’s training partner Yohan Blake third in 9.95, a 0.01 improvement on his career best.

Oliver’s victory in 12.89 was one of five World leading performances before a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 40,597 at the Stade de France.

The Olympic bronze medallist had a clear lead by the second hurdle, and despite hitting two barriers, including the last one, he dipped through the line to become the third fastest performer in high hurdles history.

The 29-year-old American’s run came just 13 days after equalling Dominique Arnold’s US record of 12.90.

Russia’s Anna Alminova earned a dominant victory in the 1500m as she recorded 3:57.65. Three others followed her across the line in under four minutes. There were personal bests for second-placed American Christin Wurth-Thomas, who recorded 3:59.59, and third-placed Hind Dehiba, whose 3:59.76 was a French record. Lisa Dobriskey was fourth, improving her season’s best to 3:59.79.

Vivian Cheruiyot and Brimin Kipruto, the 3000m and 3000m Steeplechase winners in Lausanne last week, produced impressive victories again to keep alive their impressive mid-summer momentum.

Jeremy Wariner improved his own World 400m lead by 0.08 to 44.49, while Renaud Lavillenie delighted home fans in winning the Pole Vault by more than 20cm with 5.91m.

Blanka Vlasic and Andreas Thorkildsen earned their fourth Diamond League victories in the High Jump and Javelin Throw respectively.

22 July

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Kenya’s 20-year-old Silas Kiplagat emerged as a new force in world athletics as he lowered his personal best by five seconds to take an unexpected 1500m victory in 3:29.27 and earn a place in the top 10 in the all-time listings.

The newcomer led five men inside the previous best time this year of 3:31.52, and there were personal or season’s bests down to eighth place, including an Australian record for Ryan Gregson in fifth in 3:31.06.

Kiplagat’s Kenyan team-mate Augustine Choge led by some 10 metres at the bell and seemed poised for victory sewn, but Kiplagat and Amine Laalou of Morocco caught him off the final bend.

“I knew I was in great shape and I knew I could run that fast,” said Kiplagat, who added that he was coached by three-times 3000m Steeplechase world champion Moses Kiptanui and trains with the current World Steeplechase champion Ezekiel Kemboi.

Laalou was rewarded with a personal best of 3:29.53 while Choge finished third in 3:30.22, his best of the year. Next came Andrew Wheating of the USA who moved to number four on the US all-time lists with 3:30.90, a personal best by almost seven seconds.

There were also PBs for his US compatriot Lopez Lomong, sixth in 3:32.20, and Algeria’s Toufik Makhloufi, eighth in 3:32.94, while Bernard Lagat’s season’s best of 3:32.51 was good enough only for seventh. Some race.

There was more outstanding middle distance running in the women’s 800m, where Alysia Johnson of the United States lowered her personal best to 1:57.34 as she led the field home by 10 metres, 0.21 inside Mariya Savinova’s World lead.

And in the 3000m, Ethiopia’s Sentayehu Ejigu bettered the year’s fastest time in the world this year by six seconds as she won in 8:28.41.

Maryam Jamal was second in 8:29.20 while Shannon Rowbury was rewarded for front running from with a huge PB of 8:31.38, taking more than 30 seconds off her previous best.

Jermaine Gonzales took Jeremy Wariner’s World lead in the men’s 400m and earned a 23-year-old Jamaican record in the process as he ran a beautifully judged race to beat his team-mate Ricardo Chambers in 44.40, nine hundredths inside Roxbert Martin’s national record from 1997 and 0.23 inside his personal best set a week earlier in Paris.

In the Triple Jump, World champion Yargelis Savigne secured her third Diamond League victory and extended her own World best to 15.09m, the year’s first 15m-plus jump.

Tyson Gay won the 200m in 19.72, his best of the year and two tenths of a second inside Maurice Greene’s stadium record.

A powerful finish brought Jamaica’s Yohan Blake second place in 19.78, a massive 0.82 inside his personal best. Wallace Searmon was third in 19.93, as three men dipped under 20 seconds for the first time this year.

In the 100m, Carmelita Jeter won revenge over Veronica Campbell-Brown for her only defeat of the year in Eugene. Jeter won in 10.82, her best time of the year.

Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF

The bold new world of the Samsung Diamond League encompassed 32 individual events staged within 14 meetings around the globe. In the last of his three-part review, IAAF correspondent Mike Rowbottom concludes with a look back at the meetings in Stockholm and London, an the finales  in Zurich and Brussels.

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Each discipline was staged seven times, with double points on offer in the two mandatory concluding competitions in Zurich and Brussels, and the athletes who scored the most to win the Diamond Race in their respective events stood to earn a Diamond Trophy - created by Beyer, established as jewellers in Zurich in the 18th century - and $40,000 prize money.

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6 August

Stockholm, Sweden

The most memorable race of 2010 brought an upset which Tyson Gay, but not many others, had been predicting, as the American inflicted upon Usain Bolt his first defeat over 100m in two years.

In what was only their third meeting in the shorter sprint the two men lined up side-by-side in the historic 1912 Olympic stadium before a race in which the Olympic and World champion’s trademark late surge never arrived, leaving Gay a clear winner in a meeting record of 9.84.

“I told you I’m not unbeatable,” said Bolt, whose last loss over the distance came on this same track two years ago. The Jamaican reached the line in 9.97, the second slowest final of his career.

“I’m happy with the victory, but still looking forward to when Usain and Asafa (Powell) will be in 9.6 shape to race with them,” said Gay, who also took home a one carat diamond for breaking Powell’s 9.86 stadium record, set in 2008, when he beat Bolt.

A crowd of 15,472, over the stadium’s official capacity, witnessed not only the duel of the ‘big-two’, but several other outstanding spectacles.

Bershawn Jackson also claimed a diamond after his runaway victory in the 400m Hurdles, as he clocked 47.65 to better the mark of 47.98 set 20 years ago by Danny Harris.

In the women’s sprint hurdles, Australia’s Sally Pearson beat a formidable field with a season’s best of 12.57 to take her first Diamond Race victory. The 23-year-old Olympic silver medallist edged out Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep by just 0.02, with Lolo Jones, the overall Diamond Race leader with 13 points, third in 12.70.

Less than a week after taking her first European High Jump title, Blanka Vlasic extended her unbeaten streak in Samsung Diamond League to five with yet another victory over world leader Chaunte Lowe thanks to a 2.02m clearance.

Russia’s European 3000m Steeplechase champion Yuliya Zarudneva won in 9:17.59, nearly two seconds ahead of Milcah Chemos (9:19.32), the African champion.

In the Triple Jump, Christian Olsson’s hopes of securing a home victory were frustrated by Teddy Tamgho, who won with 17.36m after Olsson had opened with a season’s best of 17.32.

Russian 19-year-old Darya Klishina made up for her absence from the European championships with her first victory in the Samsung Diamond League thanks to a 6.78m Long Jump.

Tero Pitkämäki earned his first Samsung Diamond League victory with 84.41m to defeat the event leader Andreas Thorkildsen, who threw 83.63.

13-14 August

London, Britain

The heavens opened before the first day of the Aviva London grand prix – but it still didn’t rain on Tyson Gay’s parade.

The 2007 World 100m and 200m champion defied the elements at the end of an evening that was still damp and gloomy to win the 100 metres in 9.78, the fastest time recorded all season, despite a headwind of -0.4mps.

When the gun went for the final at 8.48pm the termperature was around 16 degrees and there were only three men in contention – Gay, Walter Dix, who had beaten him over 200m in Eugene, and Jamaica’s rising talent Yohan Blake.

An injury at the halfway point slowed Dix dramatically – he finished in 12.46 – leaving Gay in the clear. Blake, 20, was his nearest challenger, setting a personal best of 9.89.

Sally Pearson and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, respectively the 2008 Olympic silver and bronze medallists, also showed scant regard for the conditions in the 100m Hurdles, where Lopes-Schliep overhauled the Australian to win in 12.52, a meeting record and the only other World leading performance of the day.

With double World Indoor champion Lolo Jones finishing third in 12.66, Lopes-Schliep and the American were left tied on 14 points in the Diamond Race with one competition in the 100m Hurdles remaining, and  $40,000 and the Diamond Trophy up for grabs.

Earlier, the downpour had halted the men’s Pole Vault for half an hour, and both Steven Hooker and Diamond Race leader Renaud Lavillenie failed to clear their opening heights of 5.51m, giving Poland’s Luhasz Michalski the chance to win with 5.71.

Allyson Felix remained beyond challenge in the 200m Diamond Race following victory in 22.37.

Blanka Vlasic also embraced the elements to win with 2.01m and earn her sixth out of six Diamond League victories.

“By the end I couldn’t feel my legs it was so cold,” she said.

Mo Farah, the newly established European 5000 and 10,000m champion, did all he could to prove a 16,000 crowd with a victory in the 3000m, but had to give best to the 2007 World 1500 and 5000m champion Bernard Lagat, who won in 7:40.75, with Farah clocking 7:40.36.

A swift last lap saw Tirunesh Dibaba’s beat Kenya’s World champion Vivian Cheruiyot in the 5000m, clocking 14:36.41.

Barbora Spotakova, nursing an arm injury, won the Javelin Throw with one attempt, registering 63.50m.

Allyson Felix produced a performance that combined grace and endurance on the second day of the meeting as she added a 400m victory to her 200m win of the previous night. Felix held off the late challenge of World Indoor champion Debbie Dunn to finish in 50.79.

The triple World 200m champion thus became the first athlete to claim two maximum points score at the same Diamond League meeting, and now shares the distinction of having won six Diamond League races this season with Blanca Vlasic.

The only other athlete who might have joined Felix and Vlasic on six wins, Christian Cantwell, saw his winning run brought to an unexpected end as he could only finish third in a Shot Put competition won by his fellow American, Reese Hoffa, with a season’s best of 21.44m.

Germany’s surprise European silver medallist Matthias De Zordo looked as if he might be about to manage the major accomplishment of beating the Olympic and World champion Andreas Thorkildsen when he threw 86.97m, but the Norwegian responded with 87.38.

David Oliver of the United States was only a thousandth off a meeting record in the 110m Hurdles as he  dominated the field to finish well clear in 13.06 into a 0.4mps headwind – just shy of his fellow American Allen Johnson’s effort here of 13.05 in 1995.

The yellow flower worn in the hair of 800m Diamond Race leader Alysia Johnson still looked fresh at the end of a swift and tactical race, but the American herself wilted dramatically in the final stages, slipping from first to eight in the space of the last 80 metres in a race where Russia’s World Indoor and European champion, Mariya Savinova, won in 1:58.64.

Augustine Choge became one of the illustrious list of Emsley Carr Mile entrants including Kip Keino, Jim Ryun, Seb Coe and Steve Ovett to write their name in the book of victors as he won a race counting towards the Diamond League in a personal best of 3:50.14.

19 August

Zürich, Switzerland

On a night when the destination of half of the 32 Diamond Race Trophies was decided, David Oliver and Jeremy Wariner produced the two stand-out performances to claim the trophy and $40,000 prize money for their respective events, the 110m Hurdles and the 400 metres.

A sell-out crowd of more than 26,000 boisterous fans at Letzigrund Stadium saw Oliver claim his prizes by extending his winning streak to 12. Oliver stopped the clock at 12.93, just 0.01 off the meeting record set by former World record holder Roger Kingdom 21 years earlier.

“I’m not the perfect hurdler. That’s why I’m missing the World record,” Oliver said. “But I’ll fix that mistake one time.”

It wasn’t mathematically possible for Jamaican Jermaine Gonzales to overtake Jeremy Wariner in the 400m trophy hunt, but the 25-year-old had a point to prove against the World leader. And after a blazing first half, it appeared that Gonzales had arrived ready to make it. But the former Olympic champion remained calm to prevail in a world-leading 44.13, his fastest time in two years.

Veronica Campbell-Brown had no chance of catching Carmelita Jeter in the 100m Diamond Trophy chase, but she made a point here as she won by the margin of one thousandth of a second – 10.889 to 10.890.

With the departure of series leader Walter Dix due to injury, the winner of the 200m was all but assured of taking the Diamond Race Trophy, and Wallace Spearmon took up the challenge with a meeting record of 19.79. Yohan Blake, just 20, was second in 19.86.

Allyson Felix secured the first half of a Diamond Race double by winning the 400m in 50.37, finishing with 20 points, twice that of runner-up Debbie Dunn.

Kaliese Spencer obliterated a strong field in the women’s 400m Hurdles to claim the Diamond Race Trophy she’d come to Zurich to collect. And the 23-year-old Jamaican did it in style, winning by more than a full second in a personal best of 53.33.

Nancy Langat, who had already clinched the Diamond Race in the 1500m, won in 4:01.01, more than a second clear of Gelete Burka.

Imane Merga only needed a top-three finish to secure the Diamond Race for the 5000m, and secured second place with 12:36.54 as Tariku Bekele won in 12:55.03.

The massive figure of Chris Solinsky followed Merga home in 12:56.45 and the first six across the line all dipped under 13 minutes, Mo Farah among them in 12:57.94, shattering the 13:00.41 British national record (and former World record) set by Dave Moorcroft in 1982.

In the men’s 3000m Steeplechase, Ezekiel Kemboi won the final battle, coming home in 8:01.74, but it was Paul Kipsiele Koech who won the war, taking the trophy after finishing second in 8:05.48.

The first Diamond Race of the evening to be decided was in the men’s discus, with Poland’s Piotr Malachowski, who had arrived in Zurich with just a one-point advantage in the series, prevailing after taking second place with 68.48m.

Brittney Reese, the indoor and outdoor World Long Jump champion, secured her trophy with a winning leap of 6.89m.

An 8.20m effort was enough to see Dwight Phillips take the men’s Long Jump trophy for the United States too.

Fabiana Murer pole vaulted 4.81m to take both the meeting and overall series honours, while Russia’s Ivan Ukhov high jumped 2.29m to win on the night, and overall.

Barbora Spotakova, troubled by an elbow injury throughout the season, secured her javelin Diamond Trophy with an effort of 65.34m that earned her second place on the night behind Germany’s Christina Obergfoll.

The meeting had effectively begun at the Zurich main station the day before, where Nadezhda Ostapchuk secured the first Diamond Trophy in the Shot Put, ahead of World champion Valerie Vili.

27 August

Brussels, Belgium

Tyson Gay held off the challenge of Jamaica’s up-and-coming talent Nesta Carter to secure the 100m Diamond Trophy on a night when all the remaining competitions were concluded.

Despite an unseasonal chill and wet track, another sell-out crowd of 47,000 fans at King Baudouin Stadium were treated to the season’s second fastest 100m run courtesy of Gay who for the second consecutive meeting simply defied the conditions, producing a time of 9.79, the sixth sub-9.80 race of his career. Carter chased him to the line in a personal best of 9.85.

“At about 50 or 60 metres I was still ahead of Gay, that gave me wings,” said Carter. His Jamaican colleague Yohan Blake also dipped under 10 seconds, clocking 9.91.

Gay was one of 16 athletes to collect the remaining Diamond Race Trophies and $40,000 cash prizes at this second of two Samsung Diamond League finals.

Returning to the track for the first time since his 1:41.09 World record in Berlin the previous Sunday, Kenya’s David Rudisha secured the 800m trophy with victory in 1:43.50, with Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki second in 1:43.84.

Christian Cantwell claimed the Shot Put trophy, but US colleague Reese Hoffa defied him on the day with an effort of 22.16m.

Things went significantly better for Andreas Thorkildsen, who like Cantwell had the series clinched prior to his start. But the double Olympic champion won with 89.88m, the second furthest throw of the year.

Bershawn Jackson had also secured his trophy in the 400m Hurdles, but he finished with a fourth straight win, clocking 47.85.

In the women’s 100m Hurdles, Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep’s won her fourth straight race convincingly in 12.54 to snatch the trophy from Lolo Jones of the United States in one of the season’s most competitive events.

In the 200m, Allyson Felix won her second Diamond Race Trophy in eight days, stopping the clock at 22.61.

Blanka Vlasic lived up to her title as Samsung Diamond League Ambassador by becoming the only athlete to finish the series undefeated, winning with 2.00m at the venue where she lost a chance of sharing the Golden League jackpot in rainy conditions two years ago.

Janeth Jepkosgei, the 2007 World 800m champion, held off Russia’s European champion Mariya Savinova to lift the Diamond Race Trophy in the women’s 800m as she won in 1:58.82.

Asbel Kiprop, the Olympic champion, prevailed overall in the 1500m as he held off fellow Kenyan Augustine Choge in a season’s best of 3:32.18.

A year after taking the World 5000m title, Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot took top honours in the same event with a straightforward victory in 14:34.13.

Milcah Chemos secured her trophy in the 3000m Steeplechase despite being beaten on the night by Ethiopia’s Sofia Assefa, who clocked a season’s best 9:20.72.

Frenchman Teddy Tamgho earned a win - and the Diamond Race Trophy – with a Triple Jump of 17.52m. Yargelis Savigne of Cuba took the women’s Triple Jump honours, finishing second here with 14.56m.

In the men’s Pole Vault, Germany’s Malte Mohr won with a personal best of 5.85m, but the trophy had already gone to Renaud Lavillenie, second on the night with 5.80.

Second place also earned Yarelis Barrios the trophy in the women’s discus.

Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF