Welcome to this page about the Fantasy Diamond Race! We are here to give you all the information regarding the thrilling competition known as the Diamond League which gathers the top athletes from all around the world.
By using information regarding the Diamond League, you can create your own fantasy team made up of the best athletes and face other players from countries around the globe. This fantasy sports type of game is quite fascinating and works a bit differently than similar fantasy sports competitions.
Read everything on this page to learn how to pick and choose promising stars and how the game of the exciting Fantasy Diamond Race works.
History of the Diamond League
The Diamond League is one of the most prestigious track and field athletic competitions in the whole world. The event takes place in a single day and brings together the best athletes from around the world; national champions, world champions and Olympic champions face each other every year to impress us with their remarkable abilities and to score new records.
The Diamond League (formally “the Wanda Diamond League” after one of its main sponsors Wanda Group) was officially formed in 2010. It’s the worthy successor of the renowned IAAF Golden League (the IAAF, the world governing body of athletics, is now known as World Athletics).
The Golden League, which was founded in 1998, was meant to boost the popularity of European athletic competitions by bringing together so many deserving athletes for a single day of fun and sports glory.
By contrast, the new Diamond League means to extend this to the whole world. The Diamond League seeks to create even more buzz and spread it worldwide by having events all around the globe and in some places which are traditionally not associated with track and field contests.
So far, the Diamond League has been hosted in four continents (Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa) and in 13 respective countries (Norway, Qatar, China, Italy, the United States, Switzerland, Monaco, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden, Morocco, and Poland).
While the competition is a one-day affair, there are more than one competition in a single year, and what’s truly unique about the Diamond League is that there is no host country every year; instead, the competitions are held in a dozen countries which boosts revenue for the local communities, as well as interest in the sport.
The season for the Diamond League usually lasts around three or four months, and rarely, four and a half months. It starts in spring and ends in late summer or early autumn. There are multiple competitions in every country that hosts the tournament.
Disciplines in the Diamond League
Now let us go through the disciplines included in the Diamond League. Originally, there were 32 disciplines represented in the athletics contest, which were reduced to 24 in 2020, but then the left-out eight disciplines came back with a bang after the Covid-19 pandemic, with the last few iterations of the competition having the original 32 disciplines.
The 32 disciplines are divided by sex, so technically there are 16 different disciplines in the Diamond League. Here are all the current 16 disciplines:
- 100 m
- 200 m
- 400 m
- 800 m
- 1500 m
- 3000 m/ 5000 m
- 3000 m SC (steeplechase)
- 110 m H (hurdles)
- HJ (high jump)
- PV (pole vault)
- LJ (long jump)
- TJ (triple jump)
- SP (shot put)
- DT (discus throw)
- JT (javelin throw)
Interestingly, not all disciplines appear in every single Diamond League event. For example, the 100 m run for men will be conducted a total of five times in 2023 in Rabat, Rome/Florence, Paris, Silesia, Monaco and Xiamen, while the 100 m run for women will be conducted six times (the extra one being in Brussels).
If you want to know when to expect your favourite sports and perhaps even get tickets for the events of your choice, if they happen to be close to you, feel free to check out the Diamond League schedule.
Diamond League Rules
The rules for the track and field disciplines are rather self-explanatory, especially if you follow athletics competitions. That’s why we will concentrate on the rules of the Diamond League itself because they slightly differ from those of other competitions.
There are overall 14 meetings every year. Athletes compete for points which are awarded on the basis of their finish. They can earn 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 point for ranking 1st to 8th, respectively. The first six in field sports, along with the best eight for 100 m-800 m runs, and the top 10 for 1500 m run and long distance contests will automatically qualify for the finals.
The winners of each discipline, for both men and women, are crowned World Diamond League champions. They get the prestigious title, along with a fancy cup, and the staggering $30,000 monetary prize.
It’s not the “winner takes it all” situation though. Those who place (up to the 8th spot) also get awards, whether that’s in the final or in a series meeting. Here are all the monetary prizes for all placements:
Series Meeting:
- 1st – $10,000
- 2nd – $6,000
- 3rd – $3,500
- 4th – $2,000
- 5th – $1,250
- 6th – $1,000
- 7th – $750
- 8th – $500
Final:
- 1st – $30,000
- 2nd – $12,000
- 3rd – $7,000
- 4th – $4,000
- 5th – $2,500
- 6th – $2,000
- 7th – $1,500
- 8th – $1,000
What are Fantasy Sports
Now that you know everything about the Diamond League, you are ready to learn how to use this knowledge to create your fantasy team. However, we believe it’s appropriate to first find out what fantasy sports are if you haven’t played before.
First, there are two types of fantasy sports, regular fantasy sports that run for a whole season or cycle and those that run for a single day (daily fantasy sports). The Fantasy Diamond Race is of the first type as you have to make selections before the first event starts and predict how your athletes will fare in the overall race.
Fantasy sports have you create a dream team made up of real athletes. Usually, there’s a deadline by which you have to submit your preferences and then you just wait out the games/season. Based on how the athletes of your choice perform in real-life competitions, you will score points and win various prizes based on your position in the leader board.
The Rules for the Fantasy Diamond Race
Now let’s discuss the specific rules for the Fantasy Diamond Race. First, it’s based on the Diamond League and it runs for the whole duration of the yearly contest, encompassing the 14 one-day tournaments.
Before each one of the series, you must choose four men and four women athletes who compete in the respective series. In addition, you must also choose a captain for the team (the best overall athlete, in your opinion) who will bring you double points if they perform well.
You cannot choose more than two players from the same country, so your team will be quite diverse. If you change your mind about your fantasy lineup, you can make unlimited substitutions up to two hours before the beginning of each series.
Much like other fantasy sports, you score points based on how the athletes of your choice perform in the competition. Here is a quick rundown on how the scoring of points works:
- 15 points for an athlete finishing first
- 10 points for second place
- 7 points for placing third
- 5 points for fourth place
- 3 points for fifth
- 2 points for sixth
- 1 point for the athlete finishing the race (but not placing)
- 0 points for athletes who don’t finish the race
- – 5 points for athletes who are disqualified
- Double points for your captain placing
- Double points for achieving meeting record
- Triple points for setting a world record
Players will be awarded after each meeting. There will be a winner of the meeting, the player with the most points, who will receive a monetary or another material prize. The prizes differ every year; previous years have awarded memorabilia, souvenirs, and airtime rewards.
At the end of the annual Diamond League competition, the player with the most points will be crowned the Fantasy Diamond Race champion. Second and third place overall will also receive prizes.
In the event that there is a tie for first place (for one of the series), the winner will be chosen as the highest points scorer from the following meeting. If there is a tie for the last meeting of the series, the winner will be decided by the highest overall points scorer. In case there is still a tie, the winners will be put into a random draw.
Tips on Selecting Your Team
By now, you know everything about the Diamond League and you know the rules to the Fantasy Diamond Race. Still, we felt like it was necessary to give you some tips as to how to be successful in picking your team. Here they are:
- National sports – Since you can’t pick more than two players from the same country, you have to be knowledgeable of the strengths and weaknesses of various countries. Find out which country excels in which specific disciplines. For example, if you look at the Olympic medals for pole vault, you’ll find out that the United States has always dominated the discipline, having won 19 gold medals, 15 silver, and 13 bronze (for comparison, the second place, France, has only won 3 gold, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal).
- Career stats – Naturally, the next thing you should do is look at the career stats for the competing athletes. Don’t only research the athletes you already have in mind, learn everything about their opponents as well.
- Recent competitions – After researching career stats, look at the last performances of the athletes. We recommend going two years back in order to have a holistic view of the specific athlete.
- Injuries – Look up injury reports and make note of any injuries that might impact the athletes of your choice. This isn’t always telling as some athletes come back with a bang after an injury, but it could still help you.
- Beware the media – It might seem unintuitive to ignore news articles about the athletes, but you have to know that the media isn’t always right. There have been many media darlings who severely underperformed in their respective competitions. You can still read the articles, but always do it with a skeptical mind.
- Watch the meetings – This might be redundant to say, but please, watch every meeting of the Diamond League. Some fantasy sports enthusiasts only look up the results later, but there’s a lot to learn about your fantasy players and their opponents. We also recommend taking notes during the meetings.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed reading this page and that you learnt all you needed to in order to take part in the Fantasy Diamond Race. We wish you the best of luck!