The men’s and women’s discus events in Shanghai will be held as part of a single competition, with alternating men’s and women’s rounds.
Meeting director Ellen van Langen of Global Sports Communication described the innovative format as an important part of the Diamond League series’ ongoing attempts to become more appealing to stadium fans and TV viewers.
“We are very excited that the Shanghai Diamond League meeting is the first competition ever where we will see men and women competing at the same time,” she said. “It’s another important step in improving the attractiveness of the Diamond League series overall.”
Discus is one of the disciplines in this year’s new-look Diamond League to be held at just four meetings before the ‘final’ on 1 September, meaning the results in Shanghai take on even greater importance as athletes try to accumulate all-important points.
Discus events for men and women will also be held at the Oslo and Stockholm meetings, while the fourth men’s event will be in London and the fourth women’s contest in Birmingham.
Among the global stars who are hoping to shine in Shanghai’s unique competition is Olympic champion Christoph Harting; the peerless Sandra Perkovic, who won the Olympic women’s titles in 2012 and 2016; and Denia Cabellero, the reigning women’s world champion, who will be defending her crown at this summer’s IAAF World Championships in London.
Perkovic will be particularly keen to prove her mettle as she mixes it among the men, for the Croatian has a fantastic record in the Shanghai Stadium.
She has won the Shanghai women’s discus contest three times in a row, setting national records in both 2012 and 2014, while she breached 70 metres in 2014 and last May when her fourth round effort reached 70.88m, the longest throw in the world in 2016.
Cabellero was third in Shanghai last year before going on to take Olympic bronze and the Cuban should be the main threat to Perkovic on 13 May.
The field also includes the woman who snatched silver in Rio, Melina Robert-Michon of France, whose long career includes one third place in Shanghai in 2014, and Germany’s world bronze medallist Nadine Müller who is making her Shanghai debut.
Harting will face Poland’s world and European champion, Piotr Malachowski; the world and European silver medallist, Philip Milanov of Belgium; fellow German Daniel Jasinski, who bagged bronze in Rio; and Robert Urbanek, the Pole who won a world bronze in Beijing two years ago.
With two such world class fields and an intriguing new-style of competition, the discus throw events are set to take centre-stage in Shanghai like never before.