Virgin Media has announced that it will be broadcasting extensive live athletics events on TV over the coming months, including all 15 matches in the top-end Diamond League, including the Oslo Bislett Games and Zurich Veltklasse.
We will also be covering all three days of the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow next month (returning to Irish terrestrial television for the first time in decades) and the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade on March 30th. is scheduled to be broadcast live.
This Sunday's Seville Marathon, where many Irish athletes are aiming to qualify for the Paris Olympics, will also be broadcast live on Virgin.
The move follows the success of live coverage of the nine-day World Athletics Championships in Budapest last August and will bring the event back to Irish terrestrial television for the first time in decades. . Last year saw some notable successes for Ireland at the world's biggest sporting event, which saw around 2,000 athletes from over 200 countries take part, with Rashidat Adeleke and Ciara McGeeian finishing fourth in the 400m and 1,500m finals respectively. It ended in
The World Indoor Championships, to be held in Glasgow from March 1-3, are not in this year's plans for either Adeleke or McGee-ian, as the focus is on the Paris Olympics. The Irish team will be announced after this weekend's National Indoor Championships in Abbottstown. Presenter Will Dalton will host from Glasgow.
RTÉ has focused on the European Athletics Championships in recent years, but has not bought the rights to the World Championships since 2003, when Sonia O'Sullivan last competed in her prime.
The Diamond League season begins with a double bill in China, with meetings taking place in Xiamen on April 20th and Shanghai on April 27th. As in previous years, athletes will compete for points in 14 series meetings, with the most successful player in each discipline earning a spot in the 2024 Diamond League Finals at the end of the season.
Following meetings in Doha, Rabat and Eugene, the series heads to Oslo and Stockholm, where the first European meetings will be held on May 30th and June 2nd.
Meetings in Paris, Monaco and London will be held in July to give the players a chance to prepare for Paris, with Adeleke and McGeeian likely to make several Diamond League appearances during the season. After Paris, there will be four more chances to pick up points at Lausanne, Silesia, Rome and Zurich before the season finale at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on September 13th and 14th.
2024 Diamond League match schedule
April 20th: Xiamen; April 27th: Shanghai/Suzhou; May 10th: Doha. May 19th: Rabat/Marrakech; May 25th: Eugene. May 30th: Oslo; June 2: Stockholm; July 7: Paris; July 12th: Monaco; July 20th: London; August 22nd: Lausanne; August 25th: Silesia; August 30th: Rome; September 5th: Zurich; September 13th-14th: Brussels.
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