{"id":2328,"date":"2021-05-12T12:57:46","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T12:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/stefanidi-launches-title-defence-against-morris-sidorova-in-doha\/"},"modified":"2021-05-12T12:57:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T12:57:46","slug":"stefanidi-launches-title-defence-against-morris-sidorova-in-doha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/stefanidi-launches-title-defence-against-morris-sidorova-in-doha\/","title":{"rendered":"Stefanidi launches title defence against Morris, Sidorova in Doha"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a stacked field deserving of a global pole vault final, Anzhelika Sidorova<\/strong> (ANA), Sandi Morris<\/strong> (USA) and Katerina Stefanidi <\/strong>(Greece) – the 2019 World Championships medallists – will meet again in the Qatari capital at the Wanda Doha Diamond League on Friday 28 May.<\/p>\n

Sidorova, who won the world title in a lifetime best of 4.95m, is a two-time world indoor silver medallist (2014 and 2018). She was European outdoor champion in 2014 and European indoor champion in 2015 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Morris – Olympic silver medallist in Rio 2016 – was runner-up to Sidorova in Doha 2019 and to Stefanidi in London 2017. She won the World Indoor title in 2018.<\/p>\n

Stefanidi is the reigning Olympic champion and has been reigning Diamond League champion for five years, having won four Diamond Trophies from 2016 to 2019. She backed up her Rio gold with a World Championship title in London 2017, but had to settle for bronze in Doha two years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve made some good progress throughout the indoor season and I\u2019m looking forward to building on that form when I open my Wanda Diamond League season in Doha,\u201d said Sidorova. \u201cI achieved my personal best of 4.95m at the 2019 World Championships so I have happy memories of competing in this city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morris, the US national record holder with a best of 5.00m, said: \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get back to international competition. In spite of the pandemic I\u2019ve been fortunate to enjoy a number of competitive opportunities in the US, but the prospect of lining up with these girls in Doha is what makes us tick, especially going into an Olympic summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stefanidi, the Greek national record holder with a best of 4.91m, said: “The last year has been hard for athletes at all levels of the sport. We all thrive through competition and starting this year with the Doha Diamond League – the location of our last major championship back in 2019 – bodes well, and looking ahead to the Olympic Games makes it special. Competing against my toughest competitors is exactly what I need to bring out the best in myself and just thinking about it makes me excited.” <\/p>\n

In addition to the top three from the 2019 World Athletics Championships, the impressive Doha line-up includes Canadian national record holder and Commonwealth Games champion Alysha Newman; European Indoor champion Angelica Moser (Switzerland); and British record holder and European Indoor Championships bronze medallist Holly Bradshaw.<\/p>\n

The 2021 Wanda Diamond League comprises 14 meetings – starting with Gateshead (replacing Rabat as the first host city on this year\u2019s circuit) on Sunday 23 May – leading to a single final across two days in Zurich at the end of the season. Each meeting will be broadcast globally in a live two-hour programme.<\/p>\n

The 2021 calendar remains subject to change depending on the global health situation in the coming months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reigning Diamond League champion Katerina Stefanidi will go head to head with rivals Sandi...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6,449,129,775,322,624],"city":[],"class_list":["post-2328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-diamond-league","tag-morris","tag-pole-vault","tag-sidorova","tag-stefanidi","tag-wanda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2328"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=2328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}