Powell to highlight opening Diamond League meet

Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell will be the main attraction at the first meet of the newly created Diamond League, which opens tomorrow without many of the sport\'s biggest names.



The Doha meet is the first of 14 around the world in the Diamond League, which is the successor to the Golden League, but it will be missing world 100 and 200-metre record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica and American Tyson Gay.



Also absent are the three atheletes who shared the one million Golden League jackpot last year, Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, Jamaican-born American 400 runner Sanya Richards and Ethiopian long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele.



Isinbayeva is taking a break from the sport this season after failing to win a medal at the world indoor championships while Richards and Bekele are out injured.



Powell, a former world-record holder in the 100, played down the absence of world and Olympic champion Bolt and Gay but admitted it made victory in his season-opening race much more likely.



The total prize money on offer in the Diamond League is $6.3 million across 32 track-and-field disciplines. Top performers in each event at the end of the season will get $40,000 as well as a diamond trophy valued at $10,000.



American sprinter Allyson Felix, a three-time world champion in the 200, will run in the 400. Felix will not be up against Richards but she is not taking lightly a field that includes 2008 Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu of Britain and Jamaica\'s Shericka Williams.