Athletics

Virgin Media to broadcast 15 Diamond League meetings and World Indoors

Irish station announces extensive live coverage of athletics starting with Seville Marathon on Sunday

Ciara Mageean in action during the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, part of the Diamond League series. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
Ciara Mageean in action during the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, part of the Diamond League series. Photograph: Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
Ian O'Riordan
Wed Feb 14 2024 - 12:31

Virgin Media has announced extensive television coverage of live athletics over the coming months, including all 15 of the top-end Diamond League meetings such as the Oslo Bislett Games and the Zurich Weltklasse.

It will also have live coverage from all three days of the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow next month, returning that event to Irish terrestrial television for the first time in decades, and the World Cross-Country Championships in Belgrade, set for March 30th.

This Sunday’s Seville Marathon, where a number of Irish athletes are chasing Paris Olympic qualification, will also go out live on Virgin.

The move follows the success of their live coverage of the nine-day World Athletics Championships in Budapest last August, also returning that event to Irish terrestrial television for the first time in decades. The largest sporting event in the world last year, featuring around 2,000 athletes from over 200 nations, it also saw some notable Irish success, Rhasidat Adeleke and Ciara Mageean finishing fourth in their 400m and 1,500m finals respectively.

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The World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, set for March 1st to 3rd, aren’t in the plans of either Adeleke or Mageean this year, given the focus on the Paris Olympics. The Irish team is set to be announced after this weekend’s National Indoor Championships in Abbotstown. Presenter Will Dalton will be hosting the coverage from Glasgow.

While RTÉ has focused on the European Athletics Championships in recent years, it hasn’t bought the rights to the World Championships since 2003, when Sonia O’Sullivan was last competing at her peak.

The Diamond League season begins with a Chinese double bill, with meetings in Xiamen on April 20th and Shanghai on April 27th. As in previous years, athletes will compete for points at 14 series meetings, with the most successful in each discipline qualifying for the 2024 Diamond League Final at the end of the season.

Following meetings in Doha, Rabat and Eugene, the series will then head to Oslo and Stockholm for the first European meetings on May 30th and June 2nd.

In July, meetings in Paris, Monaco and London will give athletes the chance to prepare for Paris, with Adeleke and Mageean likely to include several Diamond League stops in their season. After Paris there will be four more chances to earn points in Lausanne, Silesia, Rome and Zurich before the season finale on September 13th-14th in Brussels at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme.

2024 Diamond League fixtures

Apr 20th: Xiamen; Apr 27th: Shanghai/Suzhou; May 10th: Doha; May 19th: Rabat/Marrakesh; May 25th: Eugene; May 30th: Oslo; Jun 2nd: Stockholm; Jul 7th: Paris; Jul 12th: Monaco; Jul 20th: London; Aug 22nd: Lausanne; Aug 25th: Silesia; Aug 30th: Rome; Sep 5th: Zurich; Sep 13-14th: Brussels.

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Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan

Ian O'Riordan is an Irish Times sports journalist writing on athletics