Controversial winner takes all final three format altered for 2022 Diamond League season

The much talked about ‘final three’ format, introduced by the Diamond League last year for horizontal jumps and throws, has been revised after criticism over what became a winner takes all event.

Last season, the athlete who jumped or threw the furthest didn’t necessarily win the competition. What decided the event was which athlete performed the best in the crucial final round, with the three athletes with the furthest distance jumped/thrown over five rounds qualifying for what was a ‘final’. The best score from the final round won the competition.

You could theoretically set a world record in an earlier round and still lose your event.

That’s all stopped ahead of the 2022 Diamond League season.

Now the best throw or jump over the whole competition will see the athlete win the event, with the highest ranked athletes going first from rounds one to three.

After round three, the order of the eight remaining athletes will be re-drawn with the best performing athletes throwing/jumping at the start of the next two rounds.

The three athletes with the best scores of the five rounds would still be the only ones qualifying for a final three but the main difference next year is that it’s not decisive to the overall outcome of the competition.

That means if an athlete theoretically set a world record in an earlier round and didn’t throw/jump the furthest in the final three round then they would still win the event.

Made sense?

Revised final three format for horizontal jumps and throws @Diamond_League ?

✅ The best throw or jump from the entire competition, not just the final three will win the event

✅ The best performing athletes (seeded) will compete at the start of each round, not at the end pic.twitter.com/BsS3qAplD6

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) December 15, 2021

Diamond League AG CEO, Petr Stastny said: “The Wanda Diamond League is a world-class premier one-day league. We are committed to using these fast-paced and exciting events to showcase the amazing talents of our athletes which means evolving and developing new ideas, formats and concepts to keep our existing fans engaged and encourage new fans to follow the sport.

“We are grateful to our athletes and meeting organisers for agreeing to trial the Final 3 this season which has seen an increase in attention for those events, which is the primary purpose of the Final 3. We promised a thorough feedback process and have held a series of discussions and meetings to review the format and explore other ideas to innovate around this concept.

“We are delighted to have found a revised format that all stakeholders in our one-day meetings support and will introduce it into the 2022 season.”

Commenting on the revised Final 3 format, Athletes’ Commission vice chair Dame Valerie Adams said: “When we discussed and agreed to trial the Final 3 Format this season we were apprehensive but understood why this concept was being considered.

“The Wanda Diamond League Board promised to consult with athletes and others at the end of the season, which they did and we have agreed on a revised format which we think will work better for athletes and fans. We would like to thank the board and the meeting organisers for keeping their word and listening to the athletes. We are looking forward to competing in the revised format in 2022.”

The Diamond League season begins on May 13 in Doha and crosses four continents before the finals take place on September 7-8 in Zurich.