Kirani James

Kirani James (born 1 September 1992) is a Grenadian sprinter who specializes in the 200 and 400 metres. He won the 400 m at the World Championships in 2011 and is the reigning Olympic champion, winning the 400 metres at London 2012. He was Grenada's first Olympic medalist in any sport.

Prodigious from a young age, he ran the fastest 400 m times ever by a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old. He won a series of gold medals at the CARIFTA Games and the Commonwealth Youth Games and rose on the international stage with 400 m silver medals at the 2007 World Youth and 2008 World Junior Championships. James became the first athlete to run a 200/400 double at the 2009 World Youth Championships and was the 2010 World Junior Champion.

James received an athletic scholarship at the University of Alabama and won back-to-back NCAA Outdoor Championship titles in his first two years. He is the third fastest of all-time indoors (44.80 seconds) and ran a personal best of 43.74 at a 2014 Diamond League event in Lausanne. James is one of only nine athletes (along with Valerie Adams, Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Jacques Freitag, Yelena Isinbayeva, Jana Pittman, Dani Samuels and David Storl) to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event.

Kirani

Kirani (N 30.17 E 66.94) is an historical village lying five miles (8 km) west of Quetta city, capital of Baluchistan province of Pakistan on the outskirts of the Chiltan range and is set to derive its name from a defile lying near the village known as Giran Nai, or Kran Tangi. The village comprises the "mahals" under the Naurang, Malak, Kirani and Mast karezes and also karakhsa, and is said to have been established some seven generations back by Khwaja Wali, a Moudodi/Chishti syed, whose grave with that of his son, Mir Shahdad lies enclosed in a mud wall in the middle of the old graveyard. To the west of the village lies the Kirani Karez, which is said to date from the time of the Zoroastrians and behind the site of the existing village lies the ruins now of an old village where earthen pots of various kinds and iron arrowheads have been unearthed. Close to this is a solitary mulberry tree, called "Yaka tut", which the people believe has stood there from time immemorial.

History

According to the 1901 census the village possessed 157 houses and had a population of 634: males 355 and females 279. No industries are carried on but silk embroidery of a superior kind is done for house use. The wealth of the village is carried in its fruit culture; the gardens cover over 77 acres (310,000 m²) and include 27 vineyards and 34 mixed gardens; the latter contain mulberries, figs, pomegranates, apples, apricots, plums and peaches. Many varieties of grapes are grown and fine melons are produced. The fruit and melons are generally sold for a lump sum to dealers, who retail them in Quetta market.

IAAF Diamond League

The IAAF Diamond League is an annual series of track and field meetings held from 2010 onwards, beginning with the 2010 IAAF Diamond League. It was designed to replace the IAAF Golden League, which was held annually since 1998.

While the Golden League was formed to increase the profile of the leading European athletics competitions, the Diamond League's aim is to "enhance the worldwide appeal of athletics by going outside Europe for the first time." In addition to the original Golden League members (except Berlin) and other traditional European meetings, the series includes events in China, Qatar, and the United States.

Editions

Scoring system

Each one of the thirty-two disciplines (sixteen for male athletes, sixteen for females) is staged a total of seven times during the season. The top three athletes at each meeting are awarded points, and in the case of the Final meeting of the discipline the points are doubled.

1st place: 4 points; (Final: 8 points)
2nd place: 2 points; (Final: 4 points)
3rd place: 1 point; (Final: 2 points)

James

James is a common English surname and given name:

James or James City may also refer to:

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Wayde van Niekerk

Wayde van Niekerk (born 15 July 1992) is a South African track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He holds personal bests of 19.94 seconds and 43.48 seconds for the distances, respectively. He has held South African records for both but currently he only holds the record for the 400m event. He is the first athlete from Africa to run the 400m in under 44 seconds.

Van Niekerk was the silver medallist in the 400 m at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and took bronze in the 4×400 metres relay at the 2013 Summer Universiade. He also represented South Africa at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics. At the latter event he took the gold medal in the 400 and is the reigning world champion.

Career

Van Niekerk was born in Cape Town. He attended Grey College before going on to study marketing at University of the Free State. He made his international debut at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, where he placed fourth in the 200 m with a personal best time of 21.02 seconds. He also ran in the 4×100 metres relay heats with the national team, alongside Gideon Trotter. His senior breakthrough came at the age of eighteen at the 2011 South African Athletics Championships when he won the 200 m title in a new personal best of 20.57 seconds. He competed at that event at the 2011 African Junior Athletics Championships, but did not make the final. He ran sparingly in 2012, but began to show a talent for the 400 metres, setting a best of 46.43 seconds.