TEHRAN – Iranian discus thrower Ehsan Hadadi claimed a bronze medal at the Doha 2019 IAAF Diamond League meeting in the Qatari capital on Friday.

In the most dominant display of the night, Sweden’s Daniel Stahl put the competition out of reach in the first round, throwing his discus 69.63m through the Doha night sky to break the meeting record set by Virgilijus Alekna in 2006. But he was just shaking off the rust.

Stahl followed up with throws of 70.49m and 70.56m, his farthest of the night, before capping the evening with efforts of 69.54m, 69.50m and 70.32m to become the first man to produce six throws beyond 69.50m in a single competition.

“I’ve been working a lot on my technique and training hard in the gym so I expected this,” the world and European silver medalist told IAAF.org. “It was a great atmosphere.”

Lukas Weisshaidinger was second with 66.90m with Hadadi, who took the Asian title in Doha two weeks ago, third with 66.78m.

For the 10th consecutive year, the Doha meeting kicked off the IAAF Diamond League, a series of the 14 finest one-day athletics competitions on the planet, and with it, the season-long chase for a slice of the $US8 million Diamond League prize pot.

Athletes earn points in the first 12 stops to earn qualification for the two final winner-takes-all meetings to be held in Zurich (29 Aug) and Brussels (6 Sep).