KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) — Jamaica’s Yohan Blake, the World 100 metres champion, will open his 2013 Samsung Diamond League campaign at the Doha 2013 meeting on Friday, May 10.

It will be the first time that the 23-year-old Olympic double sprint silver medallist will be competing in Qatar, and organisers have expressed their excitement over Blake’s upcoming appearance.

“We are really looking forward to welcoming Yohan in Doha and to see the reigning 100m world champion competing at the Hamad Bin Suhaim Stadium,” declared IAAF Vice-President and Qatar Association of Athletics Federation Chairman Dahlan Jumaan Al Hamad.

“The fourth Samsung Diamond League season will commence once again in Doha and we are aiming to welcome a world-class field.”

Blake, the 2012 Olympic silver medallist at both 100m and 200m and a member of Jamaica’s world record-breaking 4x100m Olympic winning quartet in London, is the first headline announcement by the organisers of Doha 2013.

“The conditions here are excellent and we are aware that athletes love to compete in Qatar,” stated Al Hamad, who also serves as the chairman of the Doha 2013 Organising Committee.

The joint second fastest man in history with 9.69 seconds says he will be targeting the meet record of 9.85 seconds set by Olusoji Fasuba in 2006.

“I have heard about the fast track in Doha and I hope to break the meeting record (9.85 sec, Olusoji Fasuba, 2006). I always want to surprise the audience, everywhere I go,” said the Jamaican sprinter nicknamed ‘The Beast’.

“I am the second fastest man in the world at the moment. My ambition is to become the best. I have to continue working very hard for that. Anything is possible.”

The meeting on May 10 in Qatar is the first of the 14 Diamond League fixtures.