Diamond League Season Draws to a Stunning Conclusion
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After a few weeks off, Inside Line, the free weekly newsletter from Trackstaa is back looking back on a stunning week of Diamond League action, the return of the Great North Run and more. Indeed there is so much Diamond League action to cover, we’re going to focus on the Diamond League final which saw some of the most stunning races in the history of the Diamond League.
Diamond League delivers
In a truly memorable two nights of athletics, the Diamond League series (albeit one more to run in Rabat) drew to a close with some of the most memorable action in the history of the Diamond League. There’s too much to cover in total, so we’ll mention all the best races. You can check out the full results, here.
Wednesday saw the street aspect of the games with the main event being the men’s and women’s 5000m. Let’s briefly talk about the track…it looked awful, frankly and it’s no surprise that athletes like Jakob Ingebrigsten decided to pull out. There were parts that were only 3 lanes wide and the camber looked brutal as well as very tight turns which were likely to benefit the smaller athletes.
The women’s race turned into a competive and reasonably fast race which saw our predicted favourite, Francine Niyonsoba from Burundi come out on top in 14:28.98. She pushed experienced former world champion Hellen Obiri into second 14:29.68.
In the men’s race, it started off at a reasonable pace but as Matt Ramsden, the pacemaker dropped out, it was left up to the talented Yomif Kejelcha, Kimelo, Krop, and eventual winner Berihu Aregawi. Aregawi pushed the pace in the final kilometre of the race and won in an impressive 12:58.65. Andy Butchart couldn’t believe anyone could run that fast on this track in a video he posted on Instagram after the race.
Onto Thursday and the races were back in the stadium, we start with the women’s 1500m which promised to be a stunning race. As expected it was a race between two of the greatest of all time in Faith Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan. It all came down to the final 100m with Kipyegon and Hassan in a sprint for the line. In the end, the class and speed of Kipyegon (3:58.33) would tell, finishing 2 tenths of a second ahead of Hassan (3:58.55).
The men’s 1500m was an equally stacked field with the World Champion Timothy Cheruyoit and the Olympic Champion, Jakob Ingebrigsten lining up for the first time since the Olympic final. It was a race where McSweyn pushed the pace from the front as usual and Jakob looked uncharacteristically tired. Ingebrigsten looked to go from 100m out but Cheruyoit managed to hold on, showing that there’s still a bit of life in the old dog yet. His win makes it 11-2 in the head to head.
The 100m was up next with many wondering whether Elaine Thompson-Herah could finally run below 10.49 and break Flo Jo’s world record. It wasn’t to be on the night but she was totally dominant nontheless running 10.65, which at the start of this season, would have been one of the fastest times ever. Now, it just seems a bit of a jog for ETH. There was also a brilliant performance from Dina Asher-Smith who ran 10.87 as she makes her injury comeback.
On the men’s side, Fred Kerley once again showed that he can win over the shortest distances with an impressive final 30m to cruise away and win in 9.87 beating the Olympic 200m Champion, Andre De Grasse into 2nd who ran a PB in 9.89.
One of the races we were most looking forward to was the women’s 800m and the 19 year old British sensation ran the race like a seasoned experienced professional. In a race that didn’t include American Athing Mu, Hodgkinson showed why she’s regarded as the second best in the world. Sitting on the shoulder of Natoya Goule of Jamaica before easing up through the gears to over take her and win comfortably in 1:57.98. Kate Grace took second in a photo finish from Goule in around a thousandth of a second. Britain’s Jemme Reekie came 4th in 1:58.61.
The men’s 800m was once again a dull and uninteresting, slow race that’s been a feature of many of the men’s 800m races this year. Marco Arop who’s dominated over the last few weeks looked comfortable but he couldn’t go with Emmanuel Korir when the Kenyan attacked and in fact Clayton Murphy (3rd, 1:45.21) overtook him too. Korir won in 1:44.56 with Rotich 2nd in 1:44.96.
Unsurprisingly, the 400m hurdle winners were Femke Bol (52.80), who with no other top class challengers wasn’t able to get under 53 seconds, and Karsten Warholm who won in 47.85 nearly a full 2 seconds slower than this phenomenal world record.
The event dew to close with the men’s and women’s 200m. The best performance in the 200m came from Namibian athlete Christine Mboma who ran 21.78 which is a WU20R and an African Record. Shericka Jackson PB’d and was still comfortably beaten. Dina Asher-Smith came third in 22.19.
Sha’Carri Richardson’s season ends in disappointment
Despite featuring on Drake’s recent album, Sha’Carri Richardson has struggled since she returned to racing after the conclusion of her ban. She’s been consistently eclipsed by the Jamaican talent of Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
In a small meet in Padua, Italy, Sha’Carri didn’t quite have the legs to overtake compatriot Javianne Oliver even though both were officially awarded the same time (11.19).
How she comes back and responds next season will be one of the most interesting things to watch next year.
Paul Chelimo’s on YouTube
The danger man, Paul Chelimo, has announced that he’s started a YouTube channel. The US Olympic silver medalist has earned a reputation this year of being a dangerous person to run in a race with as people seem to drop like flies all around him.
His channel is likely to be very popular though. As his recent tweets have shown, he’s got a good sense of humour and he’s actually a decent runner too ;)
After he recently featured in one of Sweat Elite’s videos and turned out ot be one of their most popular, it’s likely to be a channel you don’t want to miss. His inaugral video is a 10 x 400m session at mile race pace as he prepared for the 5th Avenue Mile.
Check out our content of the week section to watch the video.
Marc Scott and Hellen Obiri take the win in 40th Great North Run
As the iconic race, held in Northern England returned after the pandemic for its 40th iteration, Marc Scott became the first winner since 2014 not named Mo Farah. It’s now 8 years since the men’s event was won by someone other than a British athlete. Compared to previous years, Scott’s 1:01.22 is not a blistering time and, in fact, despite being on a new and tough course this year, is the slowest winners time in the Great North Run since the year 2000.
Scott who’s from down the road in Northallerton held off an impressive challenge from Ed Cheserek, in his first competitive half marathon, who finished 9 seconds behind in 1:01.31. USA’s Galen Rupp took third in a sprint finish against one of our favourite athletes here at Trackstaa, Jake Smith (61:54). Stewy McSweyn who’s carried the majority of the field round the track this season in the Diamond League ran a 62:52 to take 8th.
Of his win, Scott said “I’m really delighted…it was really difficult. The last 3 miles are all pretty much uphill and it was hard to get into a rhythm.”
In the women’s race, the victory went to the experienced Hellen Obiri (1:07.42) who only just managed to hold off a thoroughly impressive challenge from Eilish McColgan who finished in a brilliant 1:07.48, an immense performance. Charlotte Purdue who won the Big Half in Cardiff last month, finished strongly to take 3rd (1:08.49) as she prepares for the London Marathon.
Brits dominant in the 5th Avenue Mile
It was a clean sweep for British athletes in the 5th Avenue Mile this weekend, with victory in the women’s race going to Jemma Reekie and, for the second time, Jake Wightman winning the men’s race.
Reekie, timing her kick perfectly won the race by more than a second ahead of US athlete Nikki Hiltz. Reekie came home in 4:21.06. This will cap off a successful if not a little disappointing season from Reekie, finishing 4th in Tokyo as well as in other big races, including the Diamond League final.
Reekie is the first woman other than Jenny Simpson to win the event and collects a welcome $5000 for her troubles. Of the race, she said : “I didn’t put too much thought behind it, I just kind of zoned out until the last wee bit.”
In the men’s race, it was a Hoare sandwich. Jake Wightman returning to the winner’s enclosure in this race for the second time, after winning in 2018, ran a hugely impressive 3:49.6, taking a comfortable victory from Australian Oliver Hoare in second 3:50.4. Great Britain’s Jake Heyward took third (3:50.5).
Matthew Centrowitz finished a disappointing 14th despite darting out the pack early. Wightman said, “that’s a straight mile PB, but I feel pretty grim now…That was hard work.
Content of the week