Leaders in Diamond League events to be decided in Brussels

[Alan Shank]

Interesting men's PV -- probably the contest for Number 1 in the Vault because a win by Barber would have put him ahead in honors and head-to-head.

I was surprised and disappointed in the behavior of both RL and his coach. They complained bitterly when the bar came down after he hit it and made it bounce pretty hard. It took a bit of time to fall, but it was going to fall, given the whack and the bounce it had. Combine this with his actions in the last meet on his time-fault and he seems to be behaving poorly, possibly frustrated by his slight deterioration in form and relative position in the event (dominant to 'the best by maybe a narrow margin').

Concur -- made a jerk of himself both times. I loved it when, in the Paris meet, he rode around in a VW and was "delivered" right to his event -- and lost!
Cheers,
Alan Shank

[lonewolf]

Concur -- made a jerk of himself both times. I loved it when, in the Paris meet, he rode around in a VW and was "delivered" right to his event -- and lost!
Cheers,
Alan Shank

Shades of Carl Lewis, 1990? Goodwill Games in Seattle.. the other seven jumper filed out together carrying their back packs... Lewis was delivered in a golf cart to the jump pit.

[trackcamp]

Allyson can forget about a gold medal in the 200m in Rio.

[ATK]

Allyson can forget about a gold medal in the 200m in Rio.

This one race should not be the determining factor on how she approaches her season next year.

[Sasuke]

O

Way to go Tom Walsh. Can't be too many countries that have a DL victory in both men and women shot. Germany of course, but what others?
NZ an outside chance for double gold at Rio??

He is very consistent, but to do so he needs to add at least 30/40cm to his PR. Storl is clearly not in shape, he peaked in Lausanne in July, then at worlds was almost outside of the medals and now hardly reaches 21m. He said he has been bothered by his knee so I suppose this and a long season could have provoked him some damages. Kovacs didn't compete after worlds, I know he was in Italy on holiday, I don't think he prepared too much for this race (even if he could win, and in fact he did, the diamond race). I think both of them will be in 22+ shape in Rio, so it will be very hard for Walsh to beat them.

[HasBeenNeverWas]

Thoughts on the 5K after rewatching the race ...

It's amazing how much distance Kejelcha and Gebrhiwet put on Iguider the last 200m. Iguider was right there with 200 to go, then loses 5+ seconds to Kejelcha by the end.

This from a 3:28 guy, although clearly he is still finding his legs in the 5K. If he focuses on it more in the coming years, I'd expect him to get quite a bit quicker and find a good kick.

Ndiku was right with the leading group with 300 to go, then proceeded to jog it in once they got seperation. He lost nearly 11 seconds in the last 300, about a 66 last lap I think.

E. Kipsang (3rd at the Kenyan Trials) ran 13:08 for a PR (old one was 13:19 at altitude). Pretty sure this was his first 5K on the circuit (he was in Beijing obviously, but didn't do so hot there) ... although he did the 3K at the London DL.

Haji of Ethiopia also with 13:10 for a PR (old one was 13:18 at the slow and tactical Lausanne 5K) ... only 19. Perhaps two names to look out for in the years to come.

Ryan Hill of the USA with a nice PR (13:05) ... nearly beating True. From the head on shot at the finish, I actually thought he had just nipped him, but turns out it was the other way around. It's crazy for me to think he went to high school the same time I did, just 90 minutes down the road from me. I remember following him his senior year, when I was just getting into track and thought someone running a 14:40 XC 5K was crazy, haha.

Alamirew got a SB with 13:05 . His season best's since running 12:48 in 2012 ... 12:54, 13:00, 13:05. Not trending in the best direction. Really he broke out with that 7:28 at the end of the year in 2010 in Milano. Then the 7:27 indoors plus same in Doha, 2011. Took him until 2012 to figure the 5K out it seemed. Very poor this year.

Isiah Koech's terrible season continues. I'm amazed he got 2nd at the Kenyan Trails, as Longosiwa has been much better and more consistent this year (yet finished well back in 4th there). Only 13:22 today, after staying up front with the pacers the first 2K.

His season best's since running 12:48 in 2012 ... 12:56, 13:07, 13:07. Did get the bronze in Moscow though, at least. This year Koech was 10th in the Rome 5K, 2nd in Birmingham (smoked the last lap by Longosiwa, very weak field) and 8th in Beijing. Also 3rd in the 3K in Monaco (well beaten, 2 seconds back in a fairly slow race).

Some decent results in there, but still a little odd since I've thought of his as the top Kenyan since 2011 (until Ndiku last year, that is). Hopefully him and Alamirew both come back next year; still two big talents.

[Alan Shank]

Thoughts on the 5K after rewatching the race ...

It's amazing how much distance Kejelcha and Gebrhiwet put on Iguider the last 200m. Iguider was right there with 200 to go, then loses 5+ seconds to Kejelcha by the end. This from a 3:28 guy, although clearly he is still finding his legs in the 5K.

Iguider tried to pull away before the last lap, and had little left. As you say, he's relatively new to the 5K; he had a 13:09 from 2012, then finished 10th in Lausanne in 13:25 before this race.

Ndiku was right with the leading group with 300 to go, then proceeded to jog it in once they got seperation. He lost nearly 11 seconds in the last 300, about a 66 last lap I think.

Did you notice, though, that he lagged behind before that, maybe in the 10th lap, then recovered and caught up? Ndiku needs a full season's training and he will be very tough next year.

Isiah Koech's terrible season continues. I'm amazed he got 2nd at the Kenyan Trails, as Longosiwa has been much better and more consistent this year (yet finished well back in 4th there). Only 13:22 today, after staying up front with the pacers the first 2K.

When was it that he was quoted as saying the Kenyans needed to run the last kilo in 2:16 to beat Farah? >:-) He had some decent races early on, a couple of sub-13:10 5Ks and a 7:40, ran well at altitude in their NC and WC trial, qualified with 10th in the fast heat in Beijing, then (toilet-flushing sound). Hasn't bettered 13:07 the last two years.

BTW, did you see the whole race? BEin wiped out the middle laps with commercials, and when they came back, there were four laps to go and the clock was showing 60.66 (IIRC) for the just-completed lap. After that, they ran 63.2, 63.2, 64.4 and 55.2, roughly. 2:30.38 last kilo.

As I mentioned in another post, this was an excellent job by all concerned in setting up a fast race, not quite as fast as requested, but without the usual dropoff after the first couple of laps, and the elite runners made use of them for a change. Considering this was at the end of a championship season, it was an excellent set of performances, 13 runners under 13:11, six PBs and seven SBs, including that of Galen Rupp, who looks very little like the guy who crushed Tanui, Karoki and Sambu in 26:44.36 in May 2014. Too bad Farah didn't compete, but understandable.

Cheers,
Alan Shank

[Alan Shank]

Kipyegon wins going away from Hassan in the end. 4:16.71 to 4:18.20. Americans take best of the rest, Rowbury 4:22.10 and Simpson 4:22.18 ... very good rivalry they have going on.

Price took them through 800 in 2:05, then the pace dropped after that. Over the last lap and a half Hassan and Kipyegon passed each other a few times. Very good race.

My estimate of the 440 splits for Kipyegon: 63.3, 2:06.6, 3:11.8, 64.9. Good pacemaking by both Price and Cichocka. Seyaum DNS. All 12 finishers sub-4:30. Hey, why doesn't TN start keeping track of all US sub-4:30 women milers? >:-)
Cheers,
Alan Shank

[Alan Shank]

What a finish by Miller to take the win! McCorory with a big lead with about 60 to go, and Miller with that closing took it away. McCorory second here but gets the Diamond with 20pts.

McCorory has had an up-and-down season, winning her first three DL races, breaking 50 in a semi in USATF, but then running out of gas in the final and failing to make the team. She bounced back with a world lead (at the time) 49.83 in Monaco, but lost to Natasha Hastings in London. In the worlds 4X4 she anchored the US team, was given a lead by Allyson Felix's 47.72 leg, but was run down by Novlene Williams-Mills of Jamaica for the gold medal. In that race, she ran a very hard 2nd turn, then tied up badly in the stretch. When she gets her pace right, she's a strong finisher. She came in with a fairly comfortable lead, 16 points to 10 for Stephanie Ann McPherson and 6 for Beijing runnerup Shaunae Miller. McCorory ran a controlled 200, then a strong turn, and entered the stretch with what seemed like an insurmountable lead. However, Miller was gaining with every stride and passed Francena near the finish, 50.48 to 50.59.
Cheers,
Alan Shank

[HasBeenNeverWas]

BTW, did you see the whole race?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW3092J3Z6s

This is the replay I watched. As far as I can tell, the same as what I saw live on Eurosport, only with slightly different camerawork at points this one.

Commentary not in English unfortunately.

It includes all the field event cutaways. You miss from 2min-3:20 (live javelin) and 7min-8:47 (javelin replay) portions of the race, so just over 3 minutes worth. Relatively speaking not too bad.

Better than the NBC first minute and last minute only, haha.

I was a bit miffed to miss the 1K split then the 3K though. The 3K on is especially crucial to me, as the rabbit usually drops then and you see over the next lap if the field will let the pace lag or not.

The cutaway when I was watching live, from just before after 6 laps to go to just before 4 to go, included at the end about 20 seconds (or so it seemed) of Pitkamaki sitting on a bench and untying his shoes ...

And yes, the pacemaking was great for a change, if not so fast as they might have wanted (I'd read that Rupp was looking for the AR, so 12:52 range, 1-2 sec faster per K than the 2:35/36 they were doing).

I was most impressed that after the second rabbit dropped, the leaders actually sped up slightly the 4th K (2:35 vs the 2:36 before). Lately even going so "fast" as 13:00 pace through 3K, I fully expect the field to jog a 2:40-45 for the next one.

H. Lagat usually does the steeple and once I saw him, I was worried if he could keep it fast enough, since he tends to do 2:40 Ks like clockwork in those (albeit he is hurdling then too). He only did 4 laps, but went through at 4:08 it looked like ... almost exactly 13-flat pace.

Rono is a regular for the 5Ks (I think), although I seem to remember him usually doing an uneven job of things. Once Lagat was out, yesterday he was cranking out pretty much 62.5s like clockwork.