Following is my FULL and DETAILED report on today's Stockholm Diamond League meet.
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Thank you!
I thought my report was pretty good too!
And therein is the basis for this post.
You see, not even ONE Meet Record fell today, for either Men or Women.
But we should ask, Are MR's the sole criteria for the success (or failure) of a DL meet?
And what exactly IS the DL?
And HAVE DL's ruined Track and Field's summers (and springs, in the case of the first few meets!)?
I'll try to answer those questions here.
The DL system grew out of the Golden League system, which had begun in 1998.
The Diamonds began in 2010.
It seems the main source of excitement was MEANT to be from athletes vying for DL points, with the winner of each event winning a prize, and with the overall points winner winning a HUGE prize!
There are supposedly 16 events contested--8 each for Men and Women.
In some cases, an "event" can be one of TWO events, as in the case of meets holding EITHER a 3000 OR a 5000, but not both.
Each "event" is held in 7 of the 14 meets.
To win all 7 of your event is considered amazing---and rare!
(In fact, to COMPETE in all 7 is amazing---and rare!)
The 14 meets now consist (in varying order, but pretty close to this list) of Doha, Shanghai, Eugene (Pre), NY, Rome (Golden Gala), Birmingham, London (Sainsbury), Paris, Lausanne, Monaco (Herculis), Oslo (Bislett), Stockholm (DN Galan), Brussels (Van Damme), and Zurich (Weltklasse).
Many of these meets have MUCH longer histories than just their DL existence.
I think of Pre (over 40 years), Rome, Paris, Monaco, Oslo, Stockholm, Brussels, and Zurich, all of whom have been going for decades!!
And in my opinion, they were better meets BEFORE they got hooked in to the DL circuit!
Let's take a closer look.
I'll do this in 4 parts.
1. Meet Records
2. Events held (or not!)
3. The Athletes (Who shows, who doesn't, how they perform)
4. Conclusion
Meet Records
Which of the 14 has the best set of MR's?
I wrote down (separately from my T&F Record Book) all of the MR's for 11 of the 14 meets, omitting the Stockholm, Brussels, and Zurich DL's.
I omitted those meets because A) today's meet didn't produce any MR's, and B) Brussels and Zurich will be in September.
In the Men's 100, MR's range from 9.69's for Lausanne and Shanghai to 9.80 for Pre.
All great times, and all the 11 meets are consistent in range.
The 200's vary from 19.58's in NY and Lausanne, to just 20.02 in Doha.
Seven of the 11 meets represented here have 400's of under 44.00.
The slowest of these is the 44.49 from Birmingham.
Only NY and Paris have sub-1:42 800's.
Birmingham has the slowest, at 1:43.93.
Rome has the WORLD Records in the 1500 and Mile!
In contrast, 4 of the meets have times ranging from 3:30.82 to 3:33.29 in the 1500.
Only 6 of these 11 meets even HAVE a Mile MR!
Five meets have sub-7:30 times for 3000 meters.
Birmingham, Pre, and London have MR's for the Two Mile!
Three meets--Shanghai, Birmingham, and NY have yet to see a sub-13:00 5000!
Paris has the fastest 5K, at 12:40.18.
But just Rome joins Paris in the sub-12:50 category!
Monaco's 7:53.64 leads the 3000SC MR's, with Birmingham's 8:07.80 pulling up the rear!
Just 4 of the MR's are sub-8:00!
The 110H MR's are VERY consistent, ranging from 12.88's in Paris and Lausanne, to 12.97 for Shanghai, with just 2 meets serving as outliers--Rome (13.20) and Oslo (13.12).
The entire 400H event is going through a slump right now, but even so, just 2 meets have MR's slower than 48.00!
The vertical jumps--PV and HJ--are fairly consistent in their MR's.
The HJ ranges from 7-9.75 to 7-11.25.
Paris and Oslo don't have HJ Meet Records---or at least I don't know of them!
Five PV MR's are over 19-8, but none are over 20-0!
The lowest is Doha's 19-1.
Eight meets have SP MR's of over 72-0, with six of those ranging from 73-1.25 to 74-0.25
The Discus, Javelin, and Hammer Throws have been held less and less in these meets--especially the HT.
So I won't compare these marks, except to say that just 2 meets have JT's of over 300 feet, and just 3 meets have DT's of over 230 feet!
Including only these events--100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000, 5000, 110H, 400H, HJ, LJ, TJ, PV SP--Lausanne has the most MR leaders (although 1 is a tie--the 100) with 5.
Next is Paris and Monaco with 3 each.
Pre, NY, and Rome has 2 leaders each.
Shanghai and Doha have one each--although Shanghai's is shared with Lausanne!
With ZERO MR leaders are Birmingham, London, and Oslo!
Now let's look at the Women's side.
(The same 11 meets are considered.)
The 100's range from 10.70 at Pre to 10.92's for both Doha and Shanghai.
Six meets have MR's of 10.77 or faster, while 3 are either 10.91 or 10.92.
The 200's are all over the place!
Monaco's 21.77 is the fastest, while 5 meets range from 22.07 to 22.36!
The 400's are pretty consistent--ranging only from 49.05 to 50.00!
The latter is Shanghai's MR, and is the only one in the 50.00 category.
The 800's are also solid in range, going from 1:54.97 to 1:58.58.
I know that's 3.61 seconds differential, but at least there's no times slower than 1:59!
With the exception of that Outlier of Outliers--Genzebe Dibaba's recent WR of 3:50.07 in Monaco--the 1500's range from 3:55.68 (Paris) to 3:58.60 (Lausanne).
There's 2 at 4:00+--NY at 4:00.13, and London the slowest at 4:00.67.
Out of the 10 meets that have 3K MR's (Shanghai doesn't have a 3000 MR!), five of them range from the 8:31's to the 8:34's!
But 4 meets have MR's of under 8:24!!
Oslo's MR for the 5000 is also the WORLD Record!!
But the slowest is still fairly fast--London's 14:33.65.
In the 3000SC, there's also good consistency, with times ranging from the 9:10.64 of London to the 9:17.43 of Birmingham.
Only Oslo has a time faster than London's, at 9:07.14.
As with the Men, the 100H MR's are VERY narrow in range, going only from 12.35 (Doha) to 12.49 (Oslo).
However, just Doha's and Rome's are sub-12.40!
The 400H are also consistent, ranging from 52.63 (Monaco) to Birmingham's 53.78, with Doha's 54.27 serving as outlier, the only time above 54.
The Women's HJ, TJ, and PV are fairly consistent.
Except for New York's low of 6-5.50, the other 10 meets range is less than 2 inches apart, going from 6-7 (Paris) to the 6-8.75s of Doha, London, and Oslo!
And except for Doha's TJ MR of 47-9.25, the other 9 (NY doesn't have a TJ Meet record!) range from 48-10.25 (Shanghai) to 50-3.50 for Lausanne..
Rome, London, and Monaco join Lausanne in the 50+ area.
Nine of the 11 meets have PV MR's of at least 15-11, with SIX of them being at least 16-0!!
The SP marks range from 67-6 to 69-0, with just Oslo and Pre being under 67 feet.
The "worst" DT mark is London's 223-2.
But just Shanghai's 231-5 is longer than 228-11.
The JT's range from 216-9 to 227-11, with Shanghai's 210-2 serving as the outlier on the low end.
Including the same events as the Men (the 100H, however, not the 110's!!), here's the leaders in MR's.
Monaco has five MR leaders (ties included).
Oslo and Doha have 3 each.
Lausanne and London have 2 each.
Eugene, Rome, and Paris have one apiece.
But Shanghai, NY, and Birmingham have ZIP!!
Events held (or not)
This is where much of my criticism enters the picture.
Of the WC/OG events, the Walks, Marathon, Multi's, and the 10000 are ignored!
Now, I don't expect invitational meets (and the DL's should be considered invitationals!!) to hold the Walks, Marathon, or Multi's.
But the 10K?
Or ANYthing "different" than the usual line-up of suspects??
Look at the Pre meet.
On their Friday night portion, they've held 10000's, and even a 30,000!!!
On the TRACK!!
That's ONE HUNDRED laps total!!
Only the Bislett Games of Oslo have held 10K's besides Pre!
But only Pre continues to do so, even if it's held separately from the DL portion of the meet!
A few meets have held Two Mile races, usually in lieu of the 3000.
And the One Mile?
Just 5 of the 11 meets have Mile MR's!!
Oh, BTW, that's for Men only!!
NO DL meet has a Mile MR for Women!!
NONE!!
There's been a 1000 and 2000 held, and even a 600.
But how often?
Not very!
THIS is why the DL concept MUST change!
But is it always the Meet Director's fault, or even the fault of the IAAF, under whose umbrella these meets were created?
No.
Sometimes----even MANY times!---it's the fault of the athletes themselves!!
If the monetary (and celebrity) aspects of being a Diamond League winner aren't enough to lure an athlete to compete, what will?
In fact, the overall winner even gets a bye to the next WC!
Yet too many times, you see a major star's name missing from the entry lists.
Except for injury, pregnancy, drug bans, retirement, what could be the reason one is a no-show?
I mean, it just necessitates competing in SEVEN of the 14 meets!
So why not make those 7 the focus of your season, outside of the Championship meets?
Here's one example.
Genzebe Dibaba was said to be entered in the 5000 for today's Stockholm meet.
There's a news item--dated June 15th--on the meet's website that said so!
(It was still there just before the meet!!)
Yet not only didn't she run the 5000, there wasn't even a 5000 on the schedule!!
Merely fraudulent advertising?
Or an athlete SAYING one thing, but DOING (or NOT doing, in this case!) another?
And there's dozens, if not 100's more such examples!
And not all of them turn out to be legit--with a valid reason for not appearing!
Then there's the Bolt Factor!
How many seats would be filled if Usain Bolt runs in a meet?
EVERY seat, that's how many!!
And even more to the point, how many seats would be filled if BOTH Bolt AND Justin Gatlin were to be in the same race?
SRO, folks, SRO!!
And WHEN they appear, why do they run tactical races--sometimes even when there's a rabbit setting a super fast pace??
Okay, bad weather sometimes interferes.
Too hot, humid, windy, or wet.
But what about when the weather is perfect, or nearly so?
What's their excuse then?
The sprint hurdlers--Men and Women--face each other often!
Win or lose, they always come back for more.
You always see the same set of SP'ers, or HJ'ers, and even female PV'ers.
(Lavillenie's the only one that really counts among the men!! LOL)
So why haven't we seen Galen Rupp this season?
Or Mo Farah more often than he's appeared?
Because of the Salazar/NOP scandal?
Maybe.
But I think it's more a part of the entire list of athletes' reasoning about DL meets.
And I truly DON'T know what that is!
Short of the IAAF ordering them to appear---or else!!---what's the solution?
My conclusion.
The Diamond League concept HAS ruined our Track and Field summers.
Garry Hill has touched on the DL schedule as being harmful to the sport.
After today's DL, there aren't any for almost 5 weeks!
I know, August has the 9 day long WC's!
But even so--especially if you read my post where I compared Mo Farah to Lasse Viren--you know that this hasn't always been the case.
Where are the meets where a Lasse Viren can break the 2 Mile WR just DAYS before the Olympic Games begin??
Portland will be holding a track 10000 on August 9th.
But from the sound of it---and I might be wrong!--it's going to feature mainly--or only!!--American runners!!
Why doesn't Farah or some Kenyans or Ethiopians come over for it?
(And will Portland have a separate 10K for Women? Doesn't sound like it!!)
I can understand why the DL's are popular.
The money, the fame, the possible bye to the WC's!
And the idea of fighting for points is very American!
But if the latter is true, then why don't more athletes fight for those points by competing in ALL SEVEN of their event's meets??
The more meets you score points, the better.
Right?
And why not GO for a fast time---especially when you SAY you're going to??
I know you can't run at top speed all the time, but why not, say, in 3 or 4 of those 7 meets?
Viren did it.
Ron Clarke certainly did it!
I think--as an entity of the sport--the DL's have a place on the stage.
But, with all their problems, they must remain only that---ONE entity on the stage!!
That's why I'm happy we have "specialty" meets for distances, for throws, for the PV and HJ.
And, because the HT has been totally expunged from the DL program, we now have the World Hammer Challenge!!
From dirt, flowers grow.
In every evil, there is good.
From the "ruins" of the DL system, maybe stands the future of our sport!
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