Irony defines Brussels Mile

Bad bad title!
So I'll begin by trying to explain it.

That rare Women's Mile race I went bonkers about yesterday (See previous post!) wasn't a failure, but wasn't as grandiose a success as I'd said was possible!
It was, as I'd said it MIGHT be, "somewhere in between".

So where's the irony?

I'd said that both Jenny Simpson and Shannon Rowbury had said they'd be chasing Mary Slaney's American Record.
That US Record is 4:16.71.

So happens that winner Faith Kipyegon's time was.....you guessed it!.....4:16.71.
To the exact hundredth of a second!!

Thank you, Alanis Morissette!

Now about the race, and the rest of the Van Damme DL.

Kipyegon's time is the new Brussels Meet Record!
It also destroyed the National Record of Kenya.
And it makes her 5th A-T World, tied with one other!
That "other" is none OTHER than Mary Slaney herself!!

Chanelle Price led them through the first 2 laps in 62.61 and 64.08 (800 in 2:06.69).
At that point, it was Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan side by side.
They were back and forth through 1200 in a good 3:10.76 (3rd 400 in 64.07!).
They were ON pace for a WR!!

But these women are NOT Genzebe Dibaba, who came by HER 1200 (in her 1500 WR) in 3:04.62, more than 6 seconds faster, then ran at 60 second pace for her next 300 meters.

They couldn't sustain the fast pace, however, with Kipyegon running her final 409 meters (if it was measured from the starting line!) in 65.95.

 Hassan fell back even farther, ending in 4:18.20.
But it's the Netherlands National Record.
And it makes her 12th A-T World!

Rowbury nipped Simpson for 3rd, 4:22.10 to 4:22.18.
Rowbury has a better time, but Simpson's time enters her on the A-T US list in 5th place!
It's also the Age 29 record for Jenny!

Abeba Aregawi's 4:23.07 becomes the new National Record of Sweden!

Rababe Arafi's 4:23.50 set a new National Record of Morocco!
It's also the best 7th Place mark!

The next 3 runners got Place records too!
Viola Kibiwot's 4:24.31 is the best 8th Place mark.
Renata Plis takes the best 9th Place mark with her 4:25.32.
And Axumawit Embaye took the best 10th Place mark with her 4:26.84.

The final 2 finishers ran good times also.
Sofia Ennaoui finished 11th in 4:27.32.
Nancy Chepkwemoi was the caboose with her 4:28.66 in 12th.

Three other Age Records were missed by one second or less!
Kipyegon, Hassan, and Kibiwot each missed their respective Age Records (21, 22, and 31) !
And Rowbury was just 1.71 seconds from the Age 30 Record!

Seems the distances gave the best results.
The Women's 3000SC was the fastest race of the year!

Habiba Ghribi ran her final kilometer under 3:00 (by a second or so!) after a fast opening 2000 (6:06+), running 9:05.36!
That's the Meet Record, as well as the National Record of Tunisia!
Add the Age 31 record to that list!
And she moves from 7th to 3rd on the A-T World list!
Not to mention improves her total time for the Combined Events of the 3000 and 3000SC.
Her total time improves to 18:01.58 (8:56.22 & 9:05.36), but she remains 13th on that list!

Hyvin Kiyang's 9:10.15 in 2nd moves her from 13th to 11th on the A-T World list!

Emma Coburn had what she just tweeted as "maybe my worst race ever"!
She finished behind Stephanie Garcia's 9:25.20----WAY behind!!---running just 9:32.13 in 8th place!
Garcia's near-PR (less than a second off!) of 9:25.20 took 7th!

Virginia Nyambura, this season's hot find, finished in 6th in 9:20.38.

The last event of the meet, the Men's 5000, was fast, at least when compared to results from the past 2 or 3 years!
Yousif Kijelcha won it in 12:53.98 from Hagos Gebrhiwet's 12:54.70.

The 3 Americans ran well....sort of.

Before the meet, Galen Rupp had intimated he would try for the American Record!
Nope!
His 13:08.38 was 3rd American, and 10th overall!

In front of him came Ben True's 13:05.54 and Ryan Hill's 13:05.69.
The latter was a PR, moving Hill WAY up on the A-T US list, from 24th to 11th!!

The National Record of Canada was smashed by Mo Ahmed's 13:10.00!
I guess Rupp's NOP teammate, Cam Levins, has some work to do!!

The only other event to produce a mark of note was the Men's 200.
Femi Ogunode's winning time of 19.97 broke his own South Africa National Record!

The 100 was taken---barely--by Justin Gatlin, his 9.98 edging Ogunode, who had the same time, with Jimmy Vicaut in 3rd in 9.99, and Asafa Powell back in 5th in 10.04.
(Gatlin didn't run the 200!)

The US Women's 100H group made amends for their disastrous WC's results, taking places 1, 2, and 3.
Dawn Harper-Nelson's 12.63 edged Sharika Nelvis (12.65) and Jasmine Stowers (12.76).

The field events---for the most part---were won with good marks, and some good competition!

Christian Taylor's 57-8.50 beat Pedro etc Pichardo.

Tero Pitkamaki's 286-7 JT beat Thomas Rohler's 284-0.

Renaud Lavillenie missed 3 tries at 6.00, but won the PV over Shawn Barber, 5.95 to 5.85!

Sandra Perkovic got back to winning, her 221-5 Discus Throw winning over Denia Caballero's 215-9.

Caterine Ibarguen's 47-10.75 Triple Jump win was her 31st consecutive!!

The Men's SP was a tight 4 way battle at 21 meters and more.
Thomas Walsh won over O'Dayne Richards, Joe Kovacs, and David Storl with his 70-2.25

However, in a meet a few days earlier (Zagreb), Walsh broke his own New Zealand National Record with a mark of 70-11.25!!

Mariya Kuchina matched her PR of 6-7 to take the HJ.

The Men's 400 was won by Renny Quow in a slow 45.29.
But remember those 43.93's from the HEATS in Beijing??
Well, one of those 43.93 guys---Rusheen McDonald of Jamaica---didn't exactly match his astounding PR!

In fact, his 47.89 (!) was dead LAST!!

The Women's 400 was a bit better.
Shaunae Miller zipped past Fran McCorory in the final 100, winning in 50.48 to McC's 50.59!

Adam Kszczot upset Nijel Amos and Mohammed Aman in a slowish 800, ending in 1:45.12.

Besides the Mile, the featured race was the Women's 200.
And there, Dafne Schippers perhaps "won" that event's rankings, winning in 22.12 over Allyson Felix (22.22) and Elaine Thompson (22.26).
Didn't see the race video (yet!), but I heard Schippers passed Felix on the straight!
THAT doesn't happen too often!!

There was a pretty good Mile (actually one for each gender!) put on by Kyle Merber and the Hoka One One people!

David Torrence won the Men's side with 3:53 and change!
Amanda Eccleston sprinted past Heather Kampf, winning in 4:29.99.

There was some chatter on the T&FN Message Board that the cones bordering the track were not placed correctly, thus nullifying the results for list purposes.
(Garry Hill said that T&FN would adjust the times for THEIR lists!)

And that, folks, ends the Diamond League season of 2015!
(Being a sometime critic of the DL concept, I'm not TOO bereaved!!  LOL)

What's next for this blog?
Well, there ARE a couple or 3 more meets---DecaNation and the Talence Multi's among them!

Cross Country has begun, but my coverage of that segment of our sport will be limited.

There's the 4 Major Marathons--Berlin, NYC, Chicago, and Fukuoka.

I'll also be doing my Collegiate and HS year-end wrap-ups, naming my AOY's, etc!

In November, I'll begin my previews of the 2015-2016 INdoor season, which COULD be one of the best!!

But the next 2 months or so are basically my (and this blog's) "vacation" time.
I'll post a few times, but not nearly as often as I do during the two main seasons---the INdoor and OUTdoor T&F seasons!!

See you soon!