101 Miles apart, but...!

Had to look it up!
London and Birmingham England are 101 miles apart, or 128 miles in driving distance!
But the difference between the recent London World Championships  and the 1st post-WC Diamond League meet in Birmingham was---well---at least 101 (or 128??) miles apart in quality and depth!

So this "results" post will be rather brief!
The Results portion, that is!
But stick around after I report the results, as I'll be commenting (Again!!) on why the DL system is broke--and getting broker!!

Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Salwa Naser are relatively new names in our sport!
The exits (in recent years) of folks like Sanya Richards Ross, the Eaton's, and now Usain Bolt and Mo Farah (The latter from the Track portion only!) have called for new names, new personalities, new exciting talents to take their place!
We may have already found 2 of them!

The Birmingham Women's 3000 was by far the deepest race of the day!
Sifan Hassan won in 8:28.90, breaking her own Netherlands National Record!
She also gets the Meet Record!

KK took a close 2nd in 8:29.89, a massive PR, and the National Record of Germany!!

Margaret Kipkemboi was 3rd in 8:30.11, while favored Helen Obiri was 4th in 8:30.21!
Eilish McColgan also PR'ed in 5th, time of 8:31.00.
Susan Krumins, having her best year, PR'ed in 8:34.41.
Then came the 1st American--Shannon Rowbury--in 9th, a non-PR of 8:35.77.
Molly Huddle took 10th, but almost 9 seconds behind Rowbury!

The 2 Steeplechase stars of London got big PR's, and made dramatic moves on my 3000 & 3000SC Combined Events lists!!
Emma Coburn chopped over 11 seconds off her flat 3K best, her 8:48.60 taking 11th!
Her C-E times of 8:48.60 & 9:02.58 adds to 17:51.18.
She moves from 17th to 8th on that World list!
And from 3rd to 2nd on the US list.
Courtney Frerichs ran 8:53.99, cutting exactly 3 seconds from her PR!
That time, added to her 9:03.77 SC, comes to 17:57.76!
She moves from 12th to 11th on the C-E World list.
But she DROPS from 2nd to 3rd on the US list--due to Coburn's much bigger 3K PR!!

As for Naser, no PR's, but her 50.59 AGAIN defeated Allyson Felix, as she beat the Legend's 50.63!!
If that's not impressive enough, she also beat London Winner Phyllis Francis, whose 51.18 was only 4th, with Courtney Okolo's 50.65 taking 3rd!!
Think T&FN will rank Naser ahead of Felix--and maybe even FIRST in the 400 this year??
Do you think that I will??
LOL

Here's all the other B'ham results--
Chijindu Ujah's 10.08 beat an all-British 100 field!
Ramil Guliyev's 20.17 copied his London placing in the 200, while Isaac Makwala was just 4th in 20.41.
Nijel Amos won the 800 in 1:44.50.
Pawel Fajdek established a MR for the HT with his piddly 257-7.
He fouled the first 3 rounds, which--if this had more competitors than the 3 here--would have left him OUT of the final!!
Ekaterina Stefanidi had it easy in the PV, after Sandi Morris, among others, went out earlier, Kat winning with 15-7!
She missed her trio of attempts at 16-0!
Jarrion Lawson's 26-10.50 took the LJ, while just Habitam Alemu and Lynsey Sharp broke 2 minutes in the 800--but barely!

The Women's 100 had a Class field--Dafne Schippers, Marie Josee Ta Lou, Elaine Thompson, and Shaunae Miller-Uibo--not to mention Sally Pearson!!
The 100H star timed just 11.38, and didn't make the final!
Ta Lou (10.94) and ET (10.97) won the heats, but Thompson's 10.93 beat Ta Lou's 10.97 in the final!
Schippers was 6th in 11.22, while SMU was last in 11.37!

Jake Wightman took the Mile in 3:54.92, with 10 Men getting under 4 minutes!
Sandra Perkovic took the DT with her 221-6.
Zuzana Hejnova's 54.18 defeated Delilah Muhammed's 54.20 in the 400H!
Sixth was the quixotic Shamier Little, timed in 57.42!!
Caterine Ibarguen's 47-7.25 won the TJ, while Yulimar Rojas had one of those days, her 45-9 giving her 7th place!

Mutaz Barshim literally "rose above" the field, his 7-10.50 (2.40) an easy winner in the HJ!

Tom Walsh's 71-7.50 easily took the measure of Ryan Crouser's 70-8.50 in the SP!
Joe Kovacs was a dismal 7th with his 67-4!!
Aries Merritt's 13.29 won the 110H.
Dawit Seyaum took a slowish 1500 in 4:01.36.
But she beat Jenny Simpson, who ended just 7th (!!) in 4:03.71.
Colleen Quigley ran 4:06.07 in 9th, beating Shelby Houlihan's 4:06.62.
Brenda Martinez was only 15th in 4:09.39!!

And the Track-only-retiring MoBot?/
He was GIFTED his 7:38.64 MR-establishing win--against only token "competition"!!
Enjoy the Roads, Sir!!

In a German meet before the DL, Johannes Vetter threw the Javelin 308-0, but it's not a PR!
His series also included a 300-9!!

The Falmouth Road Race saw Caroline Chepkoech beat Mary Wacera by a full minute, 35:53 to 36:53 over the 7 mile route!
Jess Tonn was 1st American, her 37:49 taking 7th!
Len Korir's 32:14 beat Stephen Sambu's 32:18, while 40 year old Abdi Abdirahman was 4th in 33:04!!

In my "Worst & Best" post from the WC, I said that few Place Records were broken!
I'd said the Men broke 4, while the Women broke 6.
Well, I missed some Place Records from the Men's SP!!
The eTN (from T&FN) said that Place Records were broken in 5th through 8th places!!
So I checked MY records, and YES, they're right!!
Here's the new Records--

Michael Haratyk's 70-3 is the Best 5th Place!
Ryan Crouser's 69-6.75 is the Best 6th Place!
Ryan Whiting's 69-2.50 takes the 7th Place spot!
Konrad Bukowiecki's 68-6.50 is now the Best 8th Place mark!

Thus, the Men's total of 8 EXCEEDS the Women's 6!!

As you have read, there WERE some good marks, and a fairly good field in some events--in Birmingham's DL!
But come on, were those marks really of DIAMOND quality??

Why does this happen--more often than not?
We get HUGE names filling DEEP fields in most, if not all events on each program!
Bad weather--or the double dip of illness & injury removing one or more of the players at the last minute--are a couple of "good" excuses for poor performances!
(Kate Grace had to DNS the 800 due to an illness before the meet!)
Rabbits are instructed to take distance runners through in quick times, leading to speculation on Records and such!

Then you have the Nemeses (As I see it!!) of the whole DL idea!
Wins and Points--one leading to the other!
Money is on the line also, but that's icing on the cake!

You have the points system in Collegiate meets, leading to placings for your team!
No extra cash, but the prestige of scoring points for the Home Team!

It makes those meets exciting.
But it also makes even THOSE meets most probably Record-free!!
Distancers run just fast enough to win (score points).
They often double (or even triple!!), adding to the practical impossibility of breaking Records!
You only needed to watch an Ed Cheserek race to see what I'm saying!
(In the DL's you had Mo Farah as your best example!)

Sure, sometimes a WR, or other Record will get shot down, but I'd be willing to bet that a majority of those come from athletes who are NOT competitive for the DL's Grand Prize, or even for their Event's leadership!!
It's more likely that they're there in a one-off appearance, there with the main intent being to break a Record!!
(Which tend to fail much of the time!!  Que sera sera!!  LOL)

There ARE solutions!
Have those DL's---as they're now conceived.
But add events that are not DL events--even if it means making it a 2-day meet--such as they do in Eugene!
Make those non-DL events the KEY Record-seeking events, and advertise it as such!
Surely, there are enough athletes available during the summers who are NOT chasing DL points or leadership!
Give THEM the opportunity to compete against strong competition!
With the DL's inviting mainly those at the very top of each event, opportunities for all the "other" elites to chase Records or big PR's beome less and less!!

People like Vin Lananna and the JDL and ATL folks have brought us new meets during the Summer High Season (and Spring too!), but even there---especially with that Summer Track Series of meets--you have a debilitating points system--debilitating in the sense that athletes are more focused on WINNNG & PLACING than on running fast, jumping high, or throwing far!
If those come, they come only by default, as an "add-on" to the MAIN focus--points & places!
By accident!!

I don't have the numbers, but I'm pretty certain that most WR's (or MR's) came BEFORE the DL system (or its precursors!) were put into place!!

Well, let's hope that Zurich's Weltklasse and Brussels Van Damme Memorial perform better than Birmingham did, Ms's Klosterhalfen and Naser notwithstanding!!

See you soon!