Is there a meteorological term for whiplash, the experience of torrential rain and the sort of chill which seeps through to the bone one moment, only for the next breath to fill the chest with a lung-sapping humidity? Gateshead can boast international-calibre art galleries and concert halls all a stone’s throw from Newcastle city centre, but on opening day for the Diamond League last weekend it was horrid.
Athletes tend to like the heat. In Doha on Friday the second Diamond League meet of the season commenced with the temperature hovering around 41 degrees Celsius, which had dropped to around 36 degrees by the end of the evening. On the track in Gateshead, Dina Asher-Smith, Laura Muir, Mohamed Katir, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen put in sterling performances where expectations were dampened by the conditions. In Doha the joints were loose and the assembled athletes bounded over the rubber and asphalt.
Doha opened with a string of meeting records and world leads. The Americans Katie Nageotte and Sandi Morris managed to scale the lofty height of 4.84 in a highly competitive women’s pole vault, with Nageotte taking the victory on countback. Then Yulimar Rojas continued her quest for a new world record in the women’s triple jump with a first-round meeting record of 15.15.
On the track, the men’s 400 metre hurdles opened proceedings. Three of the four fastest times in the history of the event have come from current athletes: the Norwegian Karsten Warholm, who was not present in Doha, and the American Rai Benjamin and local favourite Abderrahman Samba, who were present and willing. On this occasion Samba was well off the pace, as Benjamin came through in a meeting record of 47.38. Alison dos Santos scored a personal best of 47.57 to finish second, while Commonwealth champion Kyron McMaster finished third.
Of course for many athletes this is not only the start of a new outdoor season, with all of the added hopes and pressures which come from the postponed Olympics. Everyone saw their plans for 2020 drastically curtailed if not squashed entirely. For many athletes the start of the new season amounts to a comeback.
That is especially true for the Russians who are scheduled to compete in Tokyo as authorised neutral athletes. World Athletics and the World Anti-Doping Agency have been locked in battle with the Russian Athletics Federation since 2015 amid allegations of state-sponsored doping. The culmination came towards the end of 2019, when WADA issued Russia with a four-year ban from all international sporting competition.
For the 2020 Diamond League season, Russian athletes with a proven record of clean performances were no longer afforded the olive branch of authorised neutral status. This year, the status has been restored for up to ten athletes, and in April World Athletics awarded four of those slots to the multiple-time world champion high jumper Mariya Lasitskene, world champion pole vaulter Anzhelika Sidorova, her young competitor Aksana Gataullina, and the high jumper Ilya Ivanyuk.
On what is effectively their return to international competition after more than a year on the margins of the sport, the usually imperious Lasitskene struggled in Dessau last week and again in Gateshead, while in Doha, Anzhelika Sidorova could manage a vault of 4.64 and finished seventh.
On the other hand Ilya Ivanyuk was back up to speed in a competitive men’s high jump. Back at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, the hometown hero Mutaz Barshim roused the best night of the meet as he scored gold in the high jump in front of a rapturous crowd inside Khalifa International Stadium. On Friday the favourite had to settle for second place, as Ilyanuk scaled a height of 2.33, beating out Barshim by three centimetres.
The fast times continued to come on the track, with strong performances by Faith Kipyegon and Wyclife Kinyamal over 800 metres. In the men’s 1500 metres, Timothy Cheruiyot was chased all the way by the Aussie Stewart McSweyn and Moroccan steeplechaser Soufiane El Bakkali, but kicked in the straight to finish in a world-leading time of 3:30.48. In a topsy-turvy women’s steeplechase, Norah Jeruto came away with a world lead of 9:00.67 after her main challenger Hyvin Kiyeng fell over the last water jump. The sprightly young Ethiopian Mekides Abebe struck a national record to finish second.
The field events continued to falter in the face of a contentious new format. The top three athletes over five rounds lose their scores as they progress to a sixth round of sudden death, with the best performer over the final round declared the victor. Meant to foster engagement and add some drama away from the track, the format change instead results in tentative final rounds while squandering winning performances.
In the women’s discus, Valarie Allman was almost two metres ahead of her rivals over five rounds, only to crack under the unnecessary pressure. In the men’s shot, Armin Sinančević of Serbia scored a major national record and personal best to lead the field over five rounds, but in the sixth his foot strayed over the line and he was left with what must have felt like nothing.
At least the format squeezed another leap out of Yulimar Rojas, who led the women’s triple jump after her meeting record of 15.15 in the first round, then barely managed to make the sand before securing her victory with a sixth-round effort of 15.11. Shanieka Ricketts on the other hand fell into third despite a personal best of 14.98, with a no-jump in the final round pushing her behind Jamaican compatriot Kimberly Williams.
In one of the most eagerly anticipated matchups of the night, Michael Norman stormed to a world lead in a stacked men’s 400 metres. His victory in a time of 44.27 never seemed in doubt, but Anthony Zambrano, Fred Kerley, and Kirani James will all be eyeing the medal spots come the Tokyo Olympics. Meanwhile over 200 metres, Kenny Bednarek continued his impressive start to the season, managing to hold off a late surge from Andre De Grasse.
The climax of the night came courtesy of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the diminutive Jamaican hoping to add this summer to her wardrobe full of world and Olympic gold medals. There was no Dina Asher-Smith or Sha’Carri Richardson in Doha, but Fraser-Pryce still had to hold off the challenge from Marie-Josée Ta Lou, Javianne Oliver, and an impressive Blessing Okagbare to come through in a time of 10.84.
That left the women’s 3000 metres, and the event did not disappoint, as twenty-one year old Beatrice Chebet led a slew of personal bests dropping down from her usual distance of 5000 metres. Chebet led the surge past pre-race favourite Hellen Obiri over the final lap, finishing strong in a world-leading time of 8:27.49. The Diamond League is back in Europe on 10 June, as the next meet takes in the Golden Gala in Florence.
