Athletics has hit the ground running at the start of an Olympic season, and at the end of a record-breaking week some of the most competitive matchups of the year so far were scheduled for the Diamond League in Florence. The Tuscan capital was home to the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea this year, with the Stadio Olimpico in Rome gearing up to host some of the matches at Euro 2020.
Femke Bol starred in the early going, as the 21-year-old Dutch athlete scored a national record and personal best with a time of 53.44 in the 400 metre hurdles. In only her second race over the hurdles this season, the steadily improving Bol reiterated her medal prospects in Tokyo, where she will be looking to squeeze in between the American trio of Sydney McLaughlin, Dalilah Muhammad, and Shamier Little.
Anzhelika Sidorova made a swift return to form in the women’s pole vault, bettering her rivals by 20 centimetres as she successfully scaled the bar at 4.91. The stack of Russians cleared to compete by World Athletics this season grew to 62 earlier in the week, with Sidorova sure to fill one of the ten slots afforded to neutral athletes come the Tokyo Olympics.
Meanwhile on the track the young Colombian contender Anthony Zambrano looked solid over 400 metres, while the Moroccan star Soufiane El Bakkali kicked comfortably away in his first steeplechase of the season.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn holds the world lead in the 100 metre hurdles this season, her time of 12.32 at the Tom Jones Memorial in Florida in April tying her for seventh on the all-time list. She backed that performance up once more in Florence on Thursday, as her winning time of 12.38 broke a meeting record which had stood since 1980. In the 110 metre hurdles, Omar McLeod set a new world lead after narrowly missing out in Hengelo. His victory following a quick start and clean race in 13.01 swept past the previous best of 13.07 set by Grant Holloway.
At the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo last weekend, Sifan Hassan smashed the 10,000 metre world record. Aided by Wavelight technology, which acts as a pacemaker by lighting up the inside of the track, and by the latest in shoe design in the form of the controversial Nike ZoomX Dragonfly spikes, her time of 29:06.82 knocked more than ten seconds off the mark registered by Almaz Ayana in 2016.
Yet the track in Hengelo, historically kind to distance running, doubles as the venue for the Ethiopian trials, which took place on Tuesday night. So it was that Hassan’s record lasted little more than 48 hours, as Letesenbet Gidey lapped her compatriots in the very same venue to knock another five seconds off the mark, setting a new world record with a time of 29:01.03.
Gidey already boasts the 5000 metre world record, which she set in the Nike ZoomX Dragonfly spikes last October in Valencia. Following her successful outing over the longer distance, she now hopes to become the first woman to complete 10,000 metres under 29 minutes.
Her absence from the 5000 metres at the Ethiopian trials opened up the field, an opportunity more than grabbed by Gudaf Tsegay. On Tuesday night, Tsegay kicked away from her challengers over 5000 metres to come through in a time of 14:13.32, the fifth-fastest race in history. Ejgayehu Taye and Senbere Teferi finished behind her in 14:14.09 and 14:15.24, placing them sixth and seventh on the all-time list. It was the first time ever that three women had gone under 14:20 over 5000 metres.
Arriving in Florence, Sifan Hassan could have been forgiven for feeling tired or peeved. Instead she put on the afterburners and stormed to success over 1500 metres. Hassan will probably stick to the longer disciplines in Tokyo, but in Florence she set a huge meeting record and world lead, clearing the finish line in a time of 3:53.63. That pushed the reigning Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon down into second place, even as the Kenyan set a new personal best of 3:53.91. Laura Muir, sure to be competitive in Tokyo, was left languishing in third, but her time of 3:55.59 was still her second best performance ever over the distance.
The new format in the field continued to reap slim rewards, with the winner-takes-all approach to the sixth and final round encouraging caution rather than gung-ho spectacle. Tomas Walsh snatched victory as the order was reversed in the men’s shot, his throw of 21.47 in the final round good enough for first place even though it fell short of the earlier standards set by Leonardo Fabbri and Armin Sinancevic.
It was a similar story in the highly competitive women’s long jump, although Ivana Španović proved a popular winner as the Serbian athlete cements her comeback from injury. The drama came over the first five rounds, as reigning world champion Malaika Mihambo set the benchmark with a jump of 6.82, before Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk came through in typical fashion in the fifth round, edging out Chantel Malone to secure one of the top three places. In the sixth and final round however, Bekh-Romanchuk fouled and Mihambo scraped through the sand, allowing Španović to squeak the victory.
No such qualms in the vaulting events, which continue until the horizontal bar can longer stay upright. In the men’s high jump, the reliable Russian Ilya Ivanyuk won on countback over the Australian Brandon Starc and the Italian home favourite Gianmarco Tamberi, who with his half-beard and flowing blonde locks suitably roused the few thousand fans in attendance.
Back on the track, British hopeful Dina Asher-Smith stepped up in the 200 metres. Despite a solid field featuring former world medalists Marie-Josée Ta Lou, Dafne Schippers, and Mujinga Kambundji, there was nobody to really push her as she ran away in the home straight, finishing in 22.06, within three seconds of the world lead held by Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
All eyes in the men’s 5000 metres were on Joshua Cheptegei, the Ugandan world champion and double world record holder. Cheptegei set his world record over the distance last August in Monaco, and arrived in Florence hinting at a fast time. Instead in the shock of the night, he began to fade with a couple of laps still remaining, and it was the 20-year-old Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen who made up the ground to duke it out with Hagos Gebrhiwet and Mohammed Ahmed.
The young Ingebrigtsen is the great hope of European distance running, but this was the first time he looked ready to really mix things with the best. For the first time in his brief career to date, he kicked past an elite field to finish in under 13 minutes. His winning time of 12:48.45 proved a major personal best, a world lead, and a European area record. With Mohamed Katir setting a Spanish record in fourth, and Justyn Knight of Canada also registering a new personal best, Cheptegei ended the race back in sixth position.
