The Diamond League: What's It All About?
copyright 2018, Mark Cullen/trackerati.com, all rights reserved
Well, this took almost half a century.
I’ve known of Het Weltklasse (The
World Class) since my early days at the University of Oregon in the 1971-72
school year.
The purpose of the Weltklasse
has changed over the years. It used to be the greatest single-day meet in the
world. Now it is one-half of the Diamond League finals; the other is in
Brussels, tomorrow.
Matt from Australia is sitting
behind me - and I thought I had come a long way. We sat next to each other last
night at the men’s pole vault in the train station. It’s his first Diamond
League meet outside of the Prefontaine Classic; he made his pilgrimage to Eugene
a year ago.
My first DL meet away from Eugene as
well, though I’ve been privileged to have attended more than a few of the
Eugene meets over the years, just the last four with a badge hanging around my neck.
We’ll be on the 6:00am train
to Brussels together tomorrow where, joyfully, we’ll do this again.
I just entered the stadium,
set up my technology, and note already the remarkable level of hospitality that
greets us in the press tribune. Water bottles already at our work stations, volunteers
coming by offering us sandwiches.
It’s a cool and blustery day,
and I ask Max if I dare say here what the weather reminds me of.
Eugene.
In October.
Herewith some notes about the
Diamond League and what it is we’re here to accomplish.
The Diamond League has 14
meets:
- 12 regular season
- two finals, in
Zurich (August 30) and Brussels (August 31).
The 12 regular season meets
are divided into 2 groups of 6.
There are 32 events, 16 in
each grouping, with a final for each grouping.
The 12 regular season meets
serve as qualifying for the finals.
Athletes score points by
virtue of their place finishes during the season and have the option of
participating in the final. Barring injury, most do, especially as the Diamond
League title is the most prestigious one can win in this non-Olympic, non-World
Championships year.
Number of athletes in each
final:
-
top 7 in 200m,
400m, and 400m hurdles
-
top 8 in other
lane events
-
top 12 in HJ/PV,
throws, and middle/long distance events.
Some athletes have qualified
in more than one event. Most choose one event or the other, while a few brave
souls will double on consecutive days at meets 657 km/408 mi apart.
For those of you familiar
with the Diamond League in the past, you’re correct if you detect an important
difference this year.
Previously, the points
leaders in each event could accumulate so many points that they would have won
the Diamond League title before the final (though they were required to
participate in the final to cash the check).
Now all previous results are
erased and the finalists are in single-day championship events. Multiple events serve as qualifiers;
single-day events determine the Diamond League titleists.
The schedule is as follows:
Zurich
Wednesday, 8/29 - non-DL men’s pole vault at Zurich Central Train
Station; completed and won by Russia’s Timor Morgunov
Thursday, 8/30 – Zurich Diamond League
Brussels
Thursday, 8/30 – women’s shot put
Friday, 8/31 – Brussels Diamond League
For the eagle-eyed among you
who have detected the overlap between these meets, good eye.
If you’re in Zurich you can’t
see the women’s shot put in Brussels tonight; the finals have been scheduled in such a
way that you need to be in two places at once to see all the events.
To deflect any more criticism
of this year’s schedule, IAAF has released next year’s already and there will
always be 5-7 days between major meets in 2019.
I spoke off the record with
an IAAF official yesterday who said that the concept was to focus the sports
world on track and field for these two days.
Understood, but how about
Friday/Sunday? Friday night to get the weekend started, Sunday afternoon to
finish it in style, Saturday a day of travel and rest.
The official acknowledged
that they got ahead of themselves with the concept without working through its
full implications. Sifan Hassan (5000/1500) and Dafne Schippers (100/200), both from the Netherlands, will
be doubling on consecutive days.
Must be the hardy Dutch!
While each event is almost as
deep as it can possibly be, two events stand out for special note in Zurich.
The women’s 800m is likely
Caster Semenya’s (South Africa) last opportunity to break Jarmila Kratochvilova’s
(Cze) world record of 1:53.28, set in 1983, before the new rules governing hyperandrogenism go
into effect this October. Interestingly, there will be no pace setters in the
women’s 800m, by agreement of the competitors, including Semenya.
The men’s 200m features a
showdown between Noah Lyles - last year’s Diamond League champion in this event
– and Turkey’s unexpected World Champion last year, Ramil Guliyev, who scared
Pietro Minnea’s IT) European record
19.72 in winning the European Championships in Berlin earlier this month with
his 19.76.
Lyles has better top end speed than most other sprinters; he did not
take the lead in the US men’s 100m national title race until 17 meters to go this June.
Guliyev blew the field off the track in the last 20m in Berlin. Lyles’ PB is
19.68.
This is why we run the races.
Meanwhile, the first event is
about to begin: the mixed kids’ sprint relay with six runners on each team.
Five exchanges, all the more kids texting grandparents about their moment in
the sun.
Have you noticed how they
take care of the future here?
 |
| Letzigrund Stadium during the tech check last night. Photo copyright 2018, Mark Cullen/trackerati.com, All rights reserved. |
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