2023 Golden Gala Pietro Mennea -- Florence Diamond League

Remember Sydney can run the 400m with hurdles in 50.68.

What a crazy time we live in. An American just ran 12:56 in a Diamond League and I view it as a disaster.

If you have the ability to rewind, go do it. Woody Kincaid ran THE GREATEST last lap in history for someone who was 15th at the bell. If I counted right, he was 15th and like more than 10 meters behind the pack.

He closed in 54.55 - I wonder if that was faster than the leaders - and finished 6th.

What a crazy race. 15 guys at the bell were 12:00 or faster.

In the end, Mohamed Katir held of Yomif Kejelcha as Luis Grijalva showed his 4th place at Worlds was no fluke as he beat all the American based athletes.  Woody Kincaid, was aggressive early, but faded to 15th at the bell but had his mad kick to finish 6th as Grant Fisher was only 11th behind Klecker.

Pace lagged right around 3k to prevent any sub 12:50 times.

Grant Holloway had the lead as he usually does early and was able to hold off a national record by European U23 Champion Jason Joseph.

Dina Asher-Smith pulled out at the last second, leaving lane #5 open.

Marie-Josée Ta Lou who pulle out of the LA Grand Prix final over the weekend was healthy here and got the easy win.

Sembo Almayew, the silver medallist at World U20s last year, is a force to reckoned with at the senior level, as after getting 2nd in Doha, she dominated the final 700m tonight to get a world leader.  5 women were together single file with 800m to go and then when Almayew took over with 700 to go this one was over.

American Emma Coburn continued to struggle in the steeple in 2023. After falling hard in Doha, she fell coming out of the water jump today before 1k (not a hard fall) but then faded the back half of the rac.e

Here is a gif of Coburn's fall.

https://twitter.com/letsrundotcom/status/1664703877877321742

Erriyon Knighton didn't open as fast as he did last year (19.49) but he dominated this pro field to get the 2nd DL win of his career.

With China under strict COVID measures in recent years, world champ Feng Bin of China had not competed on the Diamond League circuit since 2019. Today she got some serious competition in Olympic champ Valarie Allman of the US, and in the end Allman handed Bin her first defeat since 2021, throwing 65.96 in round 5, just five centimeters better than Bin’s mark from the same round. 

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Joe Kovacs, the 2-time world champ, took the lead in round 1 but never improved and would end up a surprising 4th as Italy’s Leonardi Fabbri, got the biggest win of his career by throwing 21.73 in round 4.

After opening up with a 53.12 win in Oordegem on Saturday, the Netherlands’ Femke Bol took a huge chunk off that time to run her second world leader in a week, cruising to a 52.43 meet record out of lane 6. Bol really assumed control during the second half of the race, her long strides carrying her well beyond runner-up Shamier Little (53.38). American Anna Hall, who last weekend became the fifth-highest scoring heptathlete in history, ran a pb of 54.42 in her Diamond League debut to finish 3rd.

1	6	NED	BOL Femke	52.43MRWL	3	8	53.12	52.03
2	4	USA	LITTLE Shamier	53.38 SB	1	15	53.95	52.39
3	8	USA	HALL Anna	54.42 PB	5	6	54.48	54.48
4	3	PAN	WOODRUFF Gianna	54.59 SB	4	8	55.74	53.69
5	7	UKR	TKACHUK Viktoriya	54.71 SB	8	4	56.44	53.76
6	5	JAM	CLAYTON Rushell	54.71	2	10	54.15	53.33
7	2	ITA	FOLORUNSO Ayomide	55.34 SB	10	2		54.34
8	1	UKR	RYZHYKOVA Anna	55.99 SB	12	2	56.97	52.96