BREAKING: IAAF announces that from 2020 onwards, longest race in Diamond League will be 3000m

I guarantee that if the 5,000 meter world record is broken at a diamond league meeting this year they’ll reinstate it. Kejelcha is fresh off of a world record in the mile (not his best event) and most likely has that on his mind. Now THAT would be entertaining.

Wait, is this April 1?

Krongouh wrote:

PrZ wrote:

Conspiracy theory: the iaaf is doing this because they don’t want Jakob Ingebrigtsen to go sub 13.

Most conspiracy theories at least have a semblance of sense/logic, unlike this statement.

Looks like someone can’t tell the difference between a joke and a serious statement. Pretty sure that requires sense and logic too.

Dude, unless your wife is literally currently competing on the Diamond League this has not relevance to her at all. The likelihood that your wife is one of the very, very few women fast enough in the world to be competing in Diamond League meets, and you are posting on here is extremely slim.

yg787 wrote:

I thought the 10,000m wasn't currently a Diamond League event but it is still run at the Diamond League meets.

How much do athletes depend on prize money at 5,000m and 10,000m level ?

It this intended to deprive Africans from showing their dominance at 5,000m and 10,000m ? Does this move reinforce imperial/colonial economic structures and dynamics going against the idea of this and the Diamond League as a global sport ?

Semenya ?

Wil the Diamond League include para events in 2020 ? What would be the arguement for excluding the 5,000m and 10,000 against including more para events ?

Why didn't Seb Coe bring this forward when Mo Farah was competing ?

Why didn't they get rid of the discus ?

This??Couldn’t have put it better myself.

I can't believe they would keep 3000m rather than 5000m.

Star wrote:

That's a terrible idea to save time.

Air it in two hours instead of 90 min.

Most sporting events take 3 hours to air.

People watch golf 8-10 hours a day for four days straight.

Or run the 5000's with online viewing early and televise recaps.

It's not a good idea to alter the sport.

If we had free streaming of uninterrupted 5000m races, you'd get a pretty large audience of people viewing whatever scrolling ads they could put up at a low cost to produce.

Define "pretty large audience". Seriously, I think you overestimate the interest.

running 800 wrote:

3283823 wrote:

The Livestream is currently ongoing on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Eev03qJig5U

Not a fan of this decision, although I do get that longer distances aren't geared towards public interest, but then when has running long distance ever been about the publicity...?

https://www.iaaf.org/news/press-release/diamond-league-2020-concept

this is a good decision , the next step is to phase out the 10k and Steeple . After a few years , it will be forgotten like people who cried about losing modern pentathlon.

Modern pentathlon is still around at the Olympics...

They should drop the steeple lol

Yep. If the Africans bocotted those meets, the 5,000 at least would be added. I have seen those meets in Europe. The fans love the distance races. With the African bocotting, there would be less fans attending forcing the hand of the organizers to bring on the distances races. Even if the altered back and forth between the 3 and 5 k with a 10k thrown in there somewhere.

rojo wrote:

I 100% agree. Let me ask you this. Who are the biggest track stars in the world based on name recognition?

Yeah

Look at the last 6 Olympic winners at 10,000m

1996 Gebrselassie

2000 Gebrselassie

2004 Bekele

2008 Bekele

2012 Farah

2016 Farah

And the 1992 race where Skah beat world record holder Chelimo with a lapped Moroccan runner getting in the way the last few laps was quite a show.

So, maybe a distance series is what's needed.

A four race series over a couple months.

Everyone runs a 10,000 a 5,000 a 3,000 and then a final 5,000.

No reason now for East African distance running talent to spend a few years on the track. They’ll just all head straight to the marathon.

Star wrote:

Phasing out the steeple and 10,000 makes sense.

For the steeplechase, it complicates building a new track anywhere.

You have to design that pit inside or outside for a single event that most people never try to run or follow.

Then get those barriers.

Get rid of the track 10,000 and put in a 12K Cross country event.

Keep the 5,000 and run it at these DL meets, though.

Part of the 5000 / 10000 problem is that it is essentially the same runners running nearly the same race at the championship level. Typically it is a slowish start with a furious kick over the last 400m. How many times has the same runner won the 5000 / 10000 at the WC and Olympics vs. not?

The steeple is a different set of runners and a completely different race tactically. It is also very different to watch and things can change instantly in the middle of the race. Yes, people fall in 5k/10k, but that is much more rare than barrier mis-steps or clips and falls in the steeple. How many times has the steeple winner won any other event? Or even competed in another event? The difference in cost to build steeple is probably

Got cut off for some reason...

The cost difference for steeple is probably not a significant factor (guess of $50K on a $10M track).

A cross country event is a good idea. Different terrain, tactics, and possibly even a different set of runners.

What are the 8 events being completely eliminated?

Bib #1 wrote:

No reason now for East African distance running talent to spend a few years on the track. They’ll just all head straight to the marathon.

I told you the Brits would ruin athletics. I hope TV starts televising more XC as well as road races going forward. Funny they’d do this when this site, primarily a distance site, has the most hardcore fans of the sport anywhere. Coe is tone deaf.

Spilled Popcorn wrote:

What are the 8 events being completely eliminated?

4 events are being elimated (they count M and W separately), so it's going from 16 to 12.

My guess is 5000, steeple, TJ, discus. All of which would be a huge disappointment. But who knows, maybe they'll kill the 200 or one of the hurdles.

Also they're going to drop 2 meetings, from 14 to 12.

#thanksIAAF

Or, possibly, they'll drop only the M or W version of some events, so that all the events remain, but not all in M and W versions. That's a thought. I hope they do that. And maybe toggle between the M/W dropouts each year.

This is the dumbest freaking thing I've heard of in years.

What could possibly be the reasoning?