Diamond League reinstates 5k, steeple, 200, triple jump, & discus for 2021, among other changes

Personally I like the final 3 format a lot.

I watch DL for the distance events, don’t care much for anything else but I’m familiar with all the athletes just because I tune in every time. Usually the field events are shown randomly or you miss things and it’s hard to follow if you’re not focussed on it. Final 3 makes it easy and I have found myself caring about/paying close attention to the jumps

400 1500 400h Triple Jump Javelin 3 September Weltklasse Zürich Letzigrund Zürich Switzerland

100 800 3000 m sc Shot Put 8 September AG Memorial Van Damme King Baudouin Stadium Brussels Belgium

200 5000 110h / 100h Long Jump Discus 9 September AG Memorial Van Damme King Baudouin Stadium Brussels Belgium

Could the diamond league championship schedule program 3 track events 2 field events for Men & Women or is World Athletics considering a different broadcast template?

5k and steeple are two of my favorites. Guessing they must have been for many other people also.

The return of the 5k that never went away is wonderful and hilarious.

5k and steeple returning makes my day. I don’t love the final 3 system. You could set a WR and still end up losing.

Final 3 will sometimes lead to the best jump of the day not winning, but it is good that they restored great events and a substantial time for the meet. 2 hrs is enough to get into the spirit of the event but certainly not too long at all. They were wrong to make those decisions in the first place, but I salute them for revoking them. The 5000m had become boring in the Mo Farah era, most of which time saw slow sit and kick affairs and no record attempts except for Paris 2012. Now there are a lot of fast guys often willing to run fast.

This is great news. I would love to see the return of the 3k and 10k, but I will settle for the 5k.

This is good. What is sad is America can only support 1 event , and non Nike companies opt out of the Nike totalitarian business model in the USA.

Re-instating the 5K likely coincides with Seb Coe's rumored attempt to set a WR in that event for his age group in 2021.. So good Cross Marketing. He's been training like crazy lately and hopes once and for all to shut up LR posters who constantly complain he couldn't run a World Class 5000m.

There are good arguments against the “Final 3” jump format, but “the longest jump may end up not winning” isn’t one of them.

With a lot more lead time and stakeholder feedback before implementation, I wouldn’t mind seeing a lot of different formats in Athletics:

-3 misses total allowed in the vertical field events, a pass is only allowed after a miss, and everyone is required to enter at the same height

-in the horizontal events, a two-jump or -throw prelim where the top 8 qualify for a head-to-head tournament. Each round consists of two jumps, longest single jump in that round wins.

-or in the horizontal jumps/throws, the winner is the thrower/jumper whose three longest throws/jumps added together win

-introduce time penalties for non-intentional lane/rail violations, rather than DQs

-allow for non-flagrant fouls to not be DQs, but to change the finish order (placing a runner who committed the foul behind those affected)

un-reinstate the TJ. It's dumb to hang onto an event based on misunderstanding ancient olympics results.

Instead do what those results really meant, and add up the distances. Score is your top 3 jumps out of 6 tries.

Please don't do this.

I don't like final 3 because the longest/best mark may not end up winning, so it is just about the order in which you produce the good mark... which I just think is a bit silly. Why not just have 6 attempts for everyone then order the last round from worst to best...

I like most of the other changes.

Not sure about 'street events' being held days before the final, you'd feel a bit left out there.

Couldn't the same argument against the final 3 be made for any event with prelims on the track?

You don't win the 1500 if you break the WR in the semis and then bomb in the final. If they used the current jumps method on the track, you'd likely have people going all out in the 1st or 2nd rounds trying to put up the best time when they're more fresh. (Side note: This could actually make track finals more interesting as people wouldn't be able to just sit and kick if there was a fast time in an earlier round).

The final 3 does make it much easier for the casual fan to follow, especially if the full event isn't being shown on TV or is happening at the same time as other events. As opposed to trying to keep track of how long ~8 different jumpers have jumped over 6 rounds (typically they make it easy to keep track of who's in 1st but not so much for 2nd and 3rd) now you can focus on the final 3. Much closer to just having to watch a track final to figure out the finishing order.

These are all bad ideas.

In the macro, I am pleased to have more opportunities for more athletes. It's a slippery slope when reducing the sport for TV.

I'm glad to see these events back in the Diamond League.

I also kind of like the idea that athletes are forced to think that too many boring races in a row, with slow times and top athletes dodging their top competitors, might mean their best event will get dropped from the schedule.

ezby wrote:

Personally I like the final 3 format a lot.

I watch DL for the distance events, don’t care much for anything else but I’m familiar with all the athletes just because I tune in every time. Usually the field events are shown randomly or you miss things and it’s hard to follow if you’re not focussed on it. Final 3 makes it easy and I have found myself caring about/paying close attention to the jumps

But why not just solve the actual problem which is that the field events go on too long for spectators to follow them?

Forget final three, just give each athlete 3 attempts at the jump/throw and that's it. Put on the pressure and make the event more exciting that way.

They don't want a guy throwing a WR on his first attempt and then passing all his other throws while you watch lesser competitors taking all six. Not exactly scintillating TV. With only the top 3 guys in the finals you get to see the contenders going head to head. Imagine if the sprints were conducted like the throws. 100 meter sprinter runs a WR in his opening heat, then passes running QF, SF and Final. They need to do something about the vertical jumps as well. Right now, they take the longest amount of time to conduct. Competitors can theoretically take an infinite amount of jumps.