A+ for the meet itself. Two world records and two crazy men's miles. Perfect weather. Sold out venue. And I don't know if they showed it on the TV, but in the stadium they brought out all the "old winners" and former stars they could find for the 50th anniversary. It was cool to see those OG stars.
A+ for Chebet and the women's 5000m. There are already enough threads on this, but she deserves a black page. She did ALL the work in the end, Tsegay and Ngetich sat on her, and it looked like she was in a "real race" for the win. Nope. With 150m to go, it was shocking to see the kick she still had. Insane. A++ for the kick off that pace.
- Beatrice Chebet, KEN – 13:58.06 (WR, DLR, MR)
- Agnes Jebet Ngetich, KEN – 14:01.29 (PB)
- Gudaf Tsegay, ETH – 14:04.41 (SB)
A+ for Faith Kipyegon. This is worth 4:06 in the mile, so she basically proved that she can run just as well in a "real race" as she could in the crazy Nike set-up. She is a baller and maybe racing is better for her than time trialing. That is not a crazy take. And props to the other women for trying to hang in there. Hull was seriously on Faith's heels until about 200m to go. It was amazing.
- Faith Kipyegon, KEN – 3:48.68 (WR, DLR, MR)
- Diribe Welteji, ETH – 3:51.44 (PB)
- Jessica Hull, AUS – 3:52.67 (SB)
- Georgia Hunter Bell, GBR – 3:54.76 (SB)
- Nikki Hiltz, USA – 3:55.96 (PB)
A for Laros. Talk about proving you are the real deal. 3:45 and the win from a mile back. He wasn't even "in the mix" with 200m to go. Shocking to see him run down Habz and Nuguse. Congrats!
A for Nuguse. He went for it and it cost him the win. He was running against the lights until 1400m. That is the effort we came to see. People say he is complacent and happy to just "be on the podium." That is BS. He went all out. I was happy he gave it 1000% effort. The whole crowd at Hayward was on his side and groaned when he lost the race by 1/100th of a second. He was a fan favorite.
A- for Strand. He looked great. He owned everyone on the last lap of the International Mile and is a real contender for the US team. The A- is simply because there were 10 guys in the other race who ran faster than that. Yes, he might have run faster if he had been in the Bowerman Mile, but we'll never know. As it stands he crushed his race and won it. He should be stoked.
B for Sydney ML in the 400m. She ran really well, got the win (in an off event) and proved she could be whatever she wants to be. She is amazing. But it wasn't a PR and she didn't get the American Record, and she didn't look that happy after the race. Somehow I doubt this is going to inspire her to do the double.
B- for Cole Hocker. He sort of won the race within the race. 4th place meant he beat everyone except Habz and Nuguse (who were a mile off the front) and Laros who went into beast mode. Hocker ran fine. There is not much you can say about this run except it isn't great news but it isn't bad news either. Hocker is fast. He is not "on a different level" fast.
C- for Mary Moraa. What is up with a second to last place in 2:00.51? Is there an injury we don't know about? This result got buried by Athing's DFL, but it is almost as bad since she ran all the way through the line (while Mu sort of gave up on the last 75m). Wasn't Moraa the best in the world a few years ago? What happened? Still, 2 flat is a good time for the women's 800m, so it isn't a D.
D+ for Mantz. It was sort of terrible. He looked like a guy who got put in the wrong heat. For a guy who is truly our best marathoner, you could tell he wanted more (his goal was sub-27). 27:35 in 12th place was just not good. There were people to run with, but it looked like Mantz was out of it from the very start. He said in the interview he eventually "settled into his goal marathon pace." Is that a tactic for racing the 10,000m? Weird.
F for Athing Mu-Nikolayev. A 2:03.44 (SB) is shocking. She should have done a time-trial in practice to see if she is in sub-2 shape. She should have run some races in 1:59 to get ready for this. It was sad and she looked miserable. She was one of my favorite runners but I feel terrible for her. She needs to change coaches or retire. Something has to change.
Nobody is talking about it but an obvious F for Sha'Carri in the 100m. It looked so bad and was just so, so slow. I would love to see her as a "redemption story" about getting to a better place and living her best life, but man, she looked out of shape. DFL is hard to walk away from but even worse was the time.. She can either change something or look for ways to justify what happened. I hope she makes some changes.
- Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, USA, 10.75
- Julien Alfred, LCA, 10.77
- Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith, CIV, 10.90 (SB)
- Tina Clayton, JAM, 11.02
- Favour Ofilia, NGR, 11.09
- Dina Asher-Smith, GBR, 11.14
- Twanisha Terry, USA, 11.17
- Maia McCoy, USA, 11.17
- Sha'Carri Richardson, USA, 11.91 (SB)
Results Here:
