Official 2016 Birmingham Diamond League Discussion Thread

Roodisha wrote:

Rudisha's 1:13.1 probably worth somewhere around ~1:42.3. Probably not WR shape but that is likely a good thing this far out from the games. Bodes well for the rest of his season, though. I'd imagine in better shape he might be able to run a 1:12 low.

I wonder what this means for Bosse, who just about equaled Rudisha and who's always been better at the 1000 meters? Surely capable of sub 1:42?

Ethio wrote:

Mo is not Bekele. Bekele is by far superior than Mo

MakwalaFan wrote:

I expected better from Birgen, with 3:33 and 13:04 this year. 3:30.77 best and this is his first year trying the 5K I believe.

For me this wasn't a very impressive run from Farah ... great pacemaking (not super quick, but even) and fairly good conditions (see the times in the steeple, 1500, women's 800), but he wasn't able to pick it up at all the last K.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRQOl6zoTJ8

Bekele showing how it's done. 5:02 at 2K then a 2:23.99 last K.

And of course the best thing about that video is seeing best of British Farah 20 seconds back despite training with the Kenyans financial support from Radcliffe. But yes - moves to Oregon and starts doing some push ups and all of a sudden he's untouchable.

What a joke

Not just Mo, EVERYBODY, Ethiopian runners included.

Seems to me that for Rudy to get any appreciation on his 600 today, he'd have had to run under the world record (1:12.81).

Part of it is relative, that Semenya and Niyonsaba are running much faster than Ajee has ever run. Ajee is not a sub 2 every-single-time runner. Also, Ajee does not have the very fast closing speed of those two which makes her look especially bad at the end of these races.

She's not on the juice yet wrote:

Macdaddy wrote:

Ajee looks awful

The announcer stated during the 600 that the first 200 (and therefore the last 200) was into the wind. Does anyone know whether Johnny Gray had more favorable wind in his run?

Point is to win they're professionals.

8FE wrote:

[quote]Concupiscurd wrote:

What good is getting close to your PB if you have no chance to win?

Because PB'ing is what matters. You cannot control other people or the competition. When I raced I loved being in super fast fields as opposed to being the best in the field.

Apart from Farah's British record (taking a fairly measly 0.1s off a 1982 record), fairly poor day for British athletes at the home DL meeting, no?

I just saw the 600 splits again from the video from the race. Rudisha's splits were:

200: 23.31

400: 47.17 (23.86)

600: 1:13.12 (25.95)

He did appear to tie up a bit in the last 50-70m. Bosse closed the last 200 a bit better. If it really was windy the first and last 200m as well, then that is a fine performance from him I'd say.

larkimm wrote:

Apart from Farah's British record (taking a fairly measly 0.1s off a 1982 record), fairly poor day for British athletes at the home DL meeting, no?

A lot of the top athletes weren't there, and the wind prevented any super fast times, especially in the sprints. Not an amazing day, but there is certainly more to come. Elidh Doyle had a good run

Yebbut - Gemili? Rutherford (due an off day, to be honest, forgiveable)? Female sprinters, meh. Bradshaw, Sayers, Pavey etc way off.

I expected better to be honest. Perhaps they are all building towards the trials, which would be fair enough. But even with some of the breeze today, few really rose to the occasion. Hopes for Rio are very, very limited (especially with Ennis Hill still niggling with injuries and KJT's disappointing performance at Gotzis).

It's all Mo, and not a great deal else. Still, at least I like Mo!

larkimm wrote:

Yebbut - Gemili? Rutherford (due an off day, to be honest, forgiveable)? Female sprinters, meh. Bradshaw, Sayers, Pavey etc way off.

I expected better to be honest. Perhaps they are all building towards the trials, which would be fair enough. But even with some of the breeze today, few really rose to the occasion. Hopes for Rio are very, very limited (especially with Ennis Hill still niggling with injuries and KJT's disappointing performance at Gotzis).

It's all Mo, and not a great deal else. Still, at least I like Mo!

Sayers and Pavey are both very old, they aren't going to be competitive. Bradshaw is returning from injury, and it's her first competition in months, so hard to judge her. Rutherford did 8.31 in Rome, so is still on for gold in Rio I think. I agree sprinters weren't great, but no one was that quick so that could be down to the conditions. We should still get some relay medals in Rio.

Pavey still thinks she can qualify for Rio in the 5000m, as a Euro champ from only last year I don't think that makes her "very old". Agree about Sayers and Bradshaw, but was hoping to get at least one surprise performance to shine a light on a new medal / oly finalist prospect. It wasn't so much that the sprinters weren't quick, but they weren't mixing it up in the way I'd hoped.

Gemili needs to focus on 200m only, he risks missing out on Rio altogether if he's not careful.

Disappointed beIN did not include the non-Diamond League M600m in it's Diamond League broadcast and that the first 16 minutes of the slot was not broadcast due to the previous event running long. The event, a motorcycle race, was over well within the allocated slot and they stayed with it for the afterrace interviews and trophy presentation.

In the NY market it seemed like the advertisements and the numerous selfsponsored Diamond League promotions were inserted at specific times and not timed to events on the track. Womens distance race showed a good number of the early laps with everyone running slowly in the pack but a commercial played over the last three laps when the break and core of the racing began. They only returned to show the last 130m of the race.

Let's hope the edited version for tonights rebroadcast covers the missed content. But I doubt they will !

8FE wrote:

I don't know why these women complain about Niyonsabo and Semenya. These girls are dragging them to faster times. Bishop is getting closer and closer to her PB, etc.

Maybe if Bishop was a 13 year old girl, or a local 5k hobby jogger. But she's a pro. I wouldn't care if I ran 2:10 to win the Olympics or even a DL. It's a race, not a time trial

awesome finish in women's 400m hurdles with Tate for the win

1 Tate , Cassandra USA 54.57

2 Doyle , Eilidh GBR 54.57

3 Moline , Georganne USA 54.63

4 Muhammad , Dalilah USA 54.75

here's the link to the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnhdEQv9h_8

No 600 Broadcast stopped at about 10 to the hour and showed promotional clips of other sports that BEIN shows.

W5000 in commercial from 9:10 into race back on at the 10:55 mark stayed on the 6 person pack till 12:43 of the race then went to commercial. Returned at 14:49 to catch the last 23 seconds of the race .