2023 Monaco DL Recap: Gebrhiwet Is Back, Warholm > dos Santos & a New Kenyan Steeple Star

The 2023 Herculis meet was held in Monaco on Friday, the penultimate Diamond League meet before Worlds in Budapest last month, and it did not disappoint. The big headline was Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon OBLITERATING the women’s mile world record by more than four seconds with her time of 4:07.64, followed by a slew of national records including an 4:16.45 American record by Nikki Hiltz. That race gets its own recap here.

In other action, the year of the 5,000 continued as Hagos Gebrhiwet, who won his first Worlds medal 10 years ago, clocked a 12:42.18 pb to defeat Ethiopian countrymen Berihu Aregawi (12:42.58) and Telahun Bekele (12:42.70) in another super fast race. Karsten Warholm won the 400 hurdles showdown with Alison dos Santos, running a DL record of 46.51 as dos Santos faded to 47.66, while the 200 showdown between Shericka Jackson and Gabby Thomas was not much of a race as Jackson won easily in 21.86 to Thomas’ 22.67. In the men’s steeple, 20-year-old Kenyan Simon Koech impressed in his first European race by winning in a 14-second pb of 8:04.19.

Recaps and analysis of the top events below. Compiled full 2023 Monaco results can be found here.

Men’s 400 hurdles: Karsten Warholm is putting together an all-time season

Karsten Warholm in Monaco (Kevin Morris Photo)

The showdown between Olympic champion Karsten Warholm and world champion Alison dos Santos was close for the first 200 meters. Warholm, as usual, tore out of the starting blocks from his preferred lane 7 and dos Santos, running on Warholm’s inside in his first hurdles race in 10 months, did his best to go with him. At the halfway mark, the world champion trailed the Olympic champion by a step.

That was as close as dos Santos would come, however, with the Brazilian faltering in the home straight as Warholm pulled away to victory in 46.51 – a .01 improvement on the world leader and Diamond League record he set in Oslo a month ago. Dos Santos (47.66) was closer to 3rd placer CJ Allen (47.84) than to Warholm.

Warholm’s victory was the latest in a season that is quickly becoming one of the best in the history of the event. Just over two years ago, the world record stood at 46.78, a mark that belonged to Kevin Young and had stood for almost 30 years since he ran it at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Warholm and rivals dos Santos and Rai Benjamin have taken the event to an entirely new level since then.

In 2023, Warholm has already run faster than Young’s old WR three times: 46.51 today in Monaco (#4 all-time), 46.52 in Oslo (#5 all-time), and 46.76 (#9) at the Norwegian champs in Jessheim, a race he won by six seconds. He joins dos Santos in 2022 as the only men to break 47 seconds three times in one year – and with Worlds and the Diamond League final still to come, Warholm will have a chance to add to his total. He’s the favorite entering Worlds, and though he has owned Rai Benjamin head-to-head (he’s 3-1 all-time), Benjamin ran 46.62 at USAs and cannot be discounted.

As for dos Santos, his race today was reminiscent of the 2022 World Championship final, except the roles were reversed. Last year, Warholm was still recovering from injury, tried his best to hang on to dos Santos but totally ran out of gas and finished 7th in 48.42. Today it was dos Santos on the comeback trail from meniscus surgery in February and while he could hang with Warholm for a while, he was clearly not ready to go all 400 meters at that pace. He has four weeks to close the gap before Worlds.

Women’s 400: SML Drops Out Before Race; Two Straight DL Wins for Kaczmarek

The big news before this one was that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone withdrew due to some “knee pain.” So in case you are counting, that means two years in a row SML has been in Monaco, but not competing. She has competed in one DL meet since 2019.

With SML being the heavy favorite coming into the race, her dropout leveled the playing field and the winning possibility for the rest of the athletes. Coming into the race, the woman with the fastest PB was Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke, who recently signed a professional contract with Nike after winning the 2023 NCAA 400m title as a Texas Longhorn. However, it was the 2022 World Championship bronze medalist and Commonwealth Games champion Sada Williams of Barbados that was in the lead after the first 200m (23.18). Following her closely was Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands and 2023 400m hurdles U.S. champion Shamier Little. Little closed well in the final straight, but not as hard as Silesia DL 400m winner Natalia Kaczmarek, who won her second straight Diamond League 400m. Kaczmarek got Little right at the line, closing the last 50 meters in 6.79 seconds, almost half a second faster than Little. 800m specialist Mary Moraa finished 6th in 50.48. 

The women’s 400m this season is deep, with SML and Marileidy Paulino already under 49 seconds thus far. Additionally, three women were under 49.7 seconds at the end of last year, yet there have been seven women under 49.7 this season. Come Budapest, SML will have her hands full dealing with the rest of the field. 

Men’s 800: Kinyamal gets world leader, Wanyonyi loses for first time in 2023

Wycliffe Kinyamal Wins 800 (Kevin Morris Photo)

Wycliffe Kinyamal got the world-leading win in 1:43.22, his sixth Diamond League win ever and first since 2021, but he won’t be at Worlds as he was only 4th at the Kenyan Trials. Previous world leader, 18-year-old Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who came into the race undefeated was a non-factor in only 8th. He turns 19 on August 1.

Marco Arop was the only guy willing to go with the rabbit through 49.06 and led around the final turn where Kinyamal was the only guy to bridge the gap. Kinyamal then powered away for the win as Slimane Moula was second and Arop held on for third.

American Bryce Hoppel was only 6th but ran well as he ran 1:43.95. Hoppel has now broken 1:44 twice in his life with both races coming in Monaco (1:43.23 in 2020). Clayton Murphy was DFL.

Men’s 5,000: Hagos Gebrhiwet is back, baby!

Hagos Gebrhiwet Wins 5000 in Monaco (Kevin Morris photo)

Eleven years ago, Hagos Gebrhiwet ran 12:47.53 to finish 2nd in the famous 5,000-meter race at the Paris Diamond League that saw 11 men break 13:00 and six break 12:50. Before supershoes, that sort of depth was unheard of.

Since then, many of the top finishers in that race have retired or moved to the roads. When is the last time you heard the names Dejen Gebremeskel, Isiah Koech, Yenew Alamirew, or Thomas Longosiwa? Those were the other men in the top five alongside Gebrhiwet in Paris. Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele were 8th and 9th in that race.

The point? It’s very hard to stay near the top of the 5,000 meters for 11 years. And while Gebrhiwet has had some dips since then, he’s piled up some serious hardware (world silver in ‘13, world bronze in ‘15, Olympic bronze in ‘16) and tonight showed he remains one of the world’s best 5,000m runners as he beat a stellar field to win in 12:42.18 – a three-second pb at the age of 29 and good for #8 on the all-time list. Gebrhiwet hasn’t competed at Worlds/Olympics since 2019, when he finished 9th in the 10,000, and he’s now the #3 Ethiopian of the year behind Berihu Aregawi (12:40.45) and Yomif Kejelcha (12:41.73) and is in line for a place on the team for Budapest.

Gebrhiwet had to work for the victory. The pace was quick through 3000 (7:38.8, 12:44 pace) with seven men in the lead group. And considering the strength of the field and how quickly the likes of Jacob Kiplimo and Aregawi (both in this race) closed in Oslo and Lausanne, a world record – or at least a sub-12:40 – was not out of the question if someone picked it up.

Instead, last year’s Worlds silver medalist, Jacob Krop of Kenya, took the lead but could not keep the pace going, slowing to 62.3-62.3-62.4 from 3200 to 4400 (12:59 pace).

Gebrhiwet made the big move, seizing the lead with 1.5 laps to go and running his final 600 in 1:26.2 (56.7 final lap) to hold off Aregawi and fellow Ethiopian Telahun Bekele, who finished close behind in 12:42.58 and 12:42.70, respectively.

Though the world record was not seriously threatened, this race was still historically fast as it was the first race ever with three men under 12:45 and just the second with six under 12:50 – the first being that Paris race from 2012. In all, there were best marks for places 3-4-5-6 (12:42.58, 12:45.01, 12:46.02, 12:48.78) and Mohamed Katir of Spain ran 12:45.01 in 4th to break Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s 12:48.45 European record from 2021.

The men’s 5,000 remains one of the most exciting events in all of track & field this year as the four DL 5ks have been won by four different men (none of them the reigning world champ Ingebrigtsen) and the last three have been won in 12:41, 12:40, and 12:42.

It was not a good race for the Bowerman Track Club as two-time medallist Moh Ahmed only ran 13:01 and Cooper Teare only ran 13:19, although Teare did beat two-time world indoor 1500 champ Samuel Tefera.

Men’s Steeple: Welcome to Europe, Simon Koech!

For the first time since August 2021, there was a winner of a Diamond League steeplechase that was not named Soufiane El Bakkali or Lamecha Girma. The Moroccan and Ethiopian have dominated the event for many years, but tonight neither were present and a new star emerged: Simon Koech. 

Koech has never raced a steeple outside Kenya up until this point, but he won the Kenyan championships on June 24 in 8:26.00 and followed that up with a win at the Kenyan trials for Budapest on July 8 in 8:22.55. Both of these races were at almost 6,000 feet of altitude in Nairobi, so Koech’s ability was definitely faster than his previous PB of 8:18. However, he absolutely smashed his previous PB by 14 seconds, lowering it to 8:04 tonight. The young Kenyan puts himself into medal contention at Worlds with this performance, running the 3rd fastest time this year behind Girma’s WR and El Bakkali’s performance in Rabat. 

The race played out rather smoothly, as the pacer took them out at 8:05 pace through 1200m. Koech was right behind the pacer with fellow Kenyan Abraham Kibiwot (8:05 PB). The two Kenyans opened up a gap to the rest of the field and hit two laps to go at 5:57, with sub-8 within grasp with a hard close. However, the two slowed down and hit the bell at 7:00. Koech was able to pull away from Kibiwot on the final lap and threw in a huge surge through the water pit to catch up with the wavelight (8:05) and pass the lights coming down the homestretch to finish in 8:04. 

Most of the rest of the field had themselves great days as well, with 7 PBs behind Koech along with an Oceania record from George Beamish. This is particularly impressive from Beamish as he only started professionally running the steeplechase this season! He has dropped his time from 8:42 down to 8:13 in a matter of four months. Funnily enough, there were three Americans in the field and the one that finished last is the only one heading to Worlds to represent the USA. Anthony Rotich and Mason Ferlic finished 6th and 8th, running pbs of 8:13.74 and 8:16.03 respectively. Both of these times are the fastest by an American this year other than Hillary Bor (who is currently injured). Benard Keter, who is representing the U.S. in Budapest this year, finished dead last in this race in 8:29.61.

Final