2024 Rome DL: Tebogo Puts on a Show as Yavi Scares Steeple World Record

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The Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, the penultimate regular season Diamond League track & field/athletics meeting of the 2024 season, was held today at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico. We give you our biggest takeaways from the events that most interested us: women’s steeplechase, men’s 5000, women’s 1500, men’s 100, and men’s shot put.

In other action, Ackera Nugent took the women’s 100 hurdles (12.24 WL), Muzala Samukonga won the men’s 400 (43.99), Brittany Brown took the women’s 200 (22.00), Sasha Zhoya (13.18) won the men’s 110 hurdles, and Anna Cockrell won the women’s 400 hurdles (52.59). In the field events, American Olympic champ Tara Davis-Woodhall won her first Diamond League meet in the long jump (7.02), Sanghyeok Woo won the high jump (2.30), Kristjan Ceh won the discus (68.61), Andy Diaz Hernandez won the triple (17.32), and Nina Kennedy won the pole vault (4.83) — the same height achieved by runner-up Sandi Morris of the USA. 

*Compiled 2024 Rome results *WA Full meet recap

Men’s 100: Tebogo wins again and puts on a show

Letsile Tebogo dominated the Olympic 200m final in Paris on August 8, and ever since then, the 21-year-old from Botswana has been red hot. Last week, he claimed Diamond League 200m wins in Lausanne and Silesia and today he made it three post-Olympic wins from three as he took down a strong field to win the 100 in 9.87, just .01 off his pb set in the Olympic final.

Tebogo has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he views Olympic 100m Noah Lyles as the current face of sprinting and not himself. But considering Lyles has ended his 2024 season, Tebogo is doing a very good job deputizing in his absence. Tonight, a playful Tebogo made hand gestures to the crowd before and after the race, but he was most entertaining during the race.

As usual, Christian Coleman started well, but Tebogo gained on him during the second half of the race. At 80 meters, Tebogo looked over to see where he stood, and as soon as he saw he was level with Coleman, he began celebrating, jutting out his chest and throwing his arms back before crossing the finish line. It called to mind Tebogo’s early celebration in the 2022 World U20 100m final – and served as a reminder that Tebogo can be a showman too when he wants to be. It will be a treat for track fans to see him race a fully-fit Lyles in 2025.

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Women’s steeple: Yavi comes .07 shy of world record

The wavelight for the women’s steeplechase was “only” set to a pace of 8:52.76, this year’s world-leading time by Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi. But it quickly became apparent that 2021 Olympic champ Peruth Chemutai wanted to run much faster, overtaking the pacer before 800 and hitting 1000m under world record pace at 2:54.3. At that point, Chemutai had dropped most of the field, with fellow 2024 Olympic medalists Yavi and Faith Cherotich five meters back and no one else remotely close.

Chemutai would slow to 2:55.4 for the next kilometer, and after a penultimate lap of 72 seconds, the world record appeared to be off. But Yavi still had something left, taking the lead at the bell. Chemutai battled back and the two were even across the final water jump, but Yavi came off it stronger and really dropped the hammer in the home straight, closing in 65.5 for the last lap to win in 8:44.39, missing Beatrice Chepkoech’s world record by just .07. Chemutai held on to finish 2nd in 8:48.03 to move to #3 on the all-time list and become just the third woman ever under 8:50.

Cherotich was 3rd in 8:57.65 while US champ Val Constien posted her best DL finish and second-fastest time of her career by finishing 4th in 9:04.92. Fellow American Gabi Jennings PR’d by more than four seconds to run 9:07.70 and move to #6 on the all-time US list.

What a run by Yavi, who might be wondering about that missing .07

It’s hard to be upset when you PR by six seconds and run the second-fastest time in the history of the world, but when you come just .07 shy of the world record, it’s natural to wonder if you could have done anything differently. It definitely helped Yavi to have Chemutai pushing the pace for almost the entire race, but Chemutai started to slow and tire on the second-to-last lap as Yavi moved close to her. Perhaps Yavi would have run faster had she moved to the front slightly earlier.

The other, more obvious area for improvement was the final barrier, which Yavi stutter-stepped badly on the way in and did not hurdle smoothly. That, of course, is the challenge of the steeplechase – the more tired you are, the more difficult the barriers become. 

Overall, this was still a sensational run, but Yavi said she was hoping to get the WR.

“I looked at the time after the race and I went ‘Oh, no!’” Yavi told meet organizers. “I was really expecting that record and I was going for it. I definitely feel I should break it and I believe it will happen. I need to work even harder. And I am planning to have another go at it before the end of the season.”

Women’s 1500: Kipyegon keeps 3+ year unbeaten streak alive in 1500

Courtesy Diamond League AG

The pacing lights in the women’s 1500 were set to Faith Kipyegon’s 3:49.11 meet record from last year – a world record when Kipyegon ran it but now only #2 all-time after Kipyegon’s 3:49.04 earlier this year. But after some uneven pacing from first-time rabbit Winnie Nanyondo (59.97 at 400, 2:04.15 at 800), the record slipped away and instead Kipyegon found herself with a challenge on her hands with Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull and 18-year-old Ethiopian star Birke Haylom following her closely on the last lap.

Eventually, however, Kipyegon did what she always does and pulled away convincingly over the final 100 to win in 3:52.89 (29.2 final 200) to win by more than a second over runner-up Freweyni Hailu, who closed well to take 2nd in 3:54.16 ahead of Haylom (3:54.79) and Hull (3:54.98). Kipyegon’s victory was her 19th straight in the 1500 dating back to June 2021.

Quick Take: It’s still wild that Freweyni Hailu did not get to run at the Olympics

Hailu has had a terrific 2024 season. This winter, she ran the indoor world lead of 3:55.28 and won all five of her races, including the World Indoor title. Outdoors, she has finished outside of the top two in just one of her six 1500s. Unfortunately for Hailu, that was the super fast Diamond League opener in Xiamen on April 20 where Gudaf Tsegay ran 3:50 and Haylom ran 3:53. With Diribe Welteji running 3:53.75 at Pre (a meet where Hailu ran the 5,000 instead), Hailu only had the fourth-best time by an Ethiopian woman in 2024 and was left off the Olympic team when Tsegay decided to triple.

Would Hailu have medalled in Paris? Not necessarily – Welteji ran 3:52.75 and failed to medal, which is much faster than the 3:54.15 pb Hailu ran tonight. But moving forward, Ethiopia needs to move to a trials format for the women’s 1500. If someone as good as Hailu is left off the team, it should be because someone beat her head to head at a trials – not because she ran poorly at a meet China in April. 

Men’s 5,000: Gebrhiwet wins as world record attempt fizzles

This race was billed as a world record attempt ahead of time, with a strong field and the Wavelight set to target Joshua Cheptegei’s 12:35.36 WR from 2020. But the pacers could only make it 2k, and though Berihu Aregawi tried to keep it going initially, hitting 3k in 7:37.6 (12:42 pace), no one wanted to push it during the fourth kilometer and the WR attempt fell apart. That led to a mad seven-man dash for the win over the final lap and, just as in Oslo earlier this year, it was Hagos Gebrhiwet who closed best, using a terrific 53.3 final lap to prevail in 12:51.07 (25.7 final 200) as the top six men all ran 12:51.

Quick Take: A few things derailed this WR attempt

Given Aregawi ran 7:21 five days ago in Silesia and both Gebrhiwet (12:36) and Yomif Kejelcha (12:38) broke 12:40 earlier this year in Oslo, we thought a world record might be possible in Rome, even if the man best-equipped to break it (Jakob Ingebrigtsen) was not competing. It’s possible that Aregawi and Kejelcha – who also raced on Sunday – were tired as we are reaching the end of the season (it is notable that Gebrhiwet did not run in Silesia).

But there are two main factors that prevented truly fast times. The first is the pacemaking. The rabbits did not last long. And to get truly fast times in a race like this, you need someone to do what Kejelcha did in Oslo earlier this year and make sure the pace does not lag during the fourth kilometer when the pacer drops off. It’s not an enviable job – it takes a lot out of you, and Kejelcha wound up getting outkicked for the win earlier this year – but if no one does it, everyone starts thinking about the win instead of the time and you’ve got no chance at the record.

The other factor that slowed times tonight was the weather. The high today in Rome was 96 degrees Fahreneit. This race did not start until after 10 p.m. local time, so the temperature had dropped, but it was still very uncomfortable for distance runners: 80 degrees, 68% humidity, and a dew point of 69. Yes, the conditions were similar when Cheptegei ran his WR, but Cheptegei ran fast in spite of the weather, not because of it. LRC guru John Kellogg says the ideal temperatures for a 5,000 would be somewhere between 55 and 60 degrees.

Men’s shot put: Ryan Crouser now has 6 meets where all 6 of his throws were 22+

Tonight in Rome, Crouser had six throws over 22m, and his winning throw of 22.49 in round 2 was a meet record. 22 meters is quite a good throw — only 38 men have ever done it outdoors.

Yet check this out: this is the 6th meet in his career where Ryan Crouser has had all six throws of a series over 22m.

Ryan Crouser’s Meets Where All Six Throws Were 22m+

2024 – 1 (Rome)
2023 – 2 (USATF LA Grand Prix & London DL)
2021 – 2 (Olympics and Zagreb)
2020 – 1 (Drake)

When he did it for the first time at Drake, he was only the second man in history to accomplish the feat (Alessandro Andrei of Italy did it in 1987). Since then, Joe Kovacs has also done it once this year at Prefontaine.

Talk about the meet on our world-famous messageboard/fan forum:

• Official Rome DL Discussion Thread – Lights set at 12:35 in Rome – Will we see a world record? (Reaction show at 5 pm ET) 1
• Winfred Yavi ALMOST breaks the steeplechase world record 8:44.39 in Rome! Chemutai 8:48.03
  
• Ryan Crouser had six throws over 22m tonight – That’s the 6th time he’s done that. Who else has done it?

Want a podcast recap of Rome? Click here for the LetsRun.com Supporters Club podcast or you can watch for free on youtube here.

*Compiled 2024 Rome results *WA Full meet recap