The expert analyzes the events and talking points of the opening day of the diamond series final.
During the Diamond League finals weekend in Eugene, USA, Iltalehti’s athletics expert will be there Arto Bryggaren taste of fiasco in my opinion.
– The Yankees are just waking up when they compete in the middle of the day. It was quite a village competition. Only the Olympic Games should not be exported to the United States, if they do not list anything else. The judges are sometimes a little lost, and the atmosphere is nowhere near the same as in Zurich, commented Bryggare.
Based on TV images, the stadium, which can hold around 30,000 people, was at most a third of the maximum capacity in the stands of Hayward Field on Saturday, which started at 10:50 a.m. local time.
– Eugene is a complete failure. Let’s go from Europe to the United States and try to woo the Yankees in every way. The end result is that we go to a small village with a handful of spectators.
Of course, Eugene is the big city of American athletics, but perhaps the two-day final would have been better to organize on the old continent in terms of atmosphere and general interest.
In the Diamond League, which has been contested since 2010, the final has never been outside of Europe before.
– Zürich, Brussels or Rome, Bryggare lists more suitable places to host the final.
The competitions behind the rapako started on Saturday evening at 20:50 Finnish time and ended a little before midnight. The time window for Sunday’s second day is Finnish time from 21:15 to 01:00.
In Central Europe, we are one hour behind Finnish time and two in Great Britain.
– They tried to build Eugene’s competition schedule to suit European TV viewers, but the end result is not really convincing.
The hardest race of the season
Rai Benjamin won the 400 meter hurdles in the Diamond League final. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
The competition venue was not to the expert’s liking, but the quality of the opening day of the event was.
– All in all, the strongest athletics competition of the season, when the World Championships are not taken into account, says Bryggare.
He mentions the men’s mile, the women’s 100m, the men’s 400m hurdles and the women’s 1,500m.
– It was the hardest men’s 400-meter hurdle race in history, when all nine competitors were in the time bracket of 46.39–48.62 seconds.
of the USA Ray Benjamin stormed to victory with this season’s top result of 46.39. Norwegian Karsten Warholm was second (46.53).
– Faith Kipyegon is the strongest all-around athlete in the world this season, Bryggare says of the Kenyan who won the 1,500 meters in 3:50.72.
It has only gone stronger three times with a ton vitoso. Kipyegon’s ME this season is 3:49.11, Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaban the record is 3.50.07 and China’s Yunxia Qun the very questionable result from 1993 is 3:50.46.
ME coming
Shericka Jackson is on a roll. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Norway’s prodigy Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the mile in 3:43.73 and improved his own old record by almost three seconds.
– Yankee Yared Nuguse (3.43.97) made it a super race. Norski’s comments before the start to the Yankees were that “stay with us, and you will run hard”. Then it became a fight for victory, but that’s what it requires, to run hard.
The ME of the mile is of Hicham el-Guerrouj 3:43.13 from 1999. Other men who ran under 3:45.00 are Noah Ngeny (3:43,40 in the same race in Rome with el-Guerrouj) and Noureddine Morceli (3.44.39 from 1993).
Ingebrigtsen’s result is therefore the third best of all time and Nugusen’s fourth best.
– The ME of the mile is one of the toughest in athletics. Jakob was close to it. I believe he will break it yet. It could have gone already if the second round had been a bit tougher.
Another legendary ME that may go awry in the near future is the women’s 200m by Florence Griffith-Joyner 21.34.
That day could be Sunday in Eugene, because Jamaica Shericka Jackson is in a frenzy. He won the 100m final of the Diamond League on Saturday with a result of 10.70 despite a modest start.
– ME is possible if there is a 1.5 meter per second tailwind on Sunday, Bryggare estimates.
200 meters is the Jamaican’s main distance.
You’re out of the loop
Oliver Helander’s last three races of the 2023 season produced the results: 83.38, 83.65 and 83.74. PASI LEISMA
Oliver Helander threw 83.74 and finished by Jakub Vadljechin (84,24) and By Neeraj Chopra (83.80) for third in the javelin final.
– When he was able to hold the equipment and the run and stay upright, the throw stayed together quite well.
Helander maintained his best performances in the second and third rounds.
– He concentrated, didn’t fall over and kept his body straight.
The Finn’s problems started when he stepped on the gas.
– Helander thought I would throw 90 meters. That won’t work. Especially the last throw, when he fell backwards, got out of the athlete’s control.
The man from Oulu’s Pyrinnö regretted afterwards that a win was offered.
– He threw what he can. I don’t think he can do better. It was not the same situation as at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku in June.
Helander clocked his season’s best 87.32 in the Turku sports parks in a strong tailwind. There was a slight headwind in Eugene.
The Finn can be said to have been a man of eighty-three and a half meters in his last competitions of the season: 83.38 in the World Championships in Budapest, 83.65 in the Diamond League in Zurich and 83.74 in Eugene.
Budapest and Zurich were contested in quiet stadium conditions.
Tiredness struck
Wilma Murro’s best result of the 2023 season was 480 cents. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
Before the Diamond League final, Bryggare wondered why Wilma Murto traveled to the competition venue only on Thursday.
– Murto said in the interview that jetlag didn’t hit. I think he was a bit tired at the end, Bryggare assessed Salo after Saturday’s performance.
Murto was 4/6 in the competition with a result of 471 cents. The Finn exceeded the starting height by 441 centimeters on his first, 456 on his second and 471 on his third.
From a height of 481, Murto dropped once until he missed two attempts at a height of 486 centimeters. It was also too much for the Finn this time.
– Things fell apart a bit at the last height. He didn’t jump with the pipes with which he attempted a height of 490 in Budapest, and anyway, he wasn’t quite at the same level as at the World Championships.
From Hungary, the Finn took the World Championship bronze with a score of 480. The same score was used to win the Diamond League competition in London in July and European Championship gold in the Halle season.
– The season has been positive. As a top athlete, he took steps forward.