Brave New World

                                                            by Mark Cullen

It’s a late night for track and field statisticians.

So many lists, so many revisions.

The statistics are staggering.

Yared Nuguse (US) runs 3:43.97 for the mile and finishes second.

New Zealand’s Sam Tanner runs 3:49.51 and finishes eleventh.

Indeed, the slowest of the 13 finishers in Saturday’s Diamond League Final Bowerman Mile was Kenya’s Abel Kipsang in 3:53.50. 

Ahead of him was Elliott Giles of Great Britain, whose faster than 58 seconds per lap pace garnered him only a 12^th place finish.

Usually, 6th place doesn’t get much ink. Perhaps it should this time. University of Oregon graduate Cole Hocker demolished his PB by almost 3 seconds and ran 3:48.08 – two-tenths of a second behind Kenya’s Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot.

The significance of Cheruiyot’s 3:48.06?

It’s the World Junior (U20) record; this lad turned 19 at the end of July.

Did we mention? Jakob Ingebrigtsen won by a nose, outleaning Naguse to win in 3:43.73, a scant six-tenths short of the world record.

    Jared Naguse and Jakob Ingebrigsten

     Photo by Matthew Quine for Diamond League AG

The madness extended well past the men’s mile.

Faith Kipyegon (Ken) outsprinted one of the deepest fields in history.

Trouble was, it wasn’t a sprint – or was it? She scared her own 1500m world record of 3:49.11 with a stellar, dominating 3:50.72, a 3+ second margin over Ethiopia’s Diribe Weltije.

3:59.57 got you 9^th in the women’s 1500m, as Great Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant found out the hard way.

Nine women finished under 4:00 minutes.

Sub-4:00 for 1500m has become the benchmark for women that running sub-4:00 for the mile once was for men.

Now, it’s sub-3:50 for male milers. Will it soon be 3:55.0 for women? Is it already?

Faith Kipyegon 

photo by Marta Gorcznska for Diamond League AG

Rai Benjamin (US) wasn’t leading over the final hurdle of the men’s 400m hurdles, but he was leading when it counted most: at the finish line, just a few meters later.

His 46.39 leads the world this year and is the meet as well as Diamond League record. Karsten Warholm’s 46.53 is, astonishingly, none of those. Today, what that got him was 2^nd in the 7^th fastest performance ever.

 Washington State’s popular graduate CJ Allen got a sweet ovation upon introduction; his 48.62 – not long ago a lock for a podium finish -  got him 9^th and last as the top 7 broke 48.00.

 A look at the all-time lists reveals that longtime world record hurdler Kevin Young (46.78 in ’92) dropped off the all-time top 10 performance list today, joining Edwin Moses (47.04, ’83), who preceded him in statistical purgatory.

Shall we continue? 

How about 8:51.67, the #3 time in women’s steeplechase history?

You’re on to this by now: yes, this was second place for Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech behind Winfred Mutile Yavi’s winning 8:50.66, the second fastest ever.

The current world record holder second to the current World champion.

Yulimar Rojas won the triple jump at 15.35 (50 4 ½), just outside the all-time top ten. If only she didn’t already have 9 of those top 10 marks, she might have had even more to celebrate today.

Chase Ealey set the American and Diamond League records in the women’s shot put at 20.76 (68-1½). And Katie Moon set the pole vault meet record of 4.86 (15-11 1/4).

Meanwhile, no one in the men’s and women’s javelin, men’s triple jump, and men’s steeplechase got a personal best, season’s best, Diamond League record, etc. These results keep us grounded.

One stat stands out above all others today:

In the men’s mile, 13/13 ran season’s bests, a result so unlikely as to seem almost anomalous.

It gets better.

11/13 ran personal bests

6/13 ran national/area records.

When we say that everyone in the men’s mile peaked at just the right time, we’re not kidding.

Said Ingebrigtsen, “Everything is possible.”