by Stuart WeirStuart Weir is at a meet in Europe for the first time since 2019. He will visit Lausanne, Paris, and Zurich. No Brussels (the quarantine was challenging).
This is Stuart Weir’s first piece on Lausanne. By all indications, he loved it! 
Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce ran 10.60 this evening! photo by Diamond League AG
Lausanne Intro
The Lausanne Athletissima had everything. The city isn’t bad either – a lake, mountains, the HQ of the International Olympic Committee, and European Athletics. But to get back to the meet, a four-hour program of 18 Diamond events was preceded by a range of national races to entertain the early-comers and give local athletes a chance to be part of the big event. The main program had sprints, hurdles, middle distance, plus throws, and jumps aplenty. And there was even a sprint relay to finish. The relay ended in disappointment for some but not for me when Great Britain overtook Switzerland on the final few meters.
Ryan Crouser won the shot put in 22.81m, photo by Diamond League AG
Some of the stars of our sport won – Ryan Crouser, in his “I’m from Texas” cowboy hat, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen to name but two! There were Olympic Champions who were beaten – Emmanuel Korir and Hansie Parchment for example.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran 10.60 today, with Elaine Thompson in second, 10.64, photo by Diamond League AG
The women’s 100 produced the expected Jamaican 1-2 but this time it was Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price (10.60) who crossed the line first with Olympic Champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.64), second. How can you run 10.64 and come second?
Femke Bol took the 400m hurdles in a new meet record, photo by Diamond League AG
Femke Bol won the 400h beating Dalilah Muhammed and Shamier Little. Of course, it is the end of a long season and some athletes are past their Olympic peak but the progress that Femke Bol has made in 2021 is remarkable.
Kenny Bednarek ran 19.65 in the 200m, photo by Diamond League AG
That said I think Scott Simpson tweeted some wise words tonight: “Comparing post-Games performances with those at the Games and/or post-Games head-to-heads with athletes who did or did not perform at the Games seems foolish, irrelevant and unnecessary to me”.
The one thing that I could have done without is being on the athlete bus which broke down leaving some of us to walk the last mile to the stadium. I can report that there are a lot of hills in Lausanne.
