2022 Diamond League Diary: El Bakkali remains unbeaten, Niyonsaba comes back strongly as Ingebrigtsen stamps his authority in Lausanne

As is Justin Lagat’s modus operandi, the senior writer for RunBlogRun for Kenya, wrote on the middle and long distance races at the Athletissima meeting.

Just a few words on Soufiane El Bakkali. Possessing the speed of a fine miler (3:31.95 at 1,500m, 7:37.18) and range (half marathon best of 1:05.42), along with fine hurdling skills, Soufiane El Bakkali is the Anders Garderud of his generation. 

The era of Soufiane El Bakkali’s dominance in the men’s 3000m steeplechase continued to stretch at the 2022 Lausanne Diamond League meeting after he did a solo run to win the race in 8:02.45.

The reigning World and Olympic Champion from Morocco remained just behind the pacesetters after the first 1000m that was crossed in a fast 2:39.04 and was alone at the front after the pacers were done with their duties at the 2000m mark in 5:21.03.

Behind El, Bakkali was an exciting battle for second place among Leornard Bett, Hailemariyam Amare, and Amos Serem that lasted almost to the finish line between Bett and Amare, where Amare edged Bett by a micro-second as they finished in 8:12.07 and 8:12.08 respectively. Serem faded on the homestretch and was overtaken by China’s Ryuji Miura.

In the women’s 3000m race, Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba sprinted strongly in the last 30 meters to upset Alicia Monson of the USA, who had been leading in the last half of the race, just at the finish line. In a very close margin of 0.01 seconds, Niyonsaba registered a new meeting record of 8:26.80 to emerge victorious against Monson’s 8:26.81. Kenya’s newly crowned 5000m Commonwealth Games champion, Beatrice Chebet, finished third in 8:27.14.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen amended his 2nd place at the World Championships, where he had lost the race to Jake Wightman by running a new world-leading time of 3:29.05 to win the competitive men’s 1500m race. The Norwegian had quickly stretched his gap on the rest just after the bell and was safely ahead by almost 20m with 200m to go. Kenya’s Abel Kipsang fought off a surge by Australia’s Stewart McSweyn on the home straight to finish second in a seasonal best time of 3:29.93. McSweyn, also in a seasonal best time, finished 3rd in 3:30.18.

To stress the unpredictability of the 1500m event, newly crowned 1500m champion Oliver Hoare of Australia finished 12th in 3:37.81, while Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot finished 7th in 3:32.91.