by Larry Eder
The 2023 Eugene Diamond League event was arguably the best-ever Diamond League meeting in history, given the number of world-leading performances, world records, meeting records, area records, national records, and personal best performances that were registered.
Gudaf Tsegay’s is one of the performances that stand out from the amazing meet after she set a new world record 0f 14:00.21 in the women’s 5000m. For twelve years, the world record had stood at 14:11.15 before Letesenbet Gidey improved it to 14:06.62 in October 2020. It took another three years before Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon took it from the Ethiopians and brought it to Kenya after running 14:05.20 in June at the Paris Diamond League.
Tsegay ran a balanced race with consistent laps of around 67 seconds throughout, only going a little faster in the last two laps, where she ran 1:05.61 and 1:04.55, respectively. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, who had trailed Tsegay for the better part of the race, ran an impressive 14:05.92 in second place as Ejgayehu Taye came to finish third in 14:21.52.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigsen was another impressive star of the meeting as he inched closer to the world record in the men’s 1-mile after a spectacular run where he won the race in a new Area Record, Diamond League Record, Meeting Record, World Leading, and personal best time of 3:43.73. Yared Nuguse of USA benefited from sticking behind him as he also set a new American Record and personal best time of 3:43.97. Mill George of Great Britain took third in 3:47.65, which was also a personal best time. There were three more national records and a World U20 record by Reynold Cheruiyot behind them.
Ingebrigtsen would come back the following day and repeat the same feat in the men’s 3000m race, running another AR, DLR, MR, WL, and PB of 7:23.63. Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia followed him to earn a new national record of 7:23.64 ahead of USA’s Grant Fisher in a new Area record of 7:25.47.
In the women’s 3000m steeplechase race, Winfred Mutile Yavi of Bahrain ran a sensational 8:50.66, which was an area record, meeting record, personal best, and world-leading time, after a thrilling battle with Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech in the closing stages of the race. Chepkoech ran 8:51.37 ahead of Faith Cherotich in 8:59.65.
A day before she could watch her world record being broken in the 5000m event, Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon had run another fast 1500m on the first day of the meet. She had run so close to her world record as she registered a new meeting record of 3:50.72 ahead of Ethiopian Diribe Welteji, who finished second in 3:53.93, and Great Britain’s Laura Muir, who ran 3:55.16 for third place.
Kenya’s Simon Koech proved that he is now the Kenyan to watch out for in the men’s 3000m steeplechase event after running 8:06.26 to win the Diamond League trophy ahead of Ethiopia’s youngster, Samuel Firewu, who finished second in 8:10.74 and George Beamish of New Zealand in 8:14.01.
In a meeting record, world-leading and personal best time of 1:42.80, Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the men’s 800m race, leading Canada’s Marc Arop to a national record of 1:42.85 in second place, and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjani to a personal best time of 1:43.06.
All the top three women in the 800m race recorded new national records for their respective countries, led by Athing Mu, who set a new meeting record and a world-leading 1:54.97 ahead of Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson in 1:55.19 and Jamaica’s Natoya Goule in 1:55.96.
