2019 Outdoors

[RunUnlimited]

A messy women's 5000m (with Helen Obiri falling late on) finished with Tirop (Kenya) winning in 14:50.82, the race speeding up over the last couple of laps. Worku (Ethiopia) came 2nd in a new PB, 14:51.31 with Reneguruk another Kenyan coming 3rd.
A surprise came from Canadian 24 year old Debues-Stafford in 4th place, in what is apparently her first ever 5000m race outdoors. (She has an indoor PB from this year of 14.57, coming behind Laura Muir in the Glasgow Indoor meet in January... which after checking her history on the IAAF website, was apparently her first EVER 5000m in OR outdoors!) Normally a 1500m runner, Stafford smashed the Canadian record of 14:54.98 set by Courtney Babcock back in the 2003 World Championships, with a 14:51.59 clocking.

Further down the standings, Elish McColgan, recently a victim of a robbery at her home, came 7th in 14:52.40, a good time and an easy qualifying time for Doha. In 8th was Melissa Courtney who ran a huge 5000m PB of 14:53.82, slashing over 11 seconds from her previous best time in the event and is also a qualifier for Doha in the summer! That time from Courtney puts her up to 6th place in the UK all-time list.

[philipo]

a stunning effort by DAS, 22.18 in very poor conditions. Surethat ET hated being in this race but ,in any event, I think we may have seen the best of her.

[RunUnlimited]

*Ahem*




Dina Asher-Smith.... I'm going to say it now.

She is the *favourite* for gold at the 200m in Doha, bar injury.

Elaine Thompson is not going to run the 200m in Doha due to her hamstring problems the last couple of years.

Schippers is not where she was in 2017, let alone 2015. She needs to improve by a LOT come September.

Miller-Uibo is not going to be to do the 200m/400m double because of the race schedule for the World Championships. So she's going for the 400m in Doha.

That leaves Sharika Jackson, Torie Bowie (who hardy ran at all last year) and the always possible prospect of a host of USA runners springing up out of nowhere with a super-fast time during the US trials. Oh, and Ta Lou too.


For as amazing as Asher-Smith was in Berlin last year, some folks pointed to her competition in the 100m and 200m (even with Schippers in both finals) and said that she had never run well or beaten anybody who was truly world class yet.

Just a little while ago in Stockholm, DAS *smashed* Thompson, Schippers and Prandini, in very cold, windy and damp conditions, in a *quicker* time than she won in Doha Diamond League (22.18 WL). And she won it in almost as dominant fashion as she did in the Doha race, well clear of Thompson in 2nd (22.66) and Schippers in 3rd (22.78).

Look, I get it, even Dina in her interview right now is stating that running quick in late May is great, but it'll be no good if she can't run well in September at the World Championships. Also, the likes of Schippers and Prandini will be in better shape come Doha, so she has to be ready and not take her great early season form for granted.

However, the way she won today, against the reigning World and Olympic champions, put the whole world on notice that Dina Asher-Smith is ready and waiting to make her mark on the world of sprinting.

[LuckySpikes]

LOL, NBCSN lived up to stereotype by taking a 3+ minute ad break during the 5000.

The race itself didn't go to type though. With the slower pace the non-Africans weren't dropped as they usually are after 3 laps. It suited them rather nicely having some bodies just in front to pull them to good times. Gabriella Stafford, by the way, is one of Laura Muir's training partners (since late 2017?)

I knew winning times were going to drop off in the women's 800 but I didn't expect a 2:00.9! Conditions probably didn't help though judging by the times in the other distance races.

Cracking stuff by Dasher!

Great opener for Warholm. He's amassing quite the collection of sub-48s. Surely only a matter of time before he takes down Diagana's 47.37 ER.

By the way, were the pacemakers in the men's 1500 trying to set 200m PBs?!! Just ridiculous.

Finally, we complain about field event coverage on the BBC but, boy oh boy, try living in America! I've watched plenty of athletics on ESPN and they're not great at field events but wow, NBCSN took it to new depths almost completely replacing the field event coverage with old race footage and full-screen graphics about the race coming up.

[RunUnlimited]

a stunning effort by DAS, 22.18 in very poor conditions. Sure that ET hated being in this race but ,in any event, I think we may have seen the best of her.

Even though she had a healthy wind pushing her on (1.3 m/s), that time from Dina was mightily impressive. In warmer conditions, that was a sub 22 run, something in the 21.9 region, certainly.

[hemlock]

I'm sure DAS is aiming to peak in Doha. She is just very good now.
Her normal season progression, based on where she is now, could conceivably mean 21.6 or 21.7 in the summer.
(And I'm afraid I don't trust Jones' or Flo-Jo's times, so DAS, _if_ she stays fit, might possibly have a crack at Schippers' true world record in Doha!)

[RunUnlimited]

I'm sure DAS is aiming to peak in Doha. She is just very good now.
Her normal season progression, based on where she is now, could conceivably mean 21.6 or 21.7 in the summer.
(And I'm afraid I don't trust Jones' or Flo-Jo's times, so DAS, _if_ she stays fit, might possibly have a crack at Schippers' true world record in Doha!)

Well, that is a very bold prediction Hemlock! 21.6 - 21.7? That would be something to see in Doha!

About Marion Jones and Flo-Jo... Well Flo-Jo is a no brainer and I agree with your assessment of her. As for Jones... My own personal opinion was that before the year 2000, Jones had been a clean athlete coming out of college and was just naturally fast as heck. However come 2000, she, along with then-husband C.J Hunter, became part of the whole BALCO "supplement" group and Jones started doping in earnest then. So basically her pre-2000 performances (including her still standing 100m and 200m PBs from 98) were legit, everything 2000 and after were tainted.

[trickstat]

While I think you may be right about Jones it should be pointed out that those 98 times were at altitude.

[treadwater1]

Beating Thompson by that margin was impressive, a lot of people were saying after her Nanjing race she was back in contention, well Dina improved aswell. Almost 5 tenths on the Olympic champion! Before the outdoor season started I felt maybe Dina would be in similar shape to last year and run similar times (conditions in Berlin were exceptional) but there’s no doubt she has moved up a level, Doha is a long way away and there’s a fair few athletes who haven’t shown their hand. It’s true SMU probably won’t line up in the 200, but I wouldn’t rule out Bowie being a factor. She has the fastest time over the last few years 21.77, beating SMU in the process in Eugene in 2017. Gabi Thomas beat Dina last year in London aswell and is in the ascendency in general. It’s too early to call Dina the favourite for Doha.

Ta Lou had the better of her head to head wise last year and they meet next week in Rome

Enjoyed watching Stahl again tonight, he could well get a legitimate throw out to 73m this season

[RunUnlimited]

Beating Thompson by that margin was impressive, a lot of people were saying after her Nanjing race she was back in contention, well Dina improved aswell. Almost 5 tenths on the Olympic champion! Before the outdoor season started I felt maybe Dina would be in similar shape to last year and run similar times (conditions in Berlin were exceptional) but there’s no doubt she has moved up a level, Doha is a long way away and there’s a fair few athletes who haven’t shown their hand. It’s true SMU probably won’t line up in the 200, but I wouldn’t rule out Bowie being a factor. She has the fastest time over the last few years 21.77, beating SMU in the process in Eugene in 2017. Gabi Thomas beat Dina last year in London aswell and is in the ascendency in general. It’s too early to call Dina the favourite for Doha.

Ta Lou had the better of her head to head wise last year and they meet next week in Rome

Enjoyed watching Stahl again tonight, he could well get a legitimate throw out to 73m this season

Bowie's a threat absolutely... *if* she is in her 2017 form that is. She's the reigning 100m World Champ, but in the 200m, she didn't show for the heats in London and only ran one 200m race in the whole of 2018 (and she ran very sparingly in the 100m last year too). We just have to wait and see what she has in terms of form when she starts here 2019 outdoor season.

Gabi Thomas? Yeah, she beat Dina in London. Then Dina beat her in the post-Berlin 200m at Birmingham, coming 2nd to Thomas' 6th place. I dunno, looking at her results history, I'm not seeing anything too exceptional about Thomas yet. Maybe that will change later in the season.

As for Ta Lou? Gonna see if Dina's current form will continue against he nemesis over 100m last year. I'm looking forward to them both racing against each other again, and I'm sure the weather in Rome will be more conducive to fast times next week.

However, I still think Dina is probably the favourite at least over 200m in Doha at the moment on current form.

[miles]

If you have access to the Eurosport Player, they have the 10000m available on catch up.

[Ursus]

Enjoyed watching Stahl again tonight, he could well get a legitimate throw out to 73m this season

Or further. Disc is an event that lends itself to anomalous performances.

What most people don’t realise is that Schult’s WR was a total outlier. He ever had one other throw over 70 in his entire career - 70.46 in 1988, only the 59th best of all time. Stahl’s already banked a 71.29 and a 70.56. Just needs a decent wind....

Looking at the lists I didn’t realise that Sweden had previously had a 71m thrower in Bruch in the 80s.

Not a lot to add about Dasher that others haven’t already said. Hugely impressive.

[larkim]

Had to laugh at Lynsey Sharp finishing in more or less exactly the same position that she does when the athletes like Semenya etc that she rails against aren't on the start line. Someone with a definitely over-inflated sense of her own capability, it seems to me.

I was able to watch the DL live on Eurosport player on my phone / iPad. Is it only those who are trying to watch on TV that are missing out on live broadcast?

[RunUnlimited]

Had to laugh at Lynsey Sharp finishing in more or less exactly the same position that she does when the athletes like Semenya etc that she rails against aren't on the start line. Someone with a definitely over-inflated sense of her own capability, it seems to me.

I was able to watch the DL live on Eurosport player on my phone / iPad. Is it only those who are trying to watch on TV that are missing out on live broadcast?

I know I was perhaps a tad too harsh on Lawrence Okoye's apparent return to athletics after his misadventures in the USA the last few years and I apologized for that on one of the other threads here....

However I have NO time at all to spare on Lynsey *bleeping* Sharp, possibly one of the most self-entitled, arrogant and lacking in self-awareness athletes I've seen in many years.

Look, she might have had a case a few years ago when she ran several races in the 1:57 - 1:58's but was nowhere near the front of the fields with Semenya, Niyonsaba and Wambui in them. But Lynsey hasn't been in that sort of form since at least 2016, maybe even before then. When was the last time she broke the 2 minute barrier? When was the last time she was actually *competitive* in an 800m race?

Heck, at the NATIONAL level in the last few years, she's been struggling to get into GB squads and even make it to major championships.

And yet when news about Semenya's case and it's result came out, who was the first athlete available to give an opinion on it? Who else but Lynsey Sharp.

Well Lynsey, you got what you wanted. The big, bad Semenya, Wambui and Niyonsaba have all been taken out of the picture (for now at least) and everything is much "fairer" for you now. So now you can show the world just how "good" you are and how badly you've been treated by those women you've been "unfairly" competing against, right?


Oh? What's that? You're *still* trailing in at the back of Diamond League races against the likes of Wilson, Alemu and Jepkosgei? Hmm.... Maybe, just maybe Lynsey, it's *you* that needs to get a new perspective on your own "talent" and just how good you think you are. Focus on that rather than making excuses about how you've been denied all this time.

[larkim]

I'm glad it's not just me then!! Maybe she's unlucky in the way she comes across (I had similar feelings about Rutherford in the past, but I've massively changed my opinion since then), but you've articulated exactly what goes through my head about her. Though perhaps I was too polite to share it as clearly!

[drobbie]

I know I was perhaps a tad too harsh on Lawrence Okoye's apparent return to athletics after his misadventures in the USA the last few years and I apologized for that on one of the other threads here....

However I have NO time at all to spare on Lynsey *bleeping* Sharp, possibly one of the most self-entitled, arrogant and lacking in self-awareness athletes I've seen in many years.

Look, she might have had a case a few years ago when she ran several races in the 1:57 - 1:58's but was nowhere near the front of the fields with Semenya, Niyonsaba and Wambui in them. But Lynsey hasn't been in that sort of form since at least 2016, maybe even before then. When was the last time she broke the 2 minute barrier? When was the last time she was actually *competitive* in an 800m race?

Heck, at the NATIONAL level in the last few years, she's been struggling to get into GB squads and even make it to major championships.

And yet when news about Semenya's case and it's result came out, who was the first athlete available to give an opinion on it? Who else but Lynsey Sharp.

Well Lynsey, you got what you wanted. The big, bad Semenya, Wambui and Niyonsaba have all been taken out of the picture (for now at least) and everything is much "fairer" for you now. So now you can show the world just how "good" you are and how badly you've been treated by those women you've been "unfairly" competing against, right?


Oh? What's that? You're *still* trailing in at the back of Diamond League races against the likes of Wilson, Alemu and Jepkosgei? Hmm.... Maybe, just maybe Lynsey, it's *you* that needs to get a new perspective on your own "talent" and just how good you think you are. Focus on that rather than making excuses about how you've been denied all this time.

slag her off all you want but she was robbed of an olympic bronze in 2016 by the three xy cheats, possibly she is past her best now, but the fact that people are having a go at her for being one of the few to have the courage to tell the truth about semenya and the other two is beyond the pale, semenyas bleating about fairness is what sickens me, absolutely sick of her and people lauding her for her 'courage' in competing with an unfair advantage two scots have been robbed by her in recent years

[larkim]

There's no cheating about Semenya, whatever else you might think about the DSD athlete situation. Cheat is the wrong word.

[drobbie]

as far as i am concerned its cheating, she knows she has an unfair advantage and refuses to do anything about it and continues to try and game the system

[RunUnlimited]

The answer to your question is that Sharp last went under the 2 minute barrier in the last Diamond League of 2018, actually winning the DL in Brussels on 31st August. You seem to be making similar mistakes to your Okoye comments. To me you are judging people you don't know very harshly and writing them off too soon.

I don't care what Sharp is like as a person. She clearly doesn't do herself any favours in this mad age of social media and knee-jerk reactions to anything a person says. However I have every sympathy with the women athletes whose careers have been blighted by the inter-sex athletes. Obviously there are others ahead of Sharp on that list who would have won medals and benefitted financially from their talent. To keep motivating themselves through those years of unfair competition must have taken a huge effort.

Woo. She won that Diamond League event. (Run against the other 800m also-rans in a non-scoring event btw) Fine for her.

Too often though she has been found wanting in the 800m both internationally and on a domestic level.

Tell me, do you think Sharp, with Semenya, Niyonsaba and Wambui (possibly temporarily) out of the picture, that she'll at least make the 800m final in Doha judging by the form she's shown in the last 18 months or so? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't she fail to win a medal at the Euro Champs last year, when she was one of the medal favourites along with Lamote and Pryshchepa, even Adelle Tracey.... And she ran *terribly* (along with Tracey and Oskan-Clarke) in a slow race and only came 6th.

No Semenya, Niyonsaba and Wambui there. So what was her excuse that time? As you pointed out, she was good enough to win the Brussels Diamond League race (which again I point out was a *non-scoring* Diamond League event. The main 800m Diamond League race, with all the big 800m names, was in Zurich. Sharp was not in that field for obvious reasons.) So why was she so poor in a race of her peers in the Euros?

Has she and the other athletes been unfairly treated? I'm not so sure. Semenya certainly has a case that she feels she's been discriminated against through circumstances that she had no control over.

My problem with Sharp is that she presents herself as some unofficial authority on the sanctity of the sport of athletics, like someone who has achieved big things on the track and she can snipe at her perceived enemies with impunity.

Kelly Holmes never felt the need to do that, and she ran in an era where a lot of her rivals were either doping or were once-in-a-lifetime talents of that era (Mutola). She suffered terrible injury setbacks and emotional and mental turmoil at various times in her career. And yet she rose above that all and *beat* her rivals comprehensively in Athens, including the dominant, seemingly unbeatable 800m star of that time, Maria Mutola, to win gold.

Holmes managed that without moaning about the "unfairness" of running against Mutola and a bunch of Russian dopers in the 90's and early 2000's. Unlike Sharp, she got with the hard work of training herself and bettering herself until she could beat them all. Maybe Lynsey should take some inspiration from that for a change?