Nearly Thompson-Hera's record and Richardson's failure

The first major athletics competition after the Olympic Games was the stage of the Diamond League in the American Eugene.

It brought together many stars of running and jumping, except perhaps Maria Lasitskene and Angelica Sidorova, who did not receive a visa to travel to the United States.

The most intriguing event of this traditional tournament was to be the women's 100m race. Before the Tokyo Olympics, many fans were familiar with the name Shakarri Richardson. In the summer, the American athlete won the selection for the national team with a good result of 10.86 seconds and immediately became a star thanks to her bright image and loud statements. But then Richardson tested positive for marijuana and was suspended for one month. The Olympics, in which the result shown by her would still not have brought medals, passed without her.

In Eugene, athletics could finally compare Richardson with the other fastest runners in the world.

Of the eight participants in the Olympic final, six came to the United States, including all the medalists from Jamaica, led by Elaine Thompson-Hera.

But there was no struggle between them.

Richardson failed and finished last with 11.14 seconds.

But the five-time Olympic champion Thompson-Hera created a sensation.

She won with a time of 10.54 seconds - the second time in the history of women's 100m running.Only American Florence Griffith-Joyner was faster at this distance 33 years ago, whose world record is 10.49 seconds.

Fast one hundred meters for men

The men's 100m race also exceeded all the fans' wildest expectations.

Of the nine participants, eight were able to run out of 10 seconds at once - this happened for the first time in the history of athletics.

True, the tailwind of the athletes also exceeded the permissible 2 m / s, but even in such conditions, sprinters have never been able to show such phenomenal results.

The best was Canadian Andre de Grasse.

He ran the distance in 9.74 seconds - with such a result he could overtake Italian Marcel Jacobs in Tokyo, who finished the season immediately after his sensational victory at the Olympics.

Justin Gatlin deserves a separate mention.

The 39-year-old winner of the Athens Games finished sixth with a time of 9.93 seconds.

Uncrowned Jeruto

Another failed Olympic champion was Kenyan runner Nora Jeruto.

Her only significant career achievement is winning the African 3000m hurdles championship in 2016.

She has never been selected for her national team either for the World Championships or the Olympic Games.

But in Eugene, Jeruto instantly became the top star in athletics.

She ran the distance in 8: 53.65, and this result was the third in the history of the steeplechase.

Only her compatriot Beatrice Chepkoech and the representative of Bahrain, Ruth Jebet, turned out to be faster.

Had Jeruto performed in Tokyo, she would have won gold by a huge margin, since none of the athletes there ran out of nine minutes.

Ignatieva's "golden" disc

On the same days, another important event for athletics is being held in Nairobi - the junior world championship for athletes under 20 years old.

For a long time, the Russian team did not play a significant role in such competitions.

In 2016, not a single national athlete took part in the championship transferred from Kazan to Bydgoszcz, and two years later in Tampere, a team of nine people did not win a single medal.

But in Kenya, there was at least one reason to be proud of the Russians.

Violetta Ignatieva literally defeated all her rivals in discus throwing competitions.

A native of the Krasnodar Territory, whose personal record before the competition was 62.54 m, in the first attempt she threw a projectile at 57.12 m, while none of her rivals overcame the mark of fifty meters.

In the future, Ignatieva improved her result to 57.84 m and won, having won more than four meters from her closest rival Mine de Klerk from South Africa.

Victory after change of citizenship

Former Russian Matvey Volkov also celebrated the victory in Nairobi.

Last summer, against the backdrop of incessant scandals in the All-Russian Athletics Federation, the young pole vaulter made the decision to play for the national team of Belarus in order to no longer compete under neutral status.

After the transition, Volkov continued to progress and justify the status of the future athletics star.

Even before his 17th birthday, he conquered the bar at a height of 5.60 m - for his age, this is a mind-blowing result. 

In Kenya, Volkov turned out to be the youngest participant in the pole vault competition.

His main rival was supposed to be the Frenchman Antonia Ammirati, but he unexpectedly could not take his initial height of 5.30 m. The Belarusian athlete conquered it on the first attempt and later turned out to be the only one who jumped 5.45 m. compatriot 40 cm and became only the seventh.

Joya's world record

In the age category under 18 years old, the world record, which Volkov can still aim at, is 5.56 m and belongs to the former Australian decathlete Sasha Joya.

He also competed in Nairobi, but already represented France, where his mother was from, and only competed in the 110 meter hurdles.

Focusing on only one discipline, Joya made the right decision and eventually became one of the main stars of the junior world championship.

Back in the semifinals, he broke the world record for athletes under 20, running the distance in 12.93 seconds.

In the decisive race, Joya completely stopped the stopwatch at 12.72 s, improving his old achievements by more than a quarter of a second.

Of course, it must be borne in mind that the athlete ran at lower barriers than adults.

Now the entire track and field world will look forward to the young Frenchman to compete according to the general rules.