The
Diamond League
, the
Diamond League
, the annual circuit of the most prestigious athletics on the planet, broke waters (pun intended, as it will be seen) in Gateshead.
It is the first of the 14 meetings, which will take place in Zurich on September 8 and 9.
And in the middle of them, the Olympic Games.
After the always short but intense season on the indoor track, open-air athletics had already been warming up with outstanding records. Let's stay, for example, by proximity as much as by importance, with the 15.43 of
Yulimar Rojas
in triple jump, on the 22nd in Andújar. The Venezuelan achieved the second best mark ever, close to the world record (15.50) that the Ukrainian
Inessa Kravets
set on the distant 10th of August 1995, during the World Championship held in Göteborg.
In Gateshead, with 2,000 spectators allowed and with very bad conditions of cold, wind and rain that advised against some, already
in situ
, to compete,
Mohamed Katir
, Moroccan by birth, but Spanish by training, a 23-year-old who lives in Murcia from the age of five, he made an almost portentous display by winning the 5,000 meters under the deluge with 13: 08.52. Tall, elegant, powerful, he dominated when and how he wanted the Kenyan Nicholas Kimeli, a world figure (13: 10.11). Katir's race, under normal conditions, would have been widely worth the Spanish record (12: 57.25).
Adel Mechaal
and
Ouassim Oumaiz
,
cold
and soaked, withdrew.
Eusebio Cáceres
(long jump) was
also magnificent
. Second, it reached 8.04 with a legal wind of 1.4 in favor. Italian
Filippo Randazzo won
with 8.11, driven by an illegal streak of over 2.8. It was worth it to win, but it will not count for the rankings. Third was the Jamaican
Tejay Gayle
(8.00). You have to applaud those brands with such conditions, practically winter. People were in the stands with umbrellas, hats, scarves and anoraks.
There were quite a few Spaniards in contention, which is not frequent because of the mandate of the rankings when receiving invitations and a certain national laziness when leaving home.
Ignacio Fontes
(1,500)
behaved well
. He had merit by performing 3: 37.97 "amphibians" and qualifying in fourth position.
Saúl Ordóñez,
on the other hand, was shipwrecked: thirteenth with 3: 54.16. The intractable
Jakob Ingebrigtsen
emerged, dripping but triumphant, out of the step with 3: 36.27.
In the 1,500 women, won by the local and world star,
Laura Muir
(4: 03.73),
Marta Pérez
(ninth with 4: 11.51) and
Esther Guerrero
(eleventh with 4: 14.55)
had enough to survive
. Also, given the circumstances, we must praise
Dani Arce
, fifth with 8: 33.00 in some 3,000 obstacles dominated by the American
Hillary Bor
(8: 30.20).
With the climate between polar and underwater, and the curtain just raised for most of the athletes, the marks were weak, some lousy.
Watching
Sam Kendricks
and
Armand Duplantis
climb only up to 5.74 and 5.55 respectively
in pole vault
explains it all.
The same as watching the lightning British
Dina Asher-Smith
perform 11.35 splashing on the track, with 3.1 headwind.
And let's not say the American
ShaCarri Richardson
, leader of the year with 10.72, second with 11.44.
The next appointment of the Diamond, in Doha on the 28th.
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