There are four more meetings left in the 2014 IAAF Diamond League series, but six athletes have dominated their disciplines to the extent that they have already done enough to win the Diamond Race.
US 400m runner LaShawn Merritt, French sprint hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, Kenyan steeplechaser Jairus Birech, French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, Jamaican 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer, and New Zealand’s shot put star Valerie Adams are the Diamond Race winners in their respective events.
To seal their victory – and the USD $50,000 bonus and Diamond Trophy to go with it – they simply need to compete in their discipline at either of the IAAF Diamond League finals in Zurich and Brussels.
The other 26 events in the Diamond Race remain undecided. Four of them are extremely close, however, with just two athletes left in the running. US triple jumpers Will Claye and Christian Taylor are currently separated by just two points. Piotr Malachowski and Robert Harting are the only remaining athletes in with a chance to win the Diamond Race in the men’s discus.
And while 800m runner Eunice Sum and discus thrower Sandra Perkovic have a healthy lead in their events, it is conceivable that they could be caught by USA’s Ajee Wilson and Gia Lewis-Smallwood, respectively. If Perkovic wins in Stockholm or Sum wins in Birmingham though, they will be uncatchable in the Diamond Race.
The races in the other disciplines are wide open. In 20 of them, there are five or more contenders still left in with a chance of winning the Diamond Race, and in 16 events the Diamond Race winner will only be decided in one of the finals in Zurich or Brussels.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
