The Summer of Sports #1

Results from Paris Diamond League

Intro The value of a windy day is lost in the winter. On a summer day though, the breeze feels nice and it makes you feel alive. Here’s a little video of a lake swim on Friday with the nice summer breeze blowing. Living in Lausanne is really a blessing. Lausanne will host the start of the Women’s Tour de France on 1st of August too, which I am super excited to watch. The Men’s Tour kicked off on Saturday 4th July with a Team Time Trial in Barcelona won by Jonas Vingegaard, who for the 1st time in 2 years is ahead of Pogačar. It was an incredible effort from Team Visma Lease-a-bike, who rode a brilliant team time trial with their climbers, Kuss and Piganzoli never coming to the front until the last climb where they were able to propel Vingegaard who drove in 8 seconds into Filippo Ganna from NetCompany-INEOS. UAE sort of lost the plot on the team time-trial, with both Isaac Del Toro and Pogačar taking pulls way before the final. Del Toro drove Pogačar to the final climb and while UAE were the fastest up the climbs, Pogačar wasn’t able catch Vingegaard’s time and finished 11.28 seconds down.

There are 3 other major events happening at the same time (as far as I am aware): The women’s T20 cricket world cup (where Australia will try to win their 7th title out of 8 attempts in 9 editions, this time against England); The football world cup where Switzerland beat Algeria to move to the Round of 16 on Friday (I don’t really care about football but way too many Swiss cars were honking at 7 AM on Friday) and Wimbledon, where if it is not too hot, Jannik Sinner will probably win in the absence of Alcaraz.

And like we discussed last week, there’s the Diamond League circuit. Last week we previewed Paris to London. Paris and Eugene brought in a lot of drama and excitement. Here’s the recap.

Paris Diamond League Recap

The heatwave cooled down just enough last Sunday to create ideal conditions for the sprint and middle distance events. The fast track at Paris, opened sensationally with 3 Diamond League records in the 1st 30 minutes.

Women’s 800m: Audrey Werro (1:53.80, DL record)

Werro is striking the iron when it is hot. She ran 1:53.98 on 7th June at Stockholm, 9 days later she ran 1:54.45 at Ostrava and as she stood on the start line, the world waited with bated breath as she had requested the pacelights to be set for the world record. The pacemaker went out in 55.35, with Werro close behind and then she front ran the rest of the race. 600 came in 1:25.27 and she held on for a 28.53 last 200 to become the only woman in the history of this sport to run Sub 1:54 twice.

And she looked disappointed with that!

She is still 0.52 short of the “allegedly” doped Kratochvílová record of 1:53.28, which is a LOT, yes I agree. But maybe get a fit Keely Hodgkinson in the race, alongside Georgia Hunter-Bell, Lilian Odira and apparently now Femke Broeders-Bol (we’ll get back to it a second) and we have a world record?

Femke Broeders-Bol, who went from being one of the best in the world at 400 meters hurdles to a newbie at 800 meters this year, showed signs of her incredible talent. This woman opened up with a 1:59 in the indoor season and then was injured. In her outdoor debut, she ran 1:57. And in Paris, on her Diamond League debut, she finished 2nd to Werro in 1:55.60. Werro’s result was incredible, Broeders-Bol’s result was plain delightful. Her coach has talked about her ability to perhaps run 1:52 someday. She is still quite a bit off, but her debut season as an 800 meter runner is going as well as it could have gone. And there’s more to come!! Anaïs Bourgoin was 3rd in 1:55.65, French national record on home soil.

Men’s 400m: Collen Kebinatshipi (43.54, DL record)

Kebinatshipi, who almost overnight became a huge name in the men’s 400 meters when he ran 43.61 in the semi-finals of the Tokyo World championships and then lowered that time further to 43.53 in the finals to become a world champion, continued to impress.

Having run 9.89 for the 100 meters earlier this year, Kebinatshipi broke Michael Norman’s DL record (43.60) from 2022, winning comfortably in new bleach-blonde look in 43.54 (0.01 off his own PB).

Zakithi Nene from South Africa was 2nd in 43.89 and Chris Bailey from the USA, 3rd in 44.06.

Women’s 400m: Marileidy Paulino (48.48, DL record)

Marileidy Paulino never has a bad race. Ever. Even when she lost to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in Tokyo in 2025, she still ran a stunning 47.98. Paulino is one of the most consistent athletes of all time in the 400 meters and after her win in Doha, she ran the world lead and the 3rd fastest time of her career in Paris, breaking Nickisha Pryce’s DL record from 2024. I’m excited to see if she tries to have a go at lowering the 47.98 from last year.

Men’s 800m: Marco Arop bounces back (1:41.84, world lead)

The 2023 World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist, Marco Arop overcame a sluggish start to the season to almost causing a stir at the mythic David Rudisha world record of 1:40.9, as he passed 600 meters in 1:14 high. He hasn’t been “bad” per se, with times of 1.43.11 in Stockholm and 1:43.33 in Oslo, he looked like a man possessed as he split the field open with an attack at 600 meters- After being beaten by Lutkenhaus in Stockholm and after his 3rd place finish in Oslo, Arop responded well with a world-leading 1:41.84, winning by almost a mile over Niels Laros, who showed impressive leg speed for a 1500 meter guy, running his PB of 1:43.6. Arop claimed after the race that he will be targeting Rudisha’s world record later in the year and I cannot wait!

Men’s 1500m: Cameron Myers (3:28.00, Australian record + world lead)

The young Australian, Myers who started the season hot with a solo 3:29 at the Aussie champs earlier in the year, finally seemed to be coming into his own as he front ran a 3:28.00, the second fastest time by a U-21 guy.

Behind him Azeddine Habz, who seems to only perform at this Diamond League, ran 3:29.80 and Jake Wightman was 3rd in 3:29.95. I’m looking forward to the Eugene Diamond League where Myers will square off against some of the best milers in the world.

Men’s 100m: Trayvon Bromell edges Lyles (9.91 vs 9.92)

Trayvon Bromell, who was down many times in his career but never out beat Noah Lyles by 0.01, ending Lyles’ three-race DL winning streak. It is great to see Bromell back to his winning ways.

Women’s 1500m: Georgia Hunter Bell (3:55.63)

Hunter Bell, much like Paulino never seems to have a bad race. She took over the race after the pacers dropped out, held off an attack from Freweyni Hailu to win comfortably. It will be exciting to see what she does Eugene in the 800 meters against Lilian Odira and Keely Hodgkinson.

Men’s 5000m: Grant Fisher wins his 1st Diamond League (12:54.80)

I will not say who, but in my friend’s circle Grant is known is “the most boring man on the circuit”. He is a superb runner, an engineer and since switching coaches in 2024, he has 2 Olympic medals to his name too. He has run some incredibly fast times in the past including running 12:44 indoors to break the World record for the Indoor 5000 meters. Then last year, he was on a tear with his boring racing style at the now defunct Grand Slam Track and was pocketting a hell of a lot of (what turned out to be) Monopoly money. (too soon?). That early racing, I feel, cost him as he failed to medal at the World championships in Tokyo.

He had a couple of good Diamond League races this year too, but was far from the win in Oslo. A big thing missing from his CV was a Diamond League win and by golly, did Grant kick it in.

The race was extremely weird. It was hot enough to be good condition for the middle distance races but wasn’t good enough for the 5000 meters. The pace lights were set for the European Record of 12:44, but right from the start nobody except Etienne Daguinos went with the pacers. Daguinos paid for it by DNFing. The race came down the final lap and Fisher kicked past his old rival, Jacob Krop (12:55.22) and Andreas Almgren (12:55.38) to win his 1st ever Diamond League.

The meme shared on our group after the race…

Men’s pole vault: Mondo returns (6.13m, meeting record)

Back from his honeymoon, Duplantis went straight back to business. He didn’t attempt the smaller heights, comfortably sailed over 5.8 meters, cleared 6.03m on the first attempt and then cleared 6.13m on first attempt for a meeting record. He did try to jump 6.30, but stopped after his 1st attempt. Baptiste Thiery from France was 2nd with a PB of 5.93m, Emmanouil Karalis was 3rd in 5.83 meters.

Other results worth a line

Women’s 100m hurdles: Tobi Amusan won in 12.28. The world awaits the return of the Swiss world champion, Ditaji Kambundji.

Women’s pole vault: Angelica Moser from Switzerland won with 4.77m, though she avoided a major accident when the pole slipped out of her hand on her final attempt and she fell awkwardly.

Men’s 3000m steeple: Karl Bebendorf from Germany showed that apparently Germany is the new Kenya when it comes to Steeplechase, running a PB of 8:05.55 and winning in a solid kick against Gemechu Godana of Ethiopia.

For next week, I’ll try to recap the 1st week of the Tour de France and a fascinating Eugene Diamond League. Here are some quick results:

Women’s mile: Nikki Hiltz shocked the world by winning in 4:17.49, breaking the 38-year-old Hayward Field meeting record. Faith Kipyegon, looked out of sorts and finished 3rd in 4:17.80. It was her first mile/1500m loss since Rome 2021.

Women’s 800m: Lilian Odira (1:56.19) denied Hodgkinson (1:56.73) for the 2nd race in a row.

Women’s 3000m steeple: Faith Cherotich won in 8:51.74 with Winfred Yavi 2nd in 8:52.84.

Bowerman Mile: Cameron Myers won in 3:46.06, Yared Nuguse finished 2nd (3:46.61) for the 3rd time. Very exciting race.

I’ll be honest, the meet started at 10 pm last night and I was already in bed by then. I only watched some highlights, but I will rewatch the meet and write a full recap.