TRACK & FIELD
Fitting Finale for Diamond League
The international track and field season came to an enthralling end at the Wanda Diamond League Final in the USA , with two spectacular World Records providing a fitting finale for what has been an incredible season of athletics , including what many consider the best World Championships to date . – BY WORLD ATHLETICS with SEAN FALCONER
World Records from Ethiopia middledistance star Gudaf Tsegay and Swedish pole-vaulting genius Mondo Duplantis contributed to the Wanda Diamond League Final – held in Eugene , USA from 16 to 17 September – being the highest quality non-championship meeting in history , based on competition performance ranking scores . Along with the two senior World Records ( pending ratification ) set in Eugene , there were also five Diamond League records , a World U20 Record , nine Area Records , 14 meeting records and 14 world-leading marks , making the 2023 series finale a highly memorable meet .
If one looks at the top five list of all-time competition performance ranking meets in Diamond League history , this 2023 Final is comfortably the best ever . With all the participating athletes contributing to the overall points tally , the high scores in Eugene gave the meet a tally of 99,156 , with the nearest being the 96,927 of the previous year ’ s Diamond League Final in Zurich , Switzeland : 1 99,156 - 2023 Prefontaine Classic , Eugene ( DL Final ) 2 96,927 - 2022 Weltklasse , Zurich ( DL Final )
Information provided by World Athletics . For more , go to https :// worldathletics . org / news / news .
3 96,763 - 2021 Weltklasse , Zurich ( DL Final ) 4 96,001 - 2019 Weltklasse , Zurich ( DL Final ) 5 95,985 - 2018 Herculis , Monaco ( DL )
More Records Set
In Eugene , Duplantis returned to the scene of his 2022 World Champs title and added a centimetre to the World Record he set earlier this year . In what was just his fourth jump of the competition , and in a series without any failures , he cleared 6.23 metres at the first time of asking . Perhaps the biggest shock of the meeting , though , came from Tsegay , who took almost five seconds off Faith Kipyegon ’ s World Record as she won the 5000m in 14:00.21 , coming within a second of breaking through the four-minute barrier for the first time .
Those were the latest world class performances in a 2023 outdoor track and field season that saw eight senior World Records set between June and September , including standout performer Kipyegon setting three World Records across three distances :
Including indoor , U20 , road and relay marks , there have been 29 World Records in total set throughout 2023 , 13 of which have already been ratified . In the Diamond League alone , there were 18 Diamond League records set this year , 15 of which were in standard scoring disciplines .
2024 Calendar Announced
After a historic 2023 Diamond League season came to a dramatic climax in Eugene in mid-September , athletes and fans can now set their sights on the 2024 Wanda Diamond League season . The 2024 calendar will feature 14 of the most prestigious one-day meetings in global track and field , and as in previous years , athletes will compete for points in these meetings , with the most successful in each discipline qualifying for the two-day Wanda Diamond League Final at the end of the season on 13-14 September .
2024 Wanda Diamond League |
20 April |
Xiamen , China |
27 April |
Shanghai , China |
10 May |
Doha , Qatar |
19 May |
Rabat , Morocco |
25 May |
Eugene , USA |
30 May |
Oslo , Norway |
2 June |
Stockholm , Sweden |
7 July |
Paris , France |
12 July |
Monaco |
20 July |
London , Great Britain |
22 August |
Lausanne , Switzerland |
2 August |
Silesia , Poland |
29 August |
Rome , Italy |
5 September |
Zurich , Switzerland |
13-14 Sept . |
Brussels , Belgium |
The 10 meetings from April to July will give athletes the chance to prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games , and then they will have four more chances to earn series points before the season finale in mid-September . The Wanda Diamond League Final will return to Brussels for the first time since 2019 , with all 32 Diamond League champions set to be crowned over one weekend at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme stadium .
Best of 2023 : Watch all three of Faith Kipyegon ’ s World Records set during the 2023 Wanda Diamond League season .
DATE VENUE EVENT ATHLETE NEW WR
27 May |
Los Angeles , USA |
Men ’ s Shot Put |
Ryan Crouser ( USA ) |
23.56m * |
2 June |
Florence , Italy |
Women ’ s 1500m |
Faith Kipyegon ( Kenya ) |
3:49.11 |
9 June |
Paris , France |
Women ’ s 5000m |
Faith Kipyegon ( Kenya ) |
14:05.20 |
9 June |
Paris , France |
Men ’ s 3000m Steeplechase |
Lamecha Girma ( Ethiopia )) |
7:52.11 |
21 July |
Monaco |
Women ’ s Mile |
Faith Kipyegon ( Kenya ) |
4:07.64 * |
8 Sept . |
Brussels , Belgium |
Men ’ s 2000m |
Jakob Ingebrigtsen ( Norway ) |
4:43.13 * |
17 Sept . |
Eugene , USA |
Women ’ s 5000m |
Gudaf Tsegay ( Ethiopia ) |
14:00.21 * |
17 Sept . |
Eugene , USA |
Men ’ s Pole Vault |
Mondo Duplantis ( Sweden ) |
6.23m * |
* Pending ratification by World Athletics |
68 |
ISSUE 162 | www . modernathlete . co . za |
Best of 2023 : Jakob Ingebrigtsen shattered the men ’ s 2000m World Record at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Brussels .
Best of 2023 : Gudaf Tsegay smashed the women ’ s 5000m World Record at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene .
Image : Matthew Quine / Wanda Diamond League