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One of the major issues athletics faces is the relative lack of importance that the overwhelming majority of events hold. It is one of the reasons why Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track is yet to catch alight: the pay is great for the athletes, but a win or loss counts for little in the overall scheme of a season or career.
The much-maligned Diamond League has fought against such (ir)relevance throughout its existence. In such a context, it is a notable achievement that the London leg of athletics’ premier season-long competition is a 60,000 sellout for what could turn out to be a thunderstorm-threatened Saturday afternoon.
Those spectators bought tickets long before the inevitable drip, drip of high-profile withdrawals that is a common occurrence outside the major championships that define the sport.
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Keely Hodgkinson was slated to headline the meeting, but pulled out at the start of the week as she continues her recovery from a hamstring injury. She is yet to compete since winning Olympic 800m gold last August. Joining her among the list of absentees is Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who was supposed to face off with 1500m rival and reigning world champion Josh Kerr. Distance-running great Sifan Hassan also withdrew from the mile a few days ago.
The loss of such high-profile stars is not ideal in a week that has seen Kenyan marathon world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned diuretic and masking agent. By the start of this month, Kenya had 139 people on the Athletics Integrity Unit’s banned list – more than double any country aside from India.
However, withdrawals and suspensions are familiar territory for a capacity crowd who will make the London Diamond League the largest single-day athletics meet in the world by some margin. In return, they will still be treated to one of the strongest assemblies of athletes outside a global championships.
Shorn of Ingebrigtsen, the men’s 1500m could, weather-depending, bring the curtain down on proceedings in spectacular fashion, with Kerr confirming the pacemakers have been instructed to reach halfway on track for a British record. Kerr facing up against his world champion predecessor Jake Wightman and newly installed second-fastest British runner ever George Mills is an intriguing prospect.
“It’s the most incredible Diamond League out there and I’m just looking to put on something that’s worth everyone’s time in the last event,” said Kerr.
“It’s going to be an awesome race. I’m looking to go out there, run something fast and put something on the leaderboard that will make me proud going into the world championships.
“A British record would be a great way for me to run this week. No 1 priority is to win, and you’re going to get a good enough time from that. But I’m not here for a slow race. It’s not going to be boring.”
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If rain does not ruin fast times, there could yet be an assault on the 800m world record set by David Rudisha on this same London track during the 2012 Olympics. His Kenyan compatriot, reigning Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, spearheads a lineup befitting of a global final.
Hodgkinson last year smashed her own British 800m record in such stunning fashion that she admitted it had put the four-decade-old women’s world record into her thoughts. In her absence, British trio Georgia Hunter-Bell, Jemma Reekie and Laura Muir will probably battle it out for the win.
Elsewhere, Noah Lyles will race over 100m for the first time since winning Olympic gold last summer. He beat Botswana’s Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo over the longer distance in Monaco last week, and both men resume their rivalry in London, although Jamaica’s Oblique Seville is the fastest man in the field this year.
English (US)