Diamond League Final Day One: Order is Restored
Day one of the Diamond League final has drawn to a close, and while there’s plenty to talk about, the men’s middle- and long-distance races were perhaps the most intriguing. A full recap of the event will be coming after day two, but rather than dump all my thoughts into one long, rambling article, I thought I’d give you the opportunity to enjoy my rambling in a much more digestible way.
The men’s 1500m and 5000m races in Brussels have balanced the scales of the track world in a way many might have expected (although whether this correction survives the winter break is another story). Ingebrigtsen was back to his winning ways, even showing us that he knows what a middle-distance running tactic is, and Aregawi led an Ethiopian sweep in the 5000m to prove once again that they are the best long-distance runners when it comes to the track – even if they can’t seem to get it right when it matters most.
Men’s 1500m
Did Jakob Ingebrigtsen just run a smart 1500m?
The man who has made an unfortunate habit out of losing global finals these last few years has won the Diamond League final (not a global final, it must be said) in an uncharacteristically tactical way.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins the men's 1500m at the Diamond League final
The Norwegian’s go-to strategy is to run the legs off his opponents, going to the front from the gun and hammering around the track as quickly as he can in the hopes that nobody is alongside him at the finish. To Ingebrigtsen’s credit, this tactic has worked very well for him throughout the years, especially during regular season races.
What Ingebrigtsen is coming to realise, however, is that when athletes peak for events like the Olympics or world championships, they suddenly have the ability to stay in contact with him, and the Norwegian ends up becoming an unofficial pacemaker for somebody else’s gold medal run.
In 2022, it was Jake Wightman. In 2023, it was Josh Kerr. In Paris last month, it was Cole Hocker. In all three of these races, these eventual champions let Ingebrigtsen lead the race until it mattered most – at the finish line – at which point they would sneak past him, hands aloft and mouth agape, as surprised as anyone that they had toppled the once invincible Norwegian.
Now, I’m not saying he has become a tactical master overnight, but Ingebrigtsen’s victory in Brussels was proof that he can win races without doing all the work at the front. He spent the first few laps behind Yared Nuguse and the pacemaker, before wisely stepping out with 500m to go and working his way towards the front to avoid what can only be described as the anarchy of the final lap. From here, he slowly wound up the pace, making sure not to get too excited too early and run out of steam, but equally not be too relaxed and let anyone up onto his shoulder. The result? A perfectly executed race and a fourth Diamond League trophy for his mantelpiece.
Behind him, Timothy Cheruiyot capped off a rather subtle comeback year with an impressive second-place finish. The Kenyan got caught up with Nuguse with about 300m to go but recovered nicely to finish ahead of Olympic champion Cole Hocker in third. Once the best middle-distance runner in the world, Cheruiyot has had a couple of lacklustre years by his high standards, but his performance tonight tentatively puts him back in the company of the world’s best.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen celebrates his win with the crowd
Men’s 5000m
Once upon a time, an Ethiopian man winning a long-distance global track final was a foregone conclusion. In the ’90s and early 2000s, Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele oversaw a two-decade dynasty of distance running dominance, chopping more than 20 seconds off the 5000m world record and over half a minute off the 10,000m one. They also racked up five Olympic titles and nine world championships across the two distances (never mind the additional 34 global medals they won in other events).
However, since Bekele, Gebrselassie, and their entourage of accomplished countrymen retired from the track, Ethiopian men have only won 3 out of 21 global distance-running finals.
The current crop of Ethiopian athletes is clearly not living up to the legacy of their predecessors, but at the Diamond League final in Brussels, we once again saw their potential. Berihu Aregawi led an Ethiopian sweep to cap off a season during which the country has put four men in the top five on the 5000m leaderboard and has filled out the top five positions on the 10,000m rankings.
5000m Ethiopian record holder Hagos Gebrhiwet was second, with Telahun Haile Bekele in third in a new season’s best.
Telahun Haile Bekele (L), Berihu Aregawi (M), and Hagos Gebrhiwet (R) celebrate after the men's 5000m at the Diamond League final
The other Ethiopian in the field, Yomif Kejelcha, has consistently struggled when there is a prize on the line, whether it be a world championship medal, Olympic glory, or even a sparkly Diamond League trophy. The story was no different in Brussels, where Kejelcha finished a disappointing fifth after doing much of the early leading.
Kejelcha continues to baffle the athletics community. He is the indoor mile world record holder, and across all distance-running events that he competes in – 3000m, 5000m, 10,000m, 5km, 10km, and the half marathon (runners use m to delineate track races and km for road races) – his average position on the respective all-time lists is fourth! How, then, you may ask, does a man of such calibre have just one global outdoor track medal, a silver from five years ago? I’m not sure, and frankly, I don’t think he knows either.
Kejelcha’s woes aside, things are looking up for the Ethiopian contingent. Joshua Cheptegei, who has been the 10,000m world champion since 2019 and won the event in Paris, has said that he is retiring from the track, which could open the door for an Ethiopian champion in 2025.
In the 5000m, however, it seems Ingebrigtsen is going to remain a headache for the East African nation. The Norwegian has been crushing the global 5000m final in recent years, and even though there are rumours of a pending half marathon debut, the look in his eye when 1500m world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj handed him his winner’s flowers after his 1500m victory suggests that he has plenty of unfinished business on the track. As long as Ingebrigtsen is racing the middle-distance events, he will likely double back to compete in (and win) the 5000m at major championships.
Nevertheless, the Ethiopian men have had their best long-distance track season in years, and while they’re yet to return to the top of the podium when it really matters, a sweep at the Diamond League final is definitely a step in the right direction.
Berihu Aregawi wins the men's 5000m at the Diamond League final
You can access all the results from day one of the Diamond League final here.