Wanda Diamond League keeps going on with meetings. The second one of this season took place last Sunday, August 23rd. The Olympic Stadium of Stockholm opened its doors to seventeen events and more than a hundred athletes.
The main athlete of the afternoon was the European Road Runner: Karsten Warholm. Last week, the Norwegian athlete informed with his performance that this season is a full crescendo. Warholm broke the MR at the Louis II Stadium and reduced his PB. And, in Stockholm, he did not let anyone down.
His performance was about to end up on a WR if he wouldn’t have touched the last hurdle with his left foot. The double-world champion of 400m hurdles race told to the press that he thought there were no more obstacles and the race was on his own. Because of that mistake, Kevin Young’s record set in Barcelona’92 slipped through his fingers. However, Warholm decreases again his PB and, also, the European record, now set on 46.87. Every cloud has a silver lining.
Before this performance, is it now a question of when and not if Karsten Warholm will break the men’s 400m hurdles world record? We will see it.
Is Kevin Young's 400mH world record now on borrowed time?#DiamondLeague #StockholmDL 🇸🇪@kwarholm pic.twitter.com/BaQkdWHWyM
— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) August 23, 2020
Besides the Road Runner, at the Stockholm meeting, there were two other attempts that ended up so close to become a new world record.
First of all, Mondo Duplantis at men’s pole vault. The prodigy athlete tried again his goal of this season: to oust Sergey Bubka as the pole vault athlete who has jumped higher outdoor. Duplantis has tried in every meeting, since he broke twice the world record last February, to jump higher than 6.14, a mark Bubka set in 1994. The Swede tried on Monaco last week, but he failed some attempts that evening during the whole performance. But there were no-jumps failed in Stockholm before 6.15.
Armand “Mondo” Duplantis started the outdoor season under the guidelines of his mother, Helena Duplantis, a Swedish ex-heptathlete. His father, Greg Duplantis, an American ex-pole vaulter, was his coach for Stockholm. When Mondo had to jump the first attempt at 6.15, a gust of wind against him appeared and father and son discussed a few seconds what to do. Finally, Mondo tried but he was not even close to passing the bar. Probably, the wind, the discussion, and the first attempt failed were a big weight for him to passes the bar at the next two attempts. Maybe next time, Mondo.
However, the European champion beat his own PB and broke the MR and the Stadium record with 6.01. Later on, Duplantis declared to SVT that it wasn’t the day. Nevertheless, he confirmed that he feels absolutely prepared to jump higher than 6.14 soon.
At the women’s 1500m race, the double European champion, Laura Muir misses out the Stockholm meeting record by a whisker. Muir slipped from the rest of athletes more than 30 meters on the last lap and she broke the WL record. In Monaco, the double Diamond League champion beat her PB and broke the national record of Great Britain. The stop never affected her.
Stockholm Diamond League, event by event
Besides all the records, the Stockholm meeting was full of events:
One of the big news of this reunion was the coming back to Diamond League track of the Spanish athlete Bruno Hortelano after his accident. However, the main news of the afternoon wasn’t the coming back part: Hortelano started the 200m race but he never crossed the finish line. At the curve, he decided to stop. As he explained later on social media, the former European champion decided to avoid a bigger injury when he felt a stabbing pain on his hamstrings.
Finally, the 200m race winner was the British Adam Gemili.
Another big surprise of the evening was the unexpected appearance of Karsten Warholm at the men’s 400m race. He did not have enough with hurdles so he decided to join the party at the last minute. Again at the eighth track, the European Road Runner crossed again the line first winning also the men’s 400m race.
45.05!
— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) August 23, 2020
A second win of the day for @kwarholm.
Simply. Astonishing.#StockholmDL
📷@coopsrun pic.twitter.com/CgRaTNxkeB
At the Olympic Stadium, there were other races. Jemma Reekie won the women’s 800m race. Donovan Brazier won like in Monaco the men’s 800m race, as Ajla Del Ponte did at the women’s 100m or Wadeline Jonathas at women’s 400m race.
The other hurdles races were also for women. Luminosa Bogliolo crossed the finish line under 13 seconds at the 100mH race, and, at the 400mH race, the young Femke Bol met expectations becoming the winner of the event.
The last event on the track was the men’s 1500m race, where the last picture was the same as in Monaco. Cheruiyot won the race with Jakob Ingebrigtsen so close to him. But, this time, no one broke any record.
At the time runners were on the track, jumpers were in the sandpit or in the couches:
At the sandpit, first was the men’s long jump event and then the women’s one. Both had a little change in the rules to make the event more exciting: just the first three jumpers at the end of the event could apply for victory with just one jump left.
At the men’s long jump, Thobias Montler qualified with the best mark of the evening, 8.13. However, with this new rule, Ruswahl Samaai won the event jumping in his unique attempt 8.09.
At the women’s long jump event, the scenario was the same. Khaddi Sagnia beat her PB that evening jumping 6.83. However, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk won her and Caterine Ibargüen in the final.
At the couches, there were other two events. The women’s pole vault event ended up with Holly Bradshaw winning Angelica Bengtsson at 4.69, and, the women’s high jump was a battle between Yaroslava Mahuchik and Yuliya Levchenko. Finally, Mahuchik won Levchenko as she was the only one who jumped 2 meters that evening.
In Stockholm meeting, men’s discus event started the season too. Daniel Stahl, the current world champion, was the winner. Two meters beneath him was the throw of his compatriot Simon Petterson, who improved his PB.
Diamond League arrived in Stockholm in its second meeting of the year to prove it’s still alive. Athletics is unstoppable, as the Road Runner Karsten Warholm, who is still jumping hurdles to reach the World record.