The Weekend Recovery: Monaco Rewrites the Record Books
· Yahoo Sports
The Monaco Diamond League headlined this weekend’s slate of meets, delivering historic performances across the sprints, distance, and field events. With the World Championships drawing closer, athletes continue to raise the bar with record-breaking and all-time performances.
Here are the top five stories from the weekend.
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5. Marco Arop Runs Fastest 800M on North American Soil
Before we turn our attention to Monaco’s record-breaking performances, we first look at the history made in Canada.
The fastest 800m ever run on North American soil belonged to Donavan Brazier, who ran 1:42.16 last year at Hayward Field. That changed on Saturday, as Marco Arop clocked 1:42.13 at the Edmonton Athletics Invitational.
The Olympic silver medalist has been having an impressive season. Last month at the Paris Diamond League, he ran a World Lead of 1:41.84. Now, all eyes will turn to a highly anticipated matchup between him and Emmanuel Wanyonyi in the 800m at the London Diamond League this weekend.
4. Collen Kebinatshipi Continues 400m Domination with 6th All-Time Mark
Collen Kebinatshipi has been untouchable in the 400m this season, and Monaco was no exception. The Botswanan star captured his fourth Diamond League victory of the season, with a winning time of 43.44. Kebinatshipi’s time established a new national record, Diamond League record, and meeting record.
Kebinatshipi now moves up to #6 on the All-Time list, where he is tied with Matthew Hudson Smith. As the season progresses, Kebinatshipi continues to separate himself from his competitors and cements his place among the fastest 400m runners in history.
3. Nina Kennedy Shatters Area Record, Tied for 5th All-Time
Olympic Gold medalist Nina Kennedy had a historic performance in the Pole Vault. Coming into the competition, Kennedy’s season’s best was 4.80m. She went on to beat that mark by 15 centimeters, jumping 4.95m on her first attempt at the height.
Kennedy’s clearance broke the Oceania Area Record and Australian National Record, moving her up to tie Katie Nageotte for #5 All-Time in the event.
2. 3rd All-Time Performances by Julien Alfred and Agnes Jebet Ngetich
Monaco produced two more performances that rewrote the all-time rankings.
On the sprints side, Julien Alfred stole the show in the heavily anticipated Women’s 200m, which featured Adaejah Hodge and Gabby Thomas. Alfred was dominant from the gun and stormed to a 21.51 (+0.9), improving her own Saint Lucian national record by two-tenths of a second.
The performance moved her to #3 All-Time behind Florence Griffith Joyner (21.34) and Shericka Jackson (21.41). The next stop for Alfred will be the 100m in Budapest for the Continental Tour before returning to the 200m at the London Diamond League.
While the focus may have been on Faith Kipyegon for the Women’s 3000m, Agnes Jebet Ngetich produced one of the biggest surprises of the day. Ngetich came into the competition with a PB of 8:23.14, which she shattered by 14 seconds to run 8:08.95. What makes her performance even more impressive is that she soloed the effort with 3 laps to go, finishing almost 15 seconds in front of second place.
Her time now places her 3rd All-Time, where she sits behind world record holder Junxia Wang (8:06.11) and Faith Kipyegon (8:07.04).
1. Emmanuel Wanyonyi Breaks 27-Year-Old 1000M World Record
All eyes were on the Men’s 1000m as Emmanuel Wanyonyi made his debut at the distance. Already the second fastest 800m runner in history with a personal best of 1:41.11, there was no doubt that Wanyonyi had a legitimate shot at breaking the world record.
Wanyonyi came through 800m at 1:45 and continued to power through the final 200m, stopping the clock at a new world record time of 2:13.94. The previous world record, which stood at 2:11.96, was set in 1999 by Kenyan Noah Ngeny. Places 2 through 8 all ran personal bests in the rarely contested event, with a national record being set for Japan.