This recap of the final day of the Weltklasse Zurich, the Diamond League finals, as related by Race Results Weekly, is focused on the second day of the Diamond League finals, which happened on 8 September 2022.
KENYANS WIN THREE DIAMOND LEAGUE DISTANCE TITLES IN ZÜRICH
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2022 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
NOTE: This story was written remotely –Ed.
(08-Sep) — Running on tired legs after an unprecedented season that included three major championships, six more distance athletes were crowned 2022 Wanda Diamond League champions tonight in Zürich after the two 5000m champions were crowned last night. Kenyans took half of those titles –Mary Moraa and Emmanuel Korir in the 800m and Faith Kipyegon in the 1500m– while Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen (men’s 1500m), Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali (men’s 3000m steeplechase), and Ethiopia’s Werkuha Getachew (women’s steeplechase) took the other three. All six won $30,000 in prize money, and Moraa, Ingebrigtsen, and Getachew all earned byes* into the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Without question, Kipyegon was the most convincing winner. Ignoring the pacemaker, Allie Wilson of the USA, who went through 400m in 64.3 seconds and 800m in 2:11.4, Kipyegon decided to run a good 10 meters back and was unbothered that the other nine women were bunched close behind her. She wanted to leave it late, and her finish time was unimportant.
With a lap to go, Kipyegon led Britain’s Laura Muir; Ireland’s Ciara Mageean; and Ethiopia’s Hirut Meshesha, Freweyni Hailu, Gudaf Tsegay, and Diribe Welteji. At first, she held her pace steady but then rapidly ramped up her speed down the backstretch. Nobody could go with the two-time Olympic champion, and she won her third Diamond League title going away in 4:00.44 on the strength of a 57.8-second final lap. Mageean, the silver medalist at both the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, just managed to get by Hailu before the finish to take second in 4:01.68. Hailu got third in 4:01.73, and Welteji fourth in 4:01.79. Muir, who won the bronze medal at this year’s World Athletics Championships and then gold at both the Commonwealth Games and European championships, finished fifth.
“This was a really strong field, but then I kept thinking this was the last race of the season, and…
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