Action resumes on Saturday morning US eastern time in Glasgow, starting with a non-DL event: the men’s 400 (10:04 Eastern)

Hey, look in lane 1! That’s Nijel Amos doing something extremely rare on the modern 800m scene— dipping down in distance to the one-lapper. The field is ever so slightly watered down due to it not being a Diamond League event, but still features world medallists Chris Brown and Kevin Borlee. Amos’s fellow Batswana Isaac Makwala actually has the fastest SB in the field at 44.01 and looks to become the eleventh man (and just second non-American after Kirani James) to break 44 seconds.

Another non-DL sprint, the women’s 100 (10:15 Eastern) is next on the docket.


This race features the top three from last years WCs (Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, Murielle Ahoure, Carmelita Jeter) plus Kerron Stewart and Lausanne winner Michelle-Lee Ahye. SFP, Jeter, and Stewart picked a great year to be astonishingly mediocre with no global championships. Ahye and Ahoure are the only ones in the race who have dipped under 11 in this season.

Women’s steeple (10:27 Eastern)


The field is almost exactly the same as it was in Paris, plus American Nicole Bush and Australian Florida alum Genavieve Lacaze and a few Europeans, including Scottish/British champ Eilish McColgan. If I were Emma Coburn or Mark Wetmore*, I’d take the following steps:

1. Learn a few key phrases in Amharic or an agreed-upon lingua franca.
2. Find Sofia Assefa and/or Hiwot Ayalew at the meet hotel.
3. Take a group trip to the nearest ATM.
4. Repeat as necessary.

Coburn has led a ridiculous proportion of Diamond League steeples this summer, but only has one win— in Shanghai, where Assefa and Ayalew later claimed that they didn’t know Coburn wasn’t a rabbit. The Ethiopian duo has shown a (well-justified) reluctance to lead in picking up their three DL wins in New York, Eugene (Assefa), and Paris (Ayalew).

They’re the only two athletes other than Coburn capable of running 9:10-15 pace for any prolonged amount of time, but if one or both shift from their usual tactics in Glasgow, Coburn will have a new American record on Saturday afternoon.

Coburn’s New Balance teammate, Stephanie Garcia, is the 5th fastest American in history.  She needs to run 9:24.84 (a four second PR) to jump Lisa Aguilera for the #4 spot.

*or Joe Bosshard.

Men’s 1500 (11:00 Eastern)

ATHLETE	DATE OF BIRTH	NATION	PB	SB
BETT Reuben	06.11.1984	KEN	3:39.82
BIRGEN Bethwell	06.08.1988	KEN	3:30.77	3:31.22
CHEPSEBA Nixon Kiplimo	12.12.1990	KEN	3:29.77	3:34.64
CRONJE Johan	13.04.1982	RSA	3:31.93	3:33.31
FARRELL Thomas	23.03.1991	GBR	3:41.07	3:41.43
GRICE Charlie	07.11.1993	GBR	3:36.31	3:36.31
HEATH Garrett	03.11.1985	USA	3:34.12	3:35.97
HOLUŠA Jakub	20.02.1988	CZE	3:35.26	3:35.26
IGUIDER Abdelaati	25.03.1987	MAR	3:31.47	3:32.09
KIBET Vincent	01.01.1991	KEN	3:34.09	3:34.09
KIPLAGAT Silas	20.08.1989	KEN	3:29.27	3:29.70
MANZANO Leonel	12.09.1984	USA	3:32.37	3:38.63
O'HARE Chris	23.11.1990	GBR	3:35.37	3:42.55
TORRENCE David	26.11.1985	USA	3:33.23
VOJTA Andreas	09.06.1989	AUT	3:36.18	3:36.18
WIGHTMAN Jake	11.07.1994	GBR	3:41.40	3:41.40

Without the Diamond League cash on the line, there’s no Ronald Kwemoi, Asbel Kiprop, or Matt Centrowitz involved (Centro is in the 800 tomorrow while the others are biding their time before an epic 15 in Monaco next week). But tomorrow’s race still features sub-3:31 Kenyans Silas Kiplagat, Nixon Chepseba, and Bethwell Birgen, Americans Leo Manzano, David Torrence, and Garrett Heath, and formerly Oklahoma-based Brits Chris O’Hare and Tom Farrell. 

Kiplagat leads the Diamond Race and with Kiprop absent, that makes him a clear favorite.  Manzano’s 3:32.37 is just shy of Lopez Lomong’s 3:32.20 which currently sits #10 on the US all-time list.  I’ll make a bold prediction and say that Manzano runs between 3:29 and 3:59.

Women’s 200 (11:14 eastern)


Allyson Felix and Blessing Okagbare had a fantastic duel to the line in Paris.  Tomorrow’s race seems likely to be more of the same.

Women’s 800 (11:39 eastern)


No Diamond League status for this event and no Eunice Sum, who has made winning a habit in 2014.  It’s a shame that Great Britain didn’t send a 4x800 to World Relays, as their top four entries in this race (Jennifer Meadows, Lynsey Sharp, Jessica Judd, and Alison Leonard)* have run 2:00, 1:59, 1:59, and 2:01 this season and could have threatened Kenya’s 8:04 squad.

The clear favorite is young American Ajee’ Wilson, whose season best is nearly a second clear of the field.  Other Americans to watch are Lea Wallace and Heather “That Girl From That Race” Kampf.

Watch out for almost 22-year-old Rose Almanza from Cuba. She she's sub-2 four times this season, with her 2014 best of 1:59.48 coming a few weeks ago in Tomblaine, France.

Brits Jessica Judd and Lynsey Sharp have both recently gone sub-2 for the first time in their careers as well. Don't underestimate the home crowd.

*And I’d be shocked if Laura Muir lost to all four of them tomorrow, but they all have faster SBs than Muir.

Men’s 800 (11:50 eastern)


The best non-Usain Bolt moment in global athletics the last ten years was David Rudisha’s wire-to-wire world record in the 2012 Olympics. Rudisha hasn’t been back to the UK since— until tomorrow.

The hype isn’t in the same stratosphere as Rudisha’s last time on the island, but he’s still the only man to have broken 1:43 in the field. In fact, the three men who have broken 1:44, Jeremiah Mutai, Job Kinyor, and Salazar advisee Michael Rimmer, have each only slipped under by a tenth or two. Even with the Diamond funds promised, the rest of the big names in the 800 are opting for other events here (Amos) or getting ready for Mid-D Apocalypse 2014 next week in Monaco (Duane Solomon and Mo Aman).

Rudisha’s personal pacemaker Sammy Tangui* is on the start list here and in Monaco, so fast times should be on tap.

The biggest question** for American fans is how fast Matt Centrowitz will run. The 1500 is clearly Centro’s event, and historically the 15 and 8 have not been incredibly closely linked. As a somewhat arbitrary point of comparison, Centro has already run faster than Bernard Lagat (PR: 1:46.00) or Hicham El Guerrouj (1:47.16) ever did in an open 800.***

See you tomorrow. I’ve somehow resisted the temptation to eat haggis so far.

*Someone needs to write a magazine feature about the relationship between these two. They train together and Tangui paces Rudisha at every meet that doesn’t hire Matt Scherer.
**No offense to Erik Sowinski, who has the fastest American PR in the field coming in.
***I say “open”, because Lagat and El G both closed in under 1:47 in their titanic 2004 Olympic final.