For a variety of vicissitudes (very injured, very sick, left the country, the structure of the seasons), one point of my college career featured a twenty-two month interval between cross-country races. I was incredibly jittery right before the race that ended the layoff, a late-August 6k.

I asked my coach right before the race for some advice and maybe some calming words. Here’s what he said:

Dennis, when you eat a breakfast of bacon and eggs, what’s the difference between the pig and the chicken who put that on your plate?

Uh, no clue.

The chicken… the chicken is involved. But the pig! THE PIG! The pig is COMMITTED!

(I followed up that pep talk with a terrible race.)

I wouldn’t say that any world records are about to be committed Friday in Monaco. But three of them are definitely involved.  Here’s a preview of those events:

Men’s high jump (14:05 Eastern)

ATHLETE	DATE OF BIRTH	NATION	PB	SB
BARSHIM Mutaz Essa	24.06.1991	QAT	2.42	2.42
BONDARENKO Bohdan	30.08.1989	UKR	2.42	2.42
DMITRIK Aleksey	12.04.1984	RUS	2.36	2.29
DROUIN Derek	06.03.1990	CAN	2.40	2.40
FASSINOTTI Marco	29.04.1989	ITA	2.28	2.28
HANANY Mickaël	25.03.1983	FRA	2.34	2.34
KYNARD Erik	03.02.1991	USA	2.37	2.37
PROTSENKO Andriy	20.05.1988	UKR	2.40	2.40
TOBE Naoto	31.03.1992	JPN	2.31	2.31
UKHOV Ivan	29.03.1986	RUS	2.41	2.41
ZHANG Guowei	04.06.1991	CHN	2.34	2.34

The Supermen are back.

The Diamond League is fantastic— it’s the closest thing that track has to a PGA/ATP equivalent, a professional federation that puts on meets with consistent hype, crowds, and prize money. But the sandy gears and general intransigence that seem to be an international and timeless feature of track & field and the looseness of the coordination between the meets mean that the circuit is slow to react to phenomena like the Supermen.

It just sucks that we’ve seen these HJ horses hurl themselves into the heavens only four times in the last seventy days. It’s not the athletes’ fault: they’re following the money. The incentive structure is the problem— each meet with the means to offer the prize money is only bound by two structures, its own self-preservation and the rules that the IAAF lays out for the Diamond League.  No self-respecting professional sport would see its historic superstars compete on just four days out of ten weeks in the meat of the season.

But that’s exactly what’s happened with the Supermen.  Cherish watching them— you don’t know when they’ll be in action next.

It’s always safe to bet against a world record. But bet on Erik Kynard to at least tie the American record of 2.40, becoming the second American (after Charles Austin) to join the 2.40 club.


The header on the Diamond League Monaco's homepage is pretty spectacular.

Men’s 800 (2:15 Eastern)

ATHLETE	DATE OF BIRTH	NATION	PB	SB
AMAN Mohammed	10.01.1994	ETH	1:42.37	1:43.99
AMOS Nijel	15.03.1994	BOT	1:41.73	1:43.63
BOSSE Pierre-Ambroise	11.05.1992	FRA	1:43.76	1:44.23
CHERUIYOT Ferguson Rotich	30.11.1989	KEN	1:43.22	1:44.30
KAKI Abubaker	21.06.1989	SUD	1:42.23	1:44.09
LEWANDOWSKI Marcin	13.06.1987	POL	1:43.79	1:44.49
OSAGIE Andrew	19.02.1988	GBR	1:43.77	1:45.37
RUDISHA David	17.12.1988	KEN	1:40.91	1:43.34
SOLOMON Duane	28.12.1984	USA	1:42.82	1:43.88
TANGUI Sammy	16.09.1984	KEN	1:49.39

The world record is in absolutely no danger here, obviously. But with WR holder David “Rude Boy” Rudisha* toeing the line, the specter of 1:40.91 looms over the proceedings.

Rudisha might not be the favorite here: Mo Aman and Nijel Amos have been first or second in every DL meeting they’ve run this summer, losing to only each other and Asbel Kiprop. With Rudisha clearly much fitter than he was when he lost to both at Pre, and with personal rabbit Sammy Tangui in tow, things will undoubtedly be spicy.

How you feel about Duane Solomon’s American record chances might depend on your answer to this question: are Charles Jock and Cas Loxsom only in 1:47 shape? If you knock off two seconds for wind from everyone’s times in Edmonton, that puts Solomon at 1:42.92, Jock at 1:47.22, and Loxsom at 1:47.52 (Note: Loxsom is running the 800m in Liege on Wednesday, so we'll know the answer soon enough).

I’d guess that Loxsom and Jock are closer to 1:45-46 shape, meaning that Solomon is primed to smash the 1:42.60 AR held by his coach Johnny Gray.  Solomon actually won this race last year; as much as runners pay lip service to winning, Solomon would gladly lose to Rudisha, Aman, and Amos if it meant breaking the AR this year.

*listen, if Mitch and Gordon are going to start calling Evan Jager “The Cuban”, I’m going to pull nicknames out of my ass too.

Editor's Note: It's because Jager was close to his American Record, but just missed it. You know, so close, but no cigar? Cuban cigars? Do you get it?