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Paris DL Recap: Ruth Jebet And Laura Muir Become All-Time Greats

Paris DL Recap: Ruth Jebet And Laura Muir Become All-Time Greats

The antepenultimate Diamond League meet of 2016 was in Paris on Saturday night. One world record went down and another woman ran one of the fastest 1500m ti

Aug 27, 2016 by Dennis Young
Paris DL Recap: Ruth Jebet And Laura Muir Become All-Time Greats
The antepenultimate Diamond League meet of 2016 was in Paris on Saturday night. One world record went down and another woman ran one of the fastest 1500m times ever. Full results and recap below.

COMPLETE RESULTS

1. Ruth Jebet Lowers The Women's Steeple WR By A Ridiculous 1.1%
The world record at the start of the day was 8:58; it's now 8:52 after a brilliant run by Ruth Jebet. For comparison, if Almaz Ayana broke the 10K WR by 1.1%, she would have run 29:12 instead of 29:17. Of course, the steeplechase is a much newer event with a hurdling variable, and we can probably expect the WR to drop even further. Hiven Kiyeng and Emma Coburn--who were silver and bronze in Rio and second and third today--didn't even PR, which might indicate imperfect conditions. (Weather Underground says it was 89 degrees during the race.)

In Rio Jebet threw in an insanely hard surge mid-race and then faded, probably costing herself a world record on an Olympic stage. Tonight, she meted out her effort perfectly. The rabbit towed her through 1K in 2:56, and Jebet covered the next two kilometers in 2:57 and and 2:58.

The 19-year-old Bahraini has taken the steeplechase to a new place. Gulnara Galkina of Russia ran 8:58 in 2008, and no else had broken 9:00 until Chebet did so in May. There's a distinct possibility Chebet breaks 8:50 before the season is over. 

Jebet was born in Kenya and transferred her citizenship and athletic eligibility to Bahrain three years ago.

Results:

That's an Australian record for Lacaze, the first time under 9:20 for Garcia, and a new PR for Quigley, who beat Garcia at the Olympic Trials. Garcia and Quigley are now Nos. 4 and 5 on the American all-time list, behind only Coburn, Jenny Simpson, and Leah O'Connor.

2. Laura Muir Becomes An All-Timer
Jenny Simpson won her bronze medal in Rio with perfect timing and tactics--Laura Muir and Sifan Hassan ruined their chances by going too hard too early. Muir did not repeat her mistake tonight. She beat Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon with a searing last 800 meters; according to the official splits, she ran her last 700m in 1:46 and her last 300m in 44.8. Her 3:55.22 is a new British record and 2016 world leader.

During the meet, we tweeted that Muir was No. 5 all time:

That isn't 100% accurate. I was looking at the ​Track & Field News ​list, which excludes the eight Chinese women who ran between 3:50 and 3:55 from 1993 to 1997. Earlier this year, a letter written in 1995 and signed by many of those women emerged, claiming that their coach "tricked and forced us into using large quantities of banned drugs for years." ​

Either way, Muir's clocking tonight is spectacular. The slowest of the eight women in "Ma's Army" ran 3:55.07; other than that, only Dibaba and three Eastern Europeans from the 1980s have gone faster. Muir's time is the third fastest in the world since 1997, behind only two runs by Dibaba. If you include the Chinese women, Muir is now the No. 13 performer of all time.

It's faster than the American record and faster than the Kenyan record.

Speaking of Americans, Shannon Rowbury and Jenny Simpson were fourth and sixth tonight. 3:58.00 and 3:58.19 are, quietly, the seventh and eighth best ever performances by an American. It's the second fastest Rowbury has ever run and the third fastest time ever for Simpson. ​

Tonight was more proof, as if it was needed, that Diamond League races are very different races than championships. Muir, Hassan, Rowbury, and Seyaum all beat Jenny Simpson tonight. But only Simpson has a 2016 Olympic medal.

3. Ryan Hill Runs 7:30
The 3K is Ryan Hill's best event. Period. He won silver in the 3K at the world indoor championships--beating Abdalaati Iguider, Caleb Ndiku, and Paul Chelimo--and ran 7:30.93 tonight to become the No. 4 all-time American in the event.


World indoor 3K champ Yomif Kejelcha won tonight as well, and Hill finished right behind Iguider and Olympic 5K bronze medalist Hagos Gebrhiwet. Bernard Lagat, Galen Rupp, and Bob Kennedy are now the only Americans who have run faster than Hill, and Rupp's time was indoors. There's a strong case that those three are the best track distance (>mile) runners in American history.

Hill isn't snakebitten by his 3K excellence--it's an event at world indoors, and he's made two outdoor world teams in the 5K. But it's clearly his best event.

Behind Hill, American Paul Chelimo showed a minor Olympic hangover, losing to three men he beat in the 5K in Rio. Or maybe Chelimo is just better at the 5K than he is at the 3K.

4. Alfred Kipketer Wins A Wild And Fast 800
David Rudisha and Clayton Murphy were the only 2016 Olympic finalists to miss this race, but the result was completely different than the one in Rio. Here's how they finished in the race for medals:

1. Rudisha
2. 1:42.61 Taoufik Makhloufi
3. Murphy
4. 1:43.61 Pierre-Ambroise Bosse
5. 1:43.55 Ferguson Rotich
6. 1:44.20 Marcin Lewandowski 
7. 1:46.02 Alfred Kipketer
8. 1:46.15 Boris Berian
And here's how they finished tonight:

1. 1:42.87 Alfred Kipketer
2. 1:42.98 Taoufik Makhloufi
3. 1:43.05 Jonathan Kitilit
4. 1:43.43 Ferguson Rotich
5. 1:43.52 Ayanleh Souleiman
6. 1:43.58 Pierre-Ambroise Bosse
7. 1:43.73 Marcin Lewandowski
DNF Boris Berian

(Chris Lotsbom tweeted after the race that Berian said a nagging Achilles injury was what caused him to drop out.)

With 50 meters to go tonight, it looked like Kitilit or Rotich was going to win it. But Kipketer burst through the middle of the pack to win it, and Makhloufi ran down the rest of the leaders for second. Makhloufi looked like he slightly mistimed his move, and if he went a hair earlier, he may have knocked off Kipketer for the win.

That is an incredibly deep race--eight men, including Adam Kszczot, broke 1:44. Kszczot's 1:43.76 time is faster than the eighth-place time from the 2012 Olympic 800m. That race was the first time eight men broke 1:44 in a race and possibly the last.

5. Keni Harrison Stays Hot
Kendra Harrison said before the race that she thought she could lower her world record to sub-12.00 in the hurdles. That didn't happen, but Harrison did win tonight in 12.44. That gives her eight of the nine fastest wind-legal times in the world this year. Harrison has won every outdoor final she's entered this year except for the Olympic Trials, where she was sixth. (She also started her indoor season with three straight 60m hurdle wins before finishing second at the U.S. championships and eighth at worlds.)

6. Gold Medalists Lose
Faith Kipyegon wasn't the only gold medalist to go down in Paris. Americans Ryan Crouser (shot put), Tianna Bartolette (long jump), and Kerron Clement (400H) all lost their primary events. But the Olympics are all that count.

COMPLETE RESULTS

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