{"id":580,"date":"2011-09-14T05:56:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=580"},"modified":"2012-01-12T15:35:59","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T23:35:59","slug":"brussels-will-end-season-with-few-big-match-ups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=580","title":{"rendered":"Brussels Will End Season with Few Big Match Ups"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were told that the Diamond League was going to bring the best of the best together on a regular basis. That all of those key match ups that had been missing in the sport were going to become reality by the Diamond League contracting with all the main characters to put them together in multiple venues. And that the \u201cpiece de resitance\u201d would be Zurich and Brussels, as the season would come to a climactic end with athletes vying for Diamond League titles. <\/p>\n

So, how\u2019s that working out? Well if the season ending Brussels meet is a guide, not so good. <\/p>\n

Take the men\u2019s 100 meters for example. The last time we had a race with the world\u2019s truly best on the track was back in 2009 i\"image\"<\/a>n the final of the World Championships \u2013 the epic Bolt, Gay, Powell final. The Diamond League was supposed to bring them all together last year \u2013 but that didn\u2019t happen. We didn\u2019t see them early this season, then of course mid-way through we lost Tyson Gay to injury. We still have Bolt and Powell however, and a new star with Yohan Blake taking the World title in Bolt\u2019s absence and backing that up with back to back 9.82\u2019s in Zurich and Berlin. What we get in Brussels, however, will be a 100 with Bolt, but no Powell or Blake nor Worlds silver medalist Walter Dix \u2013 not even Christophe Lemaitre who was 4th<\/sup> in Daegu and certainly a big draw in Europe. No, Bolt gets to run what should be an uncontested race against a field in which the biggest names from Daegu will be finalists Jimmy Vicaut and Nesta Carter \u2013 6th<\/sup> & 7th<\/sup> in the seven man final. <\/p>\n

World Champion Blake will be in Brussels \u2013 but instead of the 100 he\u2019ll be contesting the 200, where he\u2019s rarely been seen this year! But, as in the 100, no medalists from Daegu will be on the track. Blake will instead be competing against 4th<\/sup> placer Jaysuma Saidi Ndure and 7th<\/sup> place Rondell Sorillo. This theme is repeated throughout the meet, as we end yet another season with a lack of true top level head to heads outside of the global Major \u2013 something that the Diamond League was supposed to solve. <\/p>\n

There is still a chance that the meet could give us a couple of thrills however, the biggest opportunity being in the men\u2019s 800 which has David Rudisha (KEN) who once again is in outstanding form. This past Saturday in Rieti the Kenyan WR holder ran a sizzling 1:41.33 \u2013 the 5th<\/sup> fastest time in history. Last year he ran his twin WR\u2019s (1:41.09 \/ 1:41.01) one week apart. So I would suspect that another 1:41 \"image\"<\/a>could be in the offing and perhaps a shot at the WR \u2013 which would almost have to take us under 1:41! That alone would be worth the price of admission. He should have help in the form of top rival, and World\u2019s silver medalist Abubaker Kaki (SUD), who I\u2019m sure, would like nothing less than to be able to take down Rudisha. World 1500 meter champion Asbel Kiprop (KEN) \u2013 #3 in the world this year here \u2013 will also be in the race as will Adam Kszczot (POL) and Mohammad Aman (ETH) who were 2nd<\/sup> & 3rd<\/sup> behind Rudisha in the Rieti run. So this is a loaded field. <\/p>\n

The other event is one that actually brings together all three medalists from Daegu \u2013 the women\u2019s 100 meters. While we\u2019ve been having tremendous difficulty getting the top men\u2019s dashers together this century, the women have been happy to take each other on. So Brussels will give us World Champion Carmelita Jeter (USA), runner up Veronica Campbell Brown (JAM)and bronze medalist Kelly Ann Baptiste(TRI) in one final go round before we turn the corner for London. Brussels has a fast surface, so expect something swift to close out the season. This is how the season was supposed to end \u2013 times sixteen! <\/p>\n

I hope that two days from now I\u2019m going WOW that was an awesome meet. And I\u2019m sure that athletes like Bolt and Sally Pearson in addition to the events I highlighted will provide us with some outstanding moments. But the Diamond League group needs to go back to the drawing board, because this is supposed to be the showcase portion of our season, and so far two years in the only difference between the Diamond League and the old Golden League is the name \u2013 as the promises made have yet to be delivered. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were told that the Diamond League was going to bring the best of the best together on a regular basis. That all of those key match ups that had been missing in the sport were going to become reality by the Diamond League contracting with all the main characters to put them together in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,168,12,100,61,28,27,22],"class_list":["post-580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bolt","tag-brussels","tag-jeter","tag-kaki","tag-kiprop","tag-pearson","tag-rudisha","tag-vcb"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-9m","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":762,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions\/762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}