9 Takeaways From 2024 London DL Where Hodgkinson (1:54.61), Hudson-Smith (43.74) Set British Records as Lyles Ran 9.81 PB to Win 100
By LetsRun.comThe London Athletics Meet, the final Diamond League meet before the Olympics, was held today in front of a huge crowd at London Stadium. A number of British records and world leads were broken, led by Keely Hodgkinson’s 1:54.61 in the 800 and Matthew Hudson-Smith’s 43.74 in the 400.
Compiled results can be found here. Video replays of key races can be found here. WA written recap is here. Here are our 9 biggest takeaways.
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Women’s 800: Keely Hodgkinson rips the fastest time in the world since 2018
Keely Hodgkinson has run three global championships and earned three silver medals, but she will head to Paris for the 2024 Olympics as the gold-medal favorite in the women’s 800. In an impressive display in front of a roaring home crowd, Hodgkinson took more than half a second off her pb to run 1:54.61 (previous pb 1:55.19), the fastest time in the world since Caster Semenya’s 1:54.60 in July 2018.
Making the feat all the more impressive was the fact that Hodkginson did it basically all by herself as the rabbit went out super fast so she didn’t benefit at all from any wind-breaking.
It is no secret that Hodgkinson’s path to gold is easier this year because reigning champion Athing Mu will not be at the Olympics. But it is worth noting that Hodgkinson ran faster today than Mu ever has (Mu’s pb is 1:54.97 from last year’s Diamond League final).
Hodgkinson was not the only woman to run fast today as the top eight all broke 1:58. World Indoor silver medalist Jemma Reekie took more than a second off her pb to run 1:55.61 for 2nd, while UK 1500 champ Georgia Bell ran a 3+ second pb of 1:56.28 for 3rd.
To put things in perspective, Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi – the 2019 world champion – ran a pb of 1:57.26 and that was only good enough for 6th. US Olympian Allie Wilson also ran a nice pb, lowering her best from 1:58.09 to 1:57.52, though that only placed her 7th.
Men’s 3k: Grant Fisher’s kick comes up short yet again as Dominic Lobalu wins
When the start lists for this race came out, we thought that if Grant Fisher wants to feel good about his medal chances in Paris, then he needs to win a race like this. The biggest names in distance running – Selemon Barega, Yomif Kejelcha, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Hagos Gebrhiwet, Joshua Cheptegei, Jacob Kiplimo – were all missing.
But Fisher did not win. The American 5k/10k champion took the lead just before the bell and did a good job of stringing the field out, putting himself in a prime spot to take home the win. But in the final 50, he just got obliterated by European 5000 bronze medallist/10k gold medalist Dominic Lobalu, who has run 12:50 this year.
Sometimes in the past Fisher has said he allowed too big of a gap to form between himself and the stars in the big races, but that clearly wasn’t the case today. And we’ve never really bought that argument, anyway. There is too big of a gap because they have been better than Fisher and feeling more relaxed before it’s time to kick.
Men’s Mile: Meet organizers should be ashamed / Who should have won this race?
Ollie Hoare was the first man to cross the line in the Emsley Carr Mile with a 3:49.03 clocking. But he was not the man who ran the best race today. That was 19-year-old Dutchman Niels Laros, who finished fourth.
So how did he run the best race of the day if he got beat by three men? That is because, for the second Diamond League race in a row, Laros fell. Unlike Monaco last week however, Laros was able to stay in the race and finish in fourth, just .42 back from the win. Laros was making up a ton of ground in the final 100 and looked like he had the best kick in the field. Although we will never know, we can assume that he would have been able to take the win today based on the fitness he was able to display. British champ Neil Gourley and countryman George Mills, who was rightfully enraged at officials, were also caught up in the fall.
The fact that this race started with 17 runners on the line in a men’s mile is absurd. Seventeen in a 1500 is a lot. Seventeen in a mile when they have to run a turn nine meters into the race is a disgrace. Two things should have happened to prevent this disaster:
1) At a minimum, half the competitors should have been put in an outside stagger.
2) The starter should have been super aware that a fall was a very real possibility and been paying close attention. The fact that the race wasn’t restarted after a fall literally five seconds into the race was ridiculous.
Women’s 400: Might an NCAA alum win the Olympic 400 for the fourth straight edition?
After getting pulled out quickly by European champ Lieke Klaver, NCAA and Jamaican champ Nickisha Pryce, powered home the final 100 to run a monster 48.57 to move from number two to number one in the world in 2024. The times were quick behind her as well as 2023 Worlds silver medallist Natalia Kaczmarek improved on her top three time in the world as five women broke 50.
While 2023 world champ Marileidy Paulino (49.20 sb) is undefeated this year, her pb is 48.76 so Pryce has a real shot at Olympic gold. If she wins it, it will be the fourth straight Olympics that a former NCAA runner won Olympic gold as Sanya Richards-Ross won in 2012 and Shaunae Miller-Uibo won in 2016 and 2020 (she wasn’t married when she won in 2016). Miller-Uibo is out of contention for a three-peat after an injury at the Bahamian champs a few weeks ago.
Men’s 400: Is Matthew Hudson-Smith the Olympic favorite after his 43.74 world lead?
Matthew Hudson-Smith ran a world leading 43.74 en route to a win on home soil. Hudson Smith broke 44 for the first time in his life, dropping his PB from 44.07 to 43.74. Hudson-Smith, who has medalled at the last two Worlds, has run two consecutive PBs and looks to be peaking at the right time.
Aside from Hudson-Smith, US champ Quincy Hall, who ran 43.80 in Monaco last week, is the only other man to break 44 in 2024. Hudson-Smith was second at Worlds last year and 2023 champ Antonio Watson is injured and not going to the Games for Jamaica. One other name to consider for gold is world indoor and European champ Alexander Doom of Belgium, who ran a 44.15 in his last race to win Euros. Former world leader and NCAA champ Christopher Morales-Williams of Canada was in today’s race but appears to be past his peak as he only managed a 44.90 for 6th.
Women’s 200: Gabby Thomas may have some competition for 200m gold
With Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Sha’Carri Richardson not in the 200 in Paris and with Shericka Jackson off her game in 2024 (22.29 sb), we were wondering if Olympic 200m gold might end up being a cakewalk for Gabby Thomas. Today’s race reminded us that Olympic golds almost never come easily as Thomas had to really fight to win this one.
The good news for Thomas is despite having a terrible start, she showed why she is the world leader and Olympic favorite as she pulled out a win in a meet record 21.82, edging Juien Alfred who ran a pb of 21.86. Dina Asher-Smith got off to a blistering start and ended up third in 22.07 but it seems implausible she’ll contend for gold in Paris as her pb is 21.88.
Men’s 100: Lyles impresses in final pre-Olympic race
Noah Lyles’ Olympic double dreams are becoming more realistic day by day as he took down a quality field, running a PB in the process of 9.81 into a slight (0.3 m/s) headwind. He took down South Africa’s Akani Simbine (2nd in 9.86) and Botswana star Letsile Tobogo who finished third in 9.88, tying his personal best.
Lyles’ 9.81 sb now ranks him #3 in the world in 2024, but this may have been the most impressive run of the year when you consider the conditions.
Kishane Thompson is the world leader at 9.77, but his time came with a 0.9 tailwind in Kingston. Convert that to still conditions and it is worth 9.81 in still conditions while Lyles’ time today is worth 9.79. Ferdinand Omanyala also ran 9.79 (+1.5) in Kenya but that’s only a 9.90 once you correct for wind and altitude.
Women 400 Hurdles: Femke Bol is very good but the gap between her and Sydney is large
Femke Bol did not mess around in her final competition before the Olympics. After running 50.95 at altitude last week, Bol got out quick and showed that she’s in the form of her life as she ran the second-fastest time of her career (and fourth-fastest time in history): 51.30. That’s the good news. The bad news is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran 50.65 at USAs and she’s PR’d in every global final she’s run in her life.
So there’s a 0.65 gap between the two. That’s a lot. Yes, it’s the hurdles, so people can get it wrong but the women’s hurdle heights aren’t that tall.
Men’s 4 x 100: Can we give a shout out to the British men for giving us two of the most important instructional videos on how NOT to run men’s sprints?
Yesterday at the European U18 champs, an up-and-coming British star showed the world how not to run the 200:
Omg what did I just watch… pic.twitter.com/cQoXpTwfQX
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) July 20, 2024
Today, Reece Prescod showed the world how not to run the anchor leg of a 4×100. This might have been the worst anchor leg run that never was in history:
Prescod man pic.twitter.com/eplOOf4V4H
— DG 🦅 (@Drealz4) July 20, 2024
Men’s 400 Hurdles: Dos Santos wins tuneup
In one of the most unsurprising results of the day, Alison dos Santos methodically made his way through the 400 hurdles field to win in 47.18 bounce back from a loss in Monaco. Dos Santos has lost only once this year (to Warholm and Benjamin) and he looks to be a lock for a medal as the three have separated themselves from the rest of the world. The only question now is what color will that medal be?
Best of the Rest
The British women won the rarely run 4 x 100 by over half a second in a world leading 41.55 and are looking primed to upgrade their bronze medal from Tokyo. Their male counterparts did not have the same level of success, majorly botching the timing of the final handoff as Japan won in 38.07.
In women’s javelin was won by Australian Mackenzie Little in a personal best 66.27 m while world champion Haruka Kitaguchi struggled finishing in fourth.
Men’s Shot put was a shocker as European champion Fabbri Leonardo took down world champions Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs and Tom Walsh with a 22.52 m throw.
