Parting Thoughts From The Zurich Diamond League: Yared Nuguse Outkicks Jakob Ingebrigtsen + More

By Paul Hof-Mahoney

The rain coming down in Zurich couldn’t keep the best athletes in the world from setting the track on fire in the last Diamond League meeting of the year before next week’s final. There were Olympic rematches and big performances galore which made for some expectedly awesome action inside Letzigrund Stadium.

Full results can be found here. We’ve also got interviews with many of the competing athletes up on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel.

Here’s just a few of the biggest moments from a great two hours in Zurich:

The Letsile Tebogo Section: Battle With Kenny Bednarek Delivers

Letsile Tebogo has gotten a mention (if not his own section) in every post-Olympic Diamond League preview or recap, and that’s because he’s taken full advantage of the momentum he built in Paris and has proceeded to dominate the circuit each time he’s stepped on the track.

Today’s episode sent Tebogo back to the 200m, where he got out of the blocks well but still found himself in fourth midway through the race, a full stride back on leader Kenny Bednarek. The Olympic champ started picking off runners from the trio of Americans ahead of him down the homestraight, eventually passing Bednarek to come through the line in 19.55, the third-fastest time of his career. This race was reminiscent of his win in Lausanne two weeks ago, where he also needed a ferocious comeback to take the victory. The difference for Tebogo in this race proved to be a devastating final 40m, which he closed in 3.78 seconds, over a full tenth faster than anyone else in the field. 

Bednarek may have missed out on the win in the last few meters, but he still was able to come away with a lifetime best of 19.57, equalling Justin Gatlin as the eighth-fastest man in the event’s history. When coupled with his 19.59 clocking from the Olympic Trials, he now joins four other men (Tebogo, Noah Lyles, Yohan Blake, and Usain Bolt) as the only athletes in history with multiple sub-19.60 200m races.

The depth of this race was truly impressive, as five men broke 19.90 in the same race for the first time in history. Erriyon Knighton finished third in 19.79, a nice bounce back after he finished fourth in 20.07 in Silesia, which was his first time failing to break 20 seconds in a non-qualifying race in nearly two years. Fred Kerley continued his impressive late season push with a 19.81 fourth-place finish, his fastest time since April 2022, and Alexander Ogando finished a hair off his two-week-old Dominican record for fifth in 19.87. Kerley and Ogando became the fastest-ever fourth- and fifth-place finishers, respectively.

Richardson Rules In Olympic Rematch

The setup for today’s women’s 100m race as an Olympic rematch was all too perfect. Six of the women that got into the blocks in the Paris final came back for more, including the top two. The weather even matched, as it was just as rainy in Zurich as it was on that historic night in Paris. Despite these similarities, Sha’Carri Richardson ensured the result would be different, as she got a taste of revenge by defeating Olympic champ Julien Alfred in each woman’s first race since the conclusion of the Games.

Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain got out like a rocket, driving hard away from the field and covering the first 60m in 6.97. The .06 second lead she held on Richardson at this point in the race wasn’t enough, as both Olympic medalists began to close on the Brit over the final 40m.

Richardson found herself in a familiar situation of fluctuating between fifth and sixth through the first stages of this race, but the splits show she was still much closer to the leaders than she was in the Olympic final. And when Sha’Carri Richardson has you within striking distance, you’re in deep trouble. She edged ahead of Asher-Smith just before the 90m mark and then widened the gap on both Asher-Smith and Alfred in the final 10m to take the win in 10.84. 

The Olympic champ was right on Richardson’s shoulder throughout the entirety of the back half of the race, but Alfred was never quite able to overtake her American rival. Luckily for us, we’ll get to see these two go at it once again at the Diamond League final next week in Brussels. 

You Get A Win! You Get A Win! You Get A Win! The 1500m Stays Thrilling And Unpredictable.

In 2024, there has been a clear top four in terms of who the best men’s 1500m runners in the world are. We’ve been lucky enough to see the quartet of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Josh Kerr, Cole Hocker, and Yared Nuguse square off several times this season in various combinations, and the head-to-head results have played out very evenly. Kerr got things rolling outdoors by taking down all three of his biggest rivals in an epic Bowerman Mile which now feels like it was ages ago. Nuguse was then on the losing end of the next two clashes between this group, as he fell to Hocker at the U.S. Trials and then finished fourth in Monaco, where Ingebrigtsen ran 3:26.73. Hocker was the big winner when it counted most in Paris, but Ingebrigtsen got the best of him their next time out in Lausanne. And then we finally come to this afternoon’s race in Zurich, where Nuguse picked up his second straight win at the Weltklasse and arguably the biggest victory of his career. All things are balanced.

As usual, Ingebrigtsen tucked in behind the pair of pacers from the gun and led the pack that was strung out in single file for much of this race. The order of Ingebrigtsen, Nuguse, Kerr, Hocker held throughout the early stages of this race, and by the time pacer Elliot Giles hit the bell, there was a bit of a gap between Nuguse in second and Kerr in third. Ingebrigtsen and Nuguse had nearly identical splits through the first 300m of the bell lap, as the American sat on the Norwegian’s shoulder until he made his decisive move with about 60m left in the race. The final 100m times of 13.1 for Nuguse and 13.5 for Ingebrigtsen proved to be the difference in this race, as Nuguse crossed the line in 3:29.21 to Ingebrigtsen’s 3:29.52.

Hocker had to settle for third, kicking hard as usual but from much farther back, while Kerr faded to fifth as Niels Laros overtook him on the home straight. 

We’re not yet sure who among these men will be contesting next week’s Diamond League final, but with Nuguse and Hocker being announced as Grand Slam Track racers yesterday, we can be sure that we’ll get to see three of the most entertaining runners in the world go head-to-head-to-head on at least four occasions next year. And given the parity that has been present in this event this year, that is a wonderful thing. 

Other Highlights:

- Grant Holloway made history tonight as he broke Allen Johnson’s record for the most career sub-13 clockings in the 110m hurdles. His win in 12.99 was his sixth time this season and the 12th in his career. For reference: Johnson’s 11th sub-13 came in September of 2006, when he was 35. Holloway turns 27 in November, meaning that previous high-water mark should be obliterated by the time he hangs up the spikes.

- For the second straight Diamond League, a 5000m world record attempt came up short, but in fairness Beatrice Chebet was much closer than her male counterparts were in Rome. The 10,000m world record holder was running completely solo for most of the race, with the last pacer dropping out about five laps in, and still managed to finish in 14:09.52, which is the seventh-fastest time ever. She joins Letesenbet Gidey as the only women to break 14:10 on multiple occasions.

- Jamaica swept the 400m hurdles races this afternoon. Shiann Salmon closed wwll to take the win in 52.97 (her first ever sub-53) over Anna Cockrell and Roshawn Clarke took advantage of Karsten Warholm pulling out with hamstring tightness and Alison dos Santos stepping off the track 200m in to win the men’s race in 47.49.

- Fresh off her 600m world best from over the weekend, Mary Moraa closed the women’s 800m race with a wicked final 200m to take her third Diamond League victory of the season in 1:57.08. 1500m Olympic bronze medalist Georgia Bell showcased some speed with her second-place finish, as her and Moraa were the only women to break 15 seconds in the final 100m.

- Mondo Duplantis won a very strange pole vault contest where only three men cleared 5.72m and Olympic bronze medalist Emmanouil Karalis no-heighted with three misses at 5.42m. Heavily affected by the rainy conditions, Duplantis and Sam Kendricks were the only men to make it over 5.82m. After Kendricks failed to clear 6.02m, Duplantis could retire with the win despite missing his first two attempts at the height. The difference? A first time failure by Kendricks at 5.42m. 

- Ryan Crouser keeps getting better with every post-Olympic contest, this time taking the win with a best mark of 22.66m. This is the second straight meet where every single one of Crouser’s throws would have been good enough to win the competition. There have been 10 throws across the last two Diamond Leagues in excess of 22m. Crouser is responsible for all of them.

The next Diamond League competition will be the Diamond League Final in Brussels, Belgium, on Friday, September 13th and Saturday, September 14th. Stay tuned to our website and social media channels for previews, coverage, and interviews from the next big meet on the circuit over the next few days.