By Maddie Lang
Close finishes and upsets highlighted the Oslo Diamond League meet on Thursday.
The close finishes came in the distance races – the men’s 5,000 and the women’s 3,000. The upsets happened elsewhere – the women’s discus and the women’s Dream Mile.
The men’s 5,000 meters had fans on the edge of their seats.
Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, bronze medalist in the 10,000 at the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Athletics Championships, led the race until the final two laps. Then Ethiopians Telahun Haile Bekele and Yomif Kejelcha followed Kiplimo tightly. Kejelcha made his move in front of Kiplimo, but Kiplimo didn’t let him go.
The excitement came in the final 200 meters.
As fatigue hit Kejelcha, whose top international finish was a silver in the 2019 world championship 10K, Kiplimo pulled aside him. They were shoulder-to-shoulder through the final 100 meters. Leaning across the finish line, the two couldn’t have finished any closer.
After several minutes of review, official times were released, showing both of the two finishing in a meet record 12:41.73. Later it was announced Kejelcha was just thousandths of a second ahead of Kiplimo.
Kejelcha now leads the Diamond League standings with 15 points, putting himself in position for the Diamond League final, which will be held at the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field on Sept. 16-17.
In the women’s discus, Jorinde van Klinken proved herself as a threat professionally after winning the women’s discus throw at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championship just five days before.
Olympic gold medalist Valarie Allman, who has been dominant this season, led the field after her third throw of 65.91 meters. Every spectator would have bet money on her winning
Van Klinken stepped into the throwing circle for her fifth throw and silenced everyone. She threw 66.77 meters, demolishing her personal best of 65.55, the NCAA record she had set less than a week before.
Allman improved on her fifth throw to 66.18. Then both Van Klinken and Allman scratched on their final throw, giving Van Klinken her first Diamond League victory. Allman still leads the Diamond League standings with 23 points, and Van Klinken is now in third place with 11 points toward the Diamond League final hosted at her alma mater, the University of Oregon.
The women’s 3,000 meters also came down to the final lap. Beatrice Chebet positioned herself with a comfortable stride behind the pacer, Sarah Billings, at the start.
Four minutes into the race, American Alicia Monson, fueled by her disappointment from last week’s meet in Paris, began making her move. Monson maintained her lead until the sounding of the bell for the final lap.
This is when Chebet turned on the jets.
She quickly moved past Monson and right behind her were Lillian Kasait Rengeruk and Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi.
Chebet and Rengeruk were still neck and neck at the start of the last 200 meters. Chebet initiated her final kick, and the rest is history. She won in a meet record of 8:25.01. Rengeruk finished behind her in 8:25.90. Monson finished fourth in a season-best 8:29.43.
“Paris was a little shock to the legs,” Monson told Citius Mag. “So this was almost the same pace…it felt normal.”
In the women’s Dream Mile, everyone in the stands was left speechless by the run of 17-year-old Birke Haylom. The Ethiopian sat comfortably among the pack for the first two laps, then made her move in front of Jessica Hull and Cory McGee on the third lap.
Following the pace-maker lights, she kept her lead as she approached the final lap, but Hull and McGee weren’t going to let her win easily.
In the final 200 meters, Hull made her move on Haylom. McGee followed right behind. Their final push wasn’t enough.
Haylom came across the finish line in 4:17.13, setting a new U20 record. McGee beat out Hull and finished in 4:18.11, the third fastest time for an American, and Nikki Hiltz posted the fourth-best time for an American, placing fourth in 4:18.38.
“My last few races, it’s been a tiny bit quicker each time,” McGee told Citius Mag. “So I knew today I’m still trending upwards. So I figured if I was smart and didn’t panic mid-race, I could run a fast time.”
In the men’s 1,500 meters in front of his home crowd, Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen took an early position right behind the pacemakers. He led the pack into the final lap with Spain’s Mohamed Katir right behind him, then pulled away down the frontstretch.
Ingebrigtsen won in 3:27.95, a meet record. His time is just 1.95 seconds off the 1998 world record held by Hicham El Guerrouj, a time that he hopes to break soon.
“I know that 3:26 is not an easy task at the moment,” Ingebrigtsen told Citius Mag. “But if I’m continuing to improve myself and running faster than I’ve done before, it's a good step in the right direction.”
American Yared Nuguse finished third with a time of 3:29.02, an American record.
“I knew it was going to be a hard race with a deep field,” Nuguse told Citius Mag. “So I managed to get out with a great position and stay there and just hang on the best I could…I’m excited for what’s next.”
Norway’s other star, Karsten Warholm, let out his famous Viking yell as he stepped into his blocks for the 400-meter hurdles. Warholm tore his hamstring last year, stopping his quest to win three consecutive world titles, and was making his outdoor debut this season. Right out of the blocks everyone knew, this was going to be his race.
Warholm made up the lane seven stagger by the first hurdle and increased his lead from there. He soared across the finish line in 46.52, beating his previous meet record and demolishing the current world lead.
Finishing second was American CJ Allen in 47.58, a personal best and the second best time in the world this season.
