Make Everyone Match Up Head To Head ⏱️

Lap 185: Sponsored by ASICS

As Chris prepared for the Marathon Pour Tous in Paris this summer, one of his favorite training shoes was the SuperBlast 2. The shoe lived up to the hype and we now understand why the first drop sold out so quickly. For those lucky enough to have a pair, we hope you’re enjoying each mile. For those still hoping to get a pair, ASICS has released three new colorways of the SuperBlast 2 - a classic white, bold magenta or stealthy black. The SuperBlast 2 is available now at select local running stores in the U.S. or visit  www.ASICS.com.

Compiled by Audrey Allen, Mac Fleet, David Melly, and Paul Snyder.

Playing Musical Chairs Over 1500 Meters 🔀

If there’s one thing every track and field fan loves, it’s unpredictability. There’s nothing better than turning on your television, hearing the gun go off, and – despite your years of poring over statistics, workout videos, and race replays – having no idea who’s going to win.

Conversely, there’s no bigger enemy to the success of track and field than repetition. One of the most common critiques of the Diamond League format is that when one athlete is running rampant over their prime event, the stable pacing and racing conditions created by the DL can engender a sense of inevitability when, say, someone like Faith Kipyegon is a near lock to win any 1500m she starts. Even when the best athletes in the world are showing up and showing out, it creates a bit of a setup for failure: the fans either get a world record, or they’re disappointed.

Over the last three seasons, Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s looming shadow over the men’s 1500m could, at times, feel oppressive. Outside his shit-talking in the media and uncanny ability to get beat in World finals, watching Jakob clip the pacers’ heels then slow-drop the field en route to a sub-3:30 performance again and again – whether in Monaco, or Lausanne, or Silesia – created a sense of deja vu. But 2024 has been different.

First, we watched an (admittedly rusty and on the comeback from injury) Ingebrigtsen get beat by 2023 World champ Josh Kerr at his own game in the Bowerman Mile. Then, he had to dive for the line to hold off a hard-charging Timothy Cheruiyot just to defend his home turf in Oslo of all places. We all know what happened when the rest of the world saw what a fully healthy Cole Hocker can do in Paris. And then, just last week, Jakob suffered his third loss of the season, this time to Yared Nuguse in Zurich – in a well-paced, string-em-out 1500m no less. All of a sudden, the regular-season men’s 1500m doesn’t feel quite so predictable.

It’s not like Jakob has lost his touch: sandwiched in between these races were a lifetime-best 3:26.73 in Monaco, a world record over 3000m, and an Olympic title in the 5000m. It just seems like the rest of the world has finally caught up to the Norwegian wunderkind. Still, the real-life embodiment of “main character energy” is setting the terms of most races he enters, given his proclivity for front-running and spot as the fastest active miler in the world. But it’s no longer Jakob vs. Josh; it’s a true multi-dimensional battle for supremacy. The five fastest 1500m runners in 2024 include the 2019, 2021, 2023, and 2024 World/Olympic champions, plus a man (Nuguse) who’s run a 3:43 mile.

With the competition as stiff as it is, no one stays on top – or gets bumped to the bottom – for very long. Just look at Josh Kerr, who started the year looking untouchable thanks to an indoor world record in the 2 mile and a World Indoor title over 3000m. A few months later, he had to settle for silver in Paris and barely made a dent in Zurich last week, finishing well behind the leaders in fifth. Three days later, Kerr was making a mockery of the competition at the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, shattering Sydney Maree’s 43-year-old course record at the storied race.

The next time he toes the line with any of his main rivals, we won’t know for sure which Josh will show up. And that’s great for the sport. The circuit-averse Kerr isn’t expected to show up in Brussels for the Diamond League final (which will feature Hocker, Nuguse, and Ingebrigtsen), but it certainly raises the hype for 2025 that fans think of the two Americans and the Scot as evenly matched when they all face off head-to-head-to-head in the Grand Slam Track league.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves: Friday’s final in Brussels will be chock full of narratives as Yared, Cole, and Jakob battle to strengthen their respective cases as top dog. And while it’s unlikely, it’s certainly possible that, like in Paris, the pre-race favorites run the legs off one another and open the door for someone like Cheruiyot or young Dutchman Niels Laros to sneak-attack late. No one athlete has gotten too comfortable in the proverbial hot seat atop the field, and as a result, the 1500m is better and more entertaining than it’s been in years.

So pick your faves and consult your magic 8-ball, because right now, the 2024 Diamond League 1500m champion is a total toss-up – and we’re better off as a result.

You’ve Gotta Be Sydding Me… 🤦

To paraphrase The Godfather III, “just when Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone thought she was in for the Diamond League Final in Brussels... they push her back out.”

After an initial announcement by the Memorial Van Damme meet organizers that SML was slated to contest both the flat 400m and 200m in the Diamond League final, the Diamond League overlords stepped in to clarify: since McLaughlin-Levrone hasn’t competed in any DL meets in 2024, she is ineligible to compete in any DL final events, even as a wild card entry, per league rules. This was, perhaps, unwelcome news to the Brussels crew, who likely spent significant time, money, and energy trying to entice the world record holder to their meet.

A strange compromise emerged: two “invitational” sections were added to the program, both scheduled directly before the Diamond League final competitions in the same distances. So fans are likely to see Sydney go out (possibly against some nominal domestic competition) and time-trial a 400m, 11 minutes before Olympic champ Marileidy Paulino will attempt to both win the Diamond League final’s $30,000 prize and, ideally, run the fastest time on the day. It’s like a home run derby or penalty kick shootout, but SML only wins bragging rights if she prevails.

When unpacking this strange saga, it’s important to remember the Diamond League isn’t a league in the same way that the NBA is a league. NBA franchises are individually owned, but partake in a strict profit-sharing system, and are governed by the mighty hand of a powerful league office. And obviously the 30 teams that comprise the league are set in stone – when you buy tickets to a Knicks game before the season starts, you know exactly what you’re getting, at least in terms of what players will suit up. 

The Diamond League is a loose federation of generally pre-existing track meets, whose schedules and entries are constantly evolving and often not even finalized until a couple days out, Athletes hop in and out this circuit based on their training schedule and proximity to, frankly, more important global championships.

This is all to say that just because something is good for one DL meet – and we’ll come back to this notion of “good” in a moment – it certainly doesn’t mean it’s good for all of them. The other meets were probably rightfully pissed that by giving McLaughlin-Levrone a pass into the DL final, Brussels was essentially saying, “yeah, don’t worry about running any of those other events ever again – we’ve got you.” The Diamond League’s status as a league at all is already flimsy at best – and all they have to hold this thing together is the requirement that athletes accumulate regular-season points to get a shot at the final prize (and possibly a bye into the following year’s championship).

HOWEVER: From a purely fan-oriented perspective, we want to see Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone vs. Sha’Carri Richardson over 200m. And given SML’s two recent scares of the 400m American record, racing one lane over from Paulino could’ve possibly pushed her even further into the history books. 

If you’re the reigning Olympic champion, whether good or bad for the sport, you’ve kind of earned the right to line up in any competition you want to, at least for the four years that title remains yours. And fans inarguably want to see McLaughlin-Levrone to race more. They complain – loudly and often – that she doesn’t race enough! And the “pressure makes diamonds” effect goes both ways – while some athletes are probably relieved they don’t have to beat her head-to-head, others would likely relish the chance to be pushed to a new personal or national record.

In an ideal world where made up rules are still loosely enforced, the Diamond League would let her race but exclude her from prize money considerations. And in an even ideal-er world, SML would’ve been racing the world’s best across a range of distances all season. Instead, we’ll get a double-pair of fractured races and a whole bunch of “what ifs.”

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Mondo vs. Karsten Delivered… But Don’t Get Used To It ⚔️

There’s nothing like kicking your feet up mid-workday, cracking open your third Red Bull – your eyeballs vibrating as 333mg of caffeine dance chaotically through your bloodstream – and tuning into a half-hour long, free YouTube stream leading up to a 10-second race.

No, seriously. That’s not sarcasm. (Okay, the part about consuming enough caffeine that you see God is sarcasm.) Not only did the highly anticipated Karsten Warholm vs. Mondo Duplantis 100m grudge match live up to the hype, the entire production was a breath of fresh air for track fans accustomed to a very traditional form of sports broadcast.

While the pre-race show may have run a touch long – credit to Dina Asher-Smith who used her in-stadium interview to urge the producers to get the show on the road – the preamble managed to simultaneously set the stage for a true battle between fierce competitors, while keeping the levity of the exhibition-style race apparent. At the end of the day, this was two world record holders “playing track,” after all.

To establish stakes and level-set for the casuals, a series of interview clips unpacked Warholm and Duplantis’s respective cases for being the superior 100m runner, and even managed to get quick hits from some of track and field’s biggest stars, who turned out in droves to take in the show. Pride was obviously on the line, but a wager added another layer of intrigue: the loser had to wear the winner’s national kit for the Diamond League meet the following day. 

(Quick note: A huge part of this event being possible is undoubtedly the pair’s shared sponsors: namely, Puma and Red Bull. That certainly enables the athletes and their teams to convince various sports marketing departments to work an event of this scale into the budget, but it does raise the question of how to replicate this model with less of a “live commercial filming” feel.)

In line with keeping things light and at times humorous, Waholm entered the stadium accompanied by his coach, Leif Olav Alnes, who was wearing a viking helmet and a speedsuit emblazoned with the words “FAT BY CHOICE.” For his own boxing-style entrance, Duplantis was escorted by a crew of global sprint stars: fellow LSU Tigers Sha’Carri Richardson and Vernon Norwood, plus Fred Kerley and Letsile Tebogo.  

After what must have been an agonizingly long buildup, the two men got into the blocks, the gun was fired, and Mondo ran away with the damn thing in the first three steps, looking pretty great out of the blocks. His 10.37 winning time makes him the third fastest Swede this year over 100m, and if Sweden wants to take a stab at qualifying for a future European Championships in the 4 x 100m, it’s hard to imagine the Swedish Athletics Association not at least attempting to entice Mondo onto a leg.

But results weren’t really the point here. The point was that this was a whole lotta fun, borrowing more stylistically from pro wrestling than the Diamond League. The biggest challenge moving forward will be fitting in silly gimmick events with track seasons that will increasingly end at global championships. Here, the “Fifth Avenue Mile” model provides some promise – immediately following a season’s official end with something fun and relatively low-stakes while athletes are still fit can produce great results and not upset the most painstaking athletes’ schedules.

Regardless, Karsten and Mondo have landed on something promising. 600K+ people watched the YouTube video alone, not counting alternate livestreams or social media clips, a midday, midweek two-man race featuring the 2,436th fastest 100-meter performance of the year. Marrying a compelling presentation format, unique narrative angle, and dynamic personalities gets fans interested and engaged – but it took a special confluence of factors to deliver. Replication is possible, but the planning and resources required cannot be overstated. So we’ll hope for the best (more fun matchups with big stars!) and expect the worst (nothing much changes).

Why Should NCAA Men’s And Women’s Cross Country Be So Different? 🤷‍♀️

Any fan of collegiate cross-country is aware of the dynamics that the two-kilometer-sized gender disparity in race distances creates and perpetuates. The men race 8K and the women race 6K, then the gap widens in the postseason when the men move up to 10K for regional and national meets. Some might call this divide the result of tradition, but it’s only 20ish years old – the last increase in distance we got was tacking that last kilometer onto the women’s 5K back in 2000. So with golf courses around the country getting a mow and top-sevens dusting off their spikes to kick off the fall season, it’s worth revisiting how we got here and where we might go.

Women’s distance running looks very different now than it did in 2000. The 5000m world record was 28 seconds – almost half a lap of the track! – slower than it is today. And the seismic changes over the last decade or so were solidified in a year where the Caitlin Clark of track and field, Parker Valby, put the NCAA records in the 5000m and 10,000m under 15 and 31 minutes, respectively, for the first time in history. The greatest miler in the world, Faith Kipyegon, is also the reigning World champion and Olympic silver medalist at 5000m, and women running sub-29 minute 10Ks on the roads and the track is now a thing.

So why hasn’t NCAA cross country gotten the memo that this particular wing of the sport has leveled up?

We’ve all heard the usual arguments for equalization: women shouldn’t be held to lower standards, there’s a gendered gap that exists in the extra 10 minutes or so of screentime the men get in the spotlight at NCAAs, and it’s a pain in the ass for meet directors to map out two separate courses. The simple solution would be to standardize everything.

But where to equalize is a more interesting question. The USATF and World XC championships on the pro level contest both races over 10K. The obvious choice would be to do what NIL and pay-to-play have done in other sports – make everything on the collegiate level look as similar to the pros as possible since we’re increasingly blurring the lines between amateur and professional competition anyway.

But there’s one big flaw: a national championship to determine the best runner in the country over 10 kilometers already exists; it just happens to be contested over 25 laps during the outdoor track season. There are different skillsets and strengths for grass and hill specialists versus track runners, but doesn’t making everyone run 10K in cross-country more or less replicate the same outcomes with the same people? Whereas over 6K, strength-oriented milers and low-volume 5000m runners have a fighting shot – and in the spirit of pure racing, embracing an “off-distance” lowers the annoying emphasis on time comparisons.

In theory, standardizing at 6K should make championships more broadly competitive. But in practice? With help from CITIUS MAG statistics junkie Paul Hof-Mahoney, we looked at all the runners over the last 14 seasons (the last time the All-American criteria was updated) who accomplished the double feat of First-Team All-American honors in either the mile indoors or 1500m outdoors AND cross country. 

The numbers show that the 6K distance is far more inclusive of a broader range of running talent from mid-distance to distance relative to the 10K race. Dating back to the 2011-2012 season, 28 men accomplished this feat compared to 48 women. Nearly twice as many women finished top 40 at NCAA XC and top 8 in either the mile or 1500m in the same academic year.

13 of the last 26 women’s mile/1500m champions were also cross country All-Americans that year as opposed to only five men. In the 2023-2024 academic year, no males were added to this list (but kudos to Liam Murphy of Villanova, who was 14th at cross country nationals and earned Second-Team All-American honors in the outdoor 1500m) whereas Oklahoma State’s Billah Jepkurui, Harvard’s Maia Ramsden, and Florida’s Flomena Asekol all put their versatility to good use.

“But racing only 6K will churn out soft pro runners ill-prepared for the big dance!” In fact, the opposite is true. Many of the most accomplished pros on the scene right now, including Olympic medalists Yared Nuguse and Jessica Hull and World Indoor champions Geordie Beamish and Elle St. Pierre, are double All-Americans who’ve found success at a range of distances and surfaces. One odd Duck (pun intended) is Edward Cheserek of Oregon, the only person since 2011 to win a cross country title and either the mile/1500m in the same academic year (2014-2015). But you don’t rack up 17 NCAA titles without having more than the usual number of tools in your racing toolbox.

Over time, as the depth of women’s sports increases more broadly with increased participation rates and more international talent coming to the U.S., the trend – that women’s NCAA XC races are actually more competitive than men’s – will likely only continue absent change. In many ways, the female side of the sport is a higher-stakes race, since there’s less time for the aerobic monsters to run away from the field and more fast-twitch kickers in contention late, which consequently is… more fun, and more entertaining.

In short, the much-maligned 6K is underrated and deserves its spot at the top of women’s cross country. Take notes, boys.

Olympic Gold Medalist Morolake Akinosun’s Career Pivot 🏆

Our own Mac Fleet caught up with Olympic and World 4 x 100m champion Morolake Akinosun after she announced her retirement from professional track. Although she’s stepping away from competing personally, Akinosun is staying involved in the track community by joining Michael Johnson, Kyle Merber, and Steve Gera in launching Grand Slam Track. Here’s what Akinosun had to share:

The following interview excerpt with Morolake Akinosun has been edited for length and clarity. You can find the full interview here.

CITIUS MAG: First off, congratulations on such an amazing career! What made you decide that this was the right time to step away from professional track? Looking back at your career, can you share a personal career highlight?

Morolake Akinosun: Making the team in 2019 to go to Doha. I came into that meet ranked 23rd or 26th in the country that year in terms of where I was seeded entering the meet. I was less than a year out from completely rupturing my Achilles and having it surgically repaired. I came into that meet and knew that my family believed in me, I believed in me, and that my coach believed in me. 

Outside of a select few people who had seen me on the track, I would say that absolutely no one thought I was going to make that team. Making the team was a huge moment of growth in my belief of what I am capable of doing with the right people and company. It was a highlight because I didn’t think I would be there. No one did.

I absolutely love that. So track and field athletes kind of struggle with what they're going to do after they retire. During your pro career, what were you doing outside of running to give yourself an opportunity when you were retired?

I worked alongside my great friend Emmanuel Acho on his series, Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man. That got me into the world of production where we actually won an Emmy together for it. I discovered that I was really good at it and had a lot of fun doing it and continued to develop, grow, and work on that while I was still running. I also started my own track meet, Morolake Akinosun's Elite Invitational. It’s a middle school and high school invitational meet in Chicago every year that I do for the kids there that are running track. This January will be year five.

Following the 2024 Olympic Trials, I had an overwhelming feeling and sensation immediately after that I was done. It felt so clear to me. I am a woman of strong faith and the night that I had that overwhelming feeling that I was done, I said a prayer: ‘God, if I'm supposed to be done, open the next door wide open…’ So I said that prayer and went to sleep. 

I woke up the next morning already done with the Trials and just enjoying the meet, having a good time. I met Michael Johnson and Steve Gera. Fast forward a month and I was headed to Paris with Grand Slam Track to work with them as a consultant. The day I got back from Paris, I went full-time with Grand Slam Track.

What has you most excited about this Grand Slam Track endeavor?

Grand Slam Track will revolutionize track. It will give track athletes a meet to call their own. It will give them a sense of belonging and ownership. I think it will be the biggest game changer we've seen in track for a very, very long time. 

I’m excited to see the best of the best compete and see one person get it one time, one person get it the next time, and see who's going to be the better of the competition each time. I'm excited to watch the best of the best compete four times against each other and figure out, ‘Is there going to be an upset? Is someone that we didn't expect to win going to win?’

Alright, what should we be looking forward to over the next couple of months? There's a lot in the pipeline.

You should be looking forward to 44 more racers being announced in the next two months or so and looking forward to location announcements of what cities we're going to be in throughout 2025. Those are the big things: who's going to be racing and where they are going to be racing. We know that they're going to be racing in L.A., for sure. That was announced at the beginning of June when the launch happened. But we'll have some more race announcements and more location announcements coming soon.

Rapid Fire Highlights 🔥

– Josh Kerr wasn’t the only big result from the Fifth Avenue Mile – Bowerman Track Club’s Karissa Schweizer, who competed in the 10,000m and 5000m at the 2024 Paris Olympics, dropped down in distance and still crushed her competition with a 4:14.8 performance, tying Laura Muir’s course record. Full results can be found here.

– One of the best non-Diamond League meets of the summer season delivered big-time, as Olympic silver medalist Marco Arop headlined the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, with a 2:13.13 1000m (#5 all-time) and Ryan Crouser continued his winning ways with a huge 22.90m throw in the shot put. A pair of OAC runners picked up personal bests as Sinta Vissu won the 1500m in 3:58.33 and Sage Hurta-Klecker finished fourth in 1:57.53.

– Speaking of Crouser, the 3x Olympic shot put champ had a great in-depth conversation with CITIUS’s in-house throws expert Paul Hof-Mahoney on the CITIUS MAG podcast this week. Listen here.

– Preliminary entry lists have been announced for the jam-packed Diamond League final – not just in the 1500m and women’s sprint events. The CITIUS MAG crew will have a full preview out in the next day or two.

– At the 2024 Gala dei Castelli, Tamari Davis (10.97) and Ackeem Blake (9.97) took down strong international 100m fields, and there were two upsets in the men’s hurdles as Sasha Zhoya (13.22) took down Grant Holloway in the 110H and Clement Ducos (47.94) beat Alison dos Santos by nearly a full second in the 400H. Imagine the celebration in Paris if the two Frenchman had been able to deliver big wins a few weeks earlier…

– Tokyo Olympic champ Lamont Marcell Jacobs may have succumbed to a bit of a post-gala hangover of sorts as he called it a season after finishing fourth in the 100m in 10.12.

– Last but certainly not least, a hearty congrats to our dear friend and captain of the CITIUS MAG ship Chris Chavez, who got married last weekend. We love Chris and Kari almost as much as we love track and field!