14 December, 2023

The Greatest Season Ever: Redemption!

Photo: Marta Gorczynska

The 2023 Wanda Diamond League season was arguably the greatest in the series' 14-year history. At the final in Eugene, GUdaf Tsegay and Jakob Ingebrigtsen bounced back from disappointment at the World Championships.

Ever since the series began in 2010, the Wanda Diamond League Final has given the world's best athletes the chance to end their season on a high with a global title - even those who suffered a setback at that year's major championships.

2023 was no different, with several big names bouncing back at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene following disapppointment at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay had been aiming for two gold medals in Hungary, but after racing to gold in the 10,000m, injury trouble curtailed her bid for the 5000m world title. "I was so hungry for the World Championship, but I missed the 5000m due to injury: my leg is problem," she said.

That meant that Tsegay arrived in Eugene with a point to prove, and boy did she prove it. The Ethiopian cruised to the Diamond League title with a historic 14:00.21 in the 5000m, smashing the world record which Kenyan rival Faith Kipyegon had set at the Paris Diamond League only three months earlier.

"My focus today is world record. I didn't sleep because I was so hungry for it," she said, adding that the previously unthinkable prospect of going under 14 minutes was now a realistic goal for next season. "I will try," she said.

Fellow distance star Jakob Ingebrigtsen also bounced back from World Championship disappointment with a record-breaking performance in Eugene.

The Norwegian superstar suffered a bitter déjà-vu in Budapest, as 1500m defeat to Josh Kerr saw him beaten by an unfancied British rival for the second time in two years.

Returning to Diamond League action in September, he immediately threw down the gauntlet with a 2000m world record in Brussels, before heading to Eugene on the eve of his wedding.

At Hayward Field, he blew away his Budapest blues in style, clocking a European and Diamond League record of 3:43.73 in the Bowerman Mile to pick up the second Diamond Trophy of his career.

But Ingebrigtsen wasn't done there: "Obviously I was here to run the mile, but I’m jumping into the 3000m because I got the opportunity. Now it’s all about getting back home to the hotel, eat, sleep, try to prepare as well as I can," he said.

He obviously slept well enough, because the following day, the Norwegian rampaged to another European and Diamond League record in the 3000m with 7:23.63. The performance made him one of only three athletes to have won two Diamond Trophies in the space of two days.

There was another mini-redemption story in the women's pole vault, where the USA's Katie Moon added a first ever Diamond Trophy to her Olympic and world titles. Moon had been firm favourite to claim the title in 2021 after her triumph in Tokyo, but left the runway in tears after failing to find her best form. Having shared gold with Australian rival Nina Kennedy in Budapest this year, she came to Eugene on a high in 2023 and promptly smashed the meeting record with an impressive 4.86m.

Yet even that didn't quite match the happy ending in the men's pole vault, where Mondo Duplantis finally cleared 6.23m to break the world record for the seventh time in his career. Having come agonisingly close in both Zurich and Brussels, Duplantis sailed over the elusive height at the first attempt in Eugene, ending the season on the highest of high notes.

"For me it’s very nice because it’s a lot shorter competition and I think that it’s a lot easier to be fresh at that world record height. And so I think the format of the Diamond League final is super nice for me to go out and attempt world record and in this case break it," he said.