Faith Kipyegon just misses world record; Noah Lyles wins 200m showdown in Monaco

By OlympicTalkAug 10, 2022, 3:42 PM EDT

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon ran the second-fastest women’s 1500m in history, while Noah Lyles won a men’s 200m showdown with the ninth-best time ever at a Diamond League meet in Monaco on Wednesday.

Kipyegon ran 3:50.37 to miss Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba‘s world record by three tenths of a second.

“I have been chasing the time for quite some time, but I am happy with the personal best,” Kipyegon said, according to organizers. “It seems I did not give all, but I tried hard. I knew this was the best place to get the world record, but I am so disappointed I lost it in the last meters. I hope for the best next time.”

Kipyegon, a 28-year-old mom, owns two Olympic 1500m gold medals and two world 1500m titles. She ran by herself for the last 600 meters after pacers shed, aided by lights along the track showing her the world record pace.

They went out 2.86 seconds faster at 800 meters than Dibaba’s pacers did for her world record in Monaco in 2015. Over the next lap, Kipyegon fell 11 hundredths behind Dibaba’s pace going into the last 300 meters.

Later, Lyles claimed the men’s 200m in 19.46 seconds, his second-best time after his 19.31 American record from last month’s world championships. Lyles distanced 18-year-old world bronze medalist Erriyon Knighton (19.84) and world 400m champion Michael Norman (19.95), cementing his status as the clear current 200m king. He became the first man to break 19.50 twice in one year.

Full Monaco results are here. The Diamond League returns after a break for the European Championships for the season’s last three meets, starting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Aug. 26.

Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the women’s 100m in 10.62 seconds, matching the sixth-best time in history. Fraser-Pryce, a 35-year-old with seven combined Olympic and world 100m titles, has broken 10.70 seconds eight times in her career, all in the last two years after returning from 2017 childbirth. Six of those times came since May 7, and three of them came in the last five days.

Countrywoman Shericka Jackson, the world 200m champion, was second in 10.71, a personal best by .02 to become the sixth-fastest woman in history. Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Cote d’Ivoire was third in 10.72, taking .06 off the African record.

Two-time world champion Grant Holloway won the 110m hurdles in 12.99 seconds, edging world silver medalist Trey Cunningham by four hundredths. Holloway ran the second-fastest time in the world this year behind Devon Allen‘s 12.84. Allen wasn’t in Monaco as he’s at Philadelphia Eagles training camp, bidding to make the team at wide receiver.

Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas won a women’s triple jump that included the top six from worlds. Rojas, the Olympic and world champion and world record holder, moved from last to first with a 15.01-meter leap in the fifth of six rounds.

Australian Kelsey-Lee Barber won a battle among the world championships medalists in the women’s javelin. Barber, the gold medalist, threw 64.50 meters. Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi, the bronze medalist, took second, while American Kara Winger, the silver medalist, was fourth.

Surprise world 1500m champion Jake Wightman of Great Britain ran down Canadian Marco Arop to win the men’s 1000m in 2:13.88. Kenyan Emmanuel Korir, the Olympic and world 800m champion, finished last in the rarely contested distance.

Burundi’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo ran the third-fastest 3000m in history, catching Ethiopian Berihu Aregawi. The 3000m is not on the Olympic or world championships program. Grant Fisher ran an American record 7:28.48, taking .52 off Bernard Lagat‘s American record.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s defining race; Paris Diamond League TV, live stream info

By OlympicTalkJun 8, 2023, 4:01 PM EDT

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

For Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, what happens in her first outdoor race of 2023 on Friday could dictate the rest of her season. It may impact her 2024 Olympic plans, too.

McLaughlin-Levrone strays from the 400m hurdles — where she is the reigning Olympic and world champion and four times broke the world record — to race her first flat 400m in two years at a Diamond League meet in Paris.

Peacock streams it live from 3-5 p.m. ET. CNBC airs coverage Saturday at 1 p.m. ET.

What we know is this: On Friday, McLaughlin-Levrone will race against the Olympic and world silver medalist in the 400m (Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic) and the 2019 World champion (Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain).

Next month, McLaughlin-Levrone will race the flat 400m at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, the qualifying meet for August’s world championships. She is racing that flat 400m at USATF Outdoors at least in part because she already has a bye into the 400m hurdles at worlds as defending champion.

What we don’t know: which race McLaughlin-Levrone will enter at worlds. Her coach, Bobby Kersee, said last month that she will choose between the 400m and 400m hurdles for worlds, should she finish top three in the 400m at USATF Outdoors to qualify in that second event. She will not try a 400m-400m hurdles double at worlds.

McLaughlin-Levrone was asked Thursday which event she would pick if given the choice.

“Is it bad to say I don’t know?” she said in a press conference. “Honestly, ask me after tomorrow. I don’t know. I’ve got to run this one first and see how it feels.”

McLaughlin-Levrone also doesn’t know what she will try to race at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Next year, the 400m-400m hurdles double is more feasible given one could do both events without ever racing more than once per day.

“We’re still focused on 2023,” McLaughlin-Levrone said. “One step at a time, literally. Obviously that’s something as the season comes to an end we’ll kind of start to look and figure out what our plan is for next year.”

Here are the Paris entry lists. Here’s the schedule of events (all times Eastern):

12:57 p.m. ET — Women’s Shot Put
1:35 — Women’s High Jump
2:15 — Women’s Discus
2:20 — Women’s Pole Vault
3:04 — Men’s 400m Hurdles
3:15 — Women’s 800m
3:19 — Men’s Long Jump
3:24 — Women’s 5000m
3:42 — Women’s Javelin
3:52 — Men’s 110m Hurdles
4:02 — Women’s 400m
4:12 — Men’s 100m
4:22 — Women’s 200m
4:32 — Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
4:51 — Men’s 800m

Here are six events to watch:

Women’s Pole Vault — 2:20 p.m. ET
Olympic and world champion Katie Moon won the first two Diamond League meets and again faces some of her biggest domestic and international challengers in Paris. That includes fellow American Sandi Morris, who won the first three Diamond League meets last year, then took silver behind Moon at worlds on count back. Plus 34-year-old Slovenian Tina Sutej, who ranks second in the world this season.

Women’s 5000m — 3:24 p.m. ET
Includes the world record holders at 1500m (Kenyan Faith Kipyegon in her first 5000m since 2015), 3000m steeplechase (Kenyan Beatrice Chepkoech) and the 5000m and 10,000m (Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey). Plus new American 10,000m record holder Alicia Monson, who is third on the U.S. all-time 5000m list at 14:31.11. Shelby Houlihan has the American record of 14:23.92.

Men’s 110m Hurdles — 3:52 p.m. ET
The three members of the U.S. Olympic team in Tokyo — Grant Holloway, Devon Allen and Daniel Roberts — could face off for the first time in nearly a year. Holloway, who has a bye into worlds as defending champion, overcame a rare defeat in the Diamond League opener in Rabat to win his last two races. He is the fastest man in the world this year at 13.01 seconds. Allen isn’t far behind at 13.12, while Roberts has yet to race the hurdles this outdoor season.

Women’s 400m — 4:02 p.m. ET
Could very well determine the favorite for worlds. Reigning Olympic and world champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas is on maternity leave. Paulino is the only other woman to break 49 seconds since the start of the pandemic, and she’s done it each of the last two years. Naser is the only other active woman to have broken 49 seconds, doing so in winning the 2019 World title (before she was banned for two years, through the Tokyo Olympics, for missing drug tests). McLaughlin-Levrone’s personal best from 2018 is 50.07 seconds, but she was just 18 years old then and focusing on the hurdles. Still, that time would have won the 2022 U.S. title. Last month, University of Arkansas junior Britton Wilson ran the fastest time by an American since 2009 — 49.13 — but she might bypass the flat 400m to focus on the hurdles this summer.

Men’s 100m — 4:12 p.m. ET
Could be a meeting between the reigning Olympic men’s 100m champion (Marcell Jacobs of Italy) and world men’s 200m champion (American Noah Lyles), which hasn’t happened since the 2009 World Championships 100m final, where Usain Bolt lowered the world record to 9.58 seconds and American Tyson Gay was second in a then-American record 9.71. Later in that meet, Bolt won his first world 200m title, a crown he held concurrently with his Olympic 100m titles through his 2017 retirement. But Jacobs, citing nerve pain, scratched out of the last two Diamond League meets, which were to be showdowns with world 100m champion Fred Kerley. Jacobs did show up for Thursday’s press conference. Lyles has a bye onto the world team in the 200m, but also wants to make the four-man U.S. team in the 100m. He ranks fifth among Americans by best time this season — 9.95.

Men’s 800m — 4:51 p.m. ET
The top five from the world championships are entered, led by Olympic and world champion Emmanuel Korir of Kenya. This event was in an international doldrums for much of the time since Kenyan David Rudisha repeated as Olympic champion in 2016, then faded away from competition. But the emergence of 18-year-old Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi has injected excitement this season. Wanyonyi is the world’s fastest man this year. The second-fastest, Kenyan Wycliffe Kinyamal, is also in this field.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported the TV window for the meet broadcast. The CNBC broadcast begins at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, not 3.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

2023 French Open women’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 8, 2023, 3:09 PM EDT

Top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland faces 43rd-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova in the French Open women’s singles final, live on NBC Sports, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock on Saturday at 9 a.m. ET.

Swiatek can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

Having turned 22 last week, she can become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Men’s Draw

Swiatek didn’t lose a set en route to the final, losing just 23 games in her first six matches, exactly how she marched to her first Roland Garros final in 2020.

In the final she gets a surprise. Muchova upset No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the semifinals to reach her first major final.

No. 3 Jessica Pegula, the highest-seeded American man or woman, was eliminated in the third round. No. 4 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who has three wins over Swiatek this year, withdrew before her third-round match due to illness.

No. 6 Coco Gauff, runner-up to Swiatek last year, was the last American to be eliminated (by Swiatek in the quarterfinals). The last American woman to win a Grand Slam singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 12-major drought is the longest for U.S. women since Seles won the 1996 Australian Open.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

More: Olympics

More: Olympics

2023 French Open Women’s Singles Draw

More: Olympics