{"id":1144,"date":"2016-07-08T12:41:45","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T12:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/season-catch-up-long-and-middle-distance\/"},"modified":"2016-07-08T12:41:45","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T12:41:45","slug":"season-catch-up-long-and-middle-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/season-catch-up-long-and-middle-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Season Catch-Up: Long and Middle Distance"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>800m<\/h3>\n<p>The men&#8217;s 800m has always been dominated by one of three runners: David Rudisha, Mohammad Aman and, most recently, Nijel Amos. None of those three have managed to shine this season, leaving the the door open for other great talents. Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich leads on 26 points thanks to victories in Shanghai and Stockholm, but Pierre-Ambroise Bosse has also been consistent, and is within touching distance on 16 points.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"lazyload smush-lazyload-video smush-lazyload-youtube\" style=\"--smush-video-aspect-ratio: 640\/360\" data-bg-image=\"url(https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=smush_video_thumbnail&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FoVqjZCC4zOM&#038;video_width=640&#038;video_height=360)\" ><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oVqjZCC4zOM\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><\/iframe><span class=\"smush-play-btn\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Play video\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span tabindex=\"0\" class=\"smush-play-btn-inner\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Play<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<p>Three time Diamond Race winner Eunice Sum has dominated the women&#8217;s 800m in recent years, but her reign seemed to be at an end when Caster Semenya raced past her on the final bend in Doha. Semenya went on to win in Rabat and Rome, and leads by eight points at the top of the standings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"lazyload smush-lazyload-video smush-lazyload-youtube\" style=\"--smush-video-aspect-ratio: 640\/360\" data-bg-image=\"url(https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=smush_video_thumbnail&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FawyNdE5e8tI&#038;video_width=640&#038;video_height=360)\" ><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/awyNdE5e8tI\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\"><\/iframe><span class=\"smush-play-btn\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Play video\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span tabindex=\"0\" class=\"smush-play-btn-inner\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>Play<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<h3>1500m<\/h3>\n<p>No stranger to winning the Diamond Race himself, Asbel Kiprop is after another Diamond Trophy this year after taking victories in Doha, Birmingham and Oslo. He still can&#8217;t shake off Elijah Manangoi, however, whose consistent top three finishes and victory in Rome sees him just eight points behind Kiprop in second place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"7\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<div style=\"padding:8px;\">\n<div style=\" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:28.1481481481% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;\">\n<div style=\" background:url(data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC\/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5\/P8\/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo\/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI\/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf\/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;\"> <span style=\" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;\"><link https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BHmiln7BXbO\/ _blank>Asbel #Kiprop leads the men&#8217;s 1500m #DiamondRace<\/link><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\">A photo posted by IAAF Diamond League (@diamondleagueathletics) on Jul 8, 2016 at 6:29am PDT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" defer=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The women&#8217;s event has been dominated by Faith Kipyegon, who is well on course to win a first ever Diamond Trophy. Victories in Shanghai, Eugene and Oslo have put Kipyegon 18 points ahead of her closest pursuer Angelika Cichocka.<\/p>\n<h3>5000m<\/h3>\n<p>Almaz Ayana burst onto the scene at the beginning of last season with her impressive win in Shanghai. Her fine performances weren&#8217;t enough to beat Genzebe Dibaba off the Diamond Trophy, but Ayana is making it up this season. Three wins in the first three meetings of the season have given her a comfortable lead, and she is 12 points ahead of Mercy Cherono at the top of the standings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\"><p>Alamaz <link https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Ayana?src=hash>#Ayana<\/link> was devilishly close to the world record. Still, not a bad run, eh? <link https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RabatDL?src=hash>#RabatDL<\/link> <link https:\/\/t.co\/FIOspu8uAh>pic.twitter.com\/FIOspu8uAh<\/link>\n<p>\u2014 IAAF Diamond League (@Diamond_League) <link https:\/\/twitter.com\/Diamond_League\/status\/734444100913618945>May 22, 2016<\/link><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The men&#8217;s 5000m has seen Muktar Edris emerge as the prime candidate to take the Diamond Trophy. Victories in Shanghai and Eugene were followed by top three finishes in Oslo and Stockholm. Despite failing to win in Scandinavia, the competitiveness of the field behind him has helped Edris cling on to a convincing 18 point lead.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"7\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<div style=\"padding:8px;\">\n<div style=\" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:28.1481481481% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;\">\n<div style=\" background:url(data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC\/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5\/P8\/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo\/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI\/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf\/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;\"> <span style=\" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;\"><link https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BHmiln7BXbO\/ _blank>Asbel #Kiprop leads the men&#8217;s 1500m #DiamondRace<\/link><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\">A photo posted by IAAF Diamond League (@diamondleagueathletics) on Jul 8, 2016 at 6:29am PDT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" defer=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a thrilling first half of the IAAF Diamond League season in the long and middle...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}