Diamond League

So I was supposed to drop this blog while in Stockholm, Sweden. But for some weird reason, my phone died on me (on a full charge) and wouldn’t respond to anything I tried until I got back to London.

Thanks to my S6 Edge. When it wouldn’t turn on, I wanted to do this;

My love for Athletics came from Kelly Holmes winning 2 gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics. I remember watching it with the family and proper cheering her on as she was part of Team GB, but I didn’t even know who she was. (She ran past me recently at the London Marathon and smiled at me, I was too gassed)

The First Athletics competition I went to was Crystal Palace in 2009 and that’s because I did some work for Athletics Weekly and they gave me a free ticket into the event. I was fully happing. From there, I went to the next 2. My love for Athletics, grew every year.  Final year I went to, they showed me on national TV with my hood up (as usual) sitting near to the coach of Christian Taylor.

Nevertheless, watching these great events on TV from all over the world, I had always wanted to go to one and experience them live but wasn’t sure how to. It was actually fairly easy to book and being able to visit another city in the world plus watch World Class Athletes compete. Yeah I wasn’t going to say no to that. So decided to go to the final Diamond League event of 2013 and head over to Belgium. It was great! The fans really got into it. After the event Shaggy performed aswell and tore the place down. I was surprised at how many (white) people knew his songs. They were skanking away like:

I had caught the bug, so 2014, I thought I need to do another one. But this time wanted to do with people who would respect me (indirect alert 😂) and the sport. So I decided to go with Alex and Paul. Boom. I landed in Switzerland! The views were amazing.

The event was really good as well, seeing CT jump 17.66 was a great feat (vid on my ‘private’ Instagram 😂) Zürich was an expensive city but a very calm place to tour. Would suggest a weekend but no more.

2015, it was tough to pick a city. But this time the guys wanted to see the Men’s LJ and some guy called Usain Bolt live (he pulled out of Zürich the day before) so we opted for Paris. It clashed with the British Championships, so we didn’t get to see any UK athletes. It didn’t affect the quality though. The meet was considered ‘The best Diamond League ever’ by Athletics Weekly. Some statements right? The quality was top-notch. It was baking hot which is probably why the Athletes produced some great times/distances. Bolt pulled out last-minute but Asafa Powell ran a swift 9.81. (Lost the pics of how close we were to the finish line) -_-

So, in 2016, we decided to obviously go to another. This time to watch the Men’s TJ as it the best event of 2015 in terms of how much Pedro Pablo Pichardo and CT flirted with the WR. But with the now new rule for the jumps and throws it has lessened the field events. The drama that anyone can win the event has now gone with the top 4 now getting a further 3 jumps. Don’t know about you but with all the Diamond Leagues across the world and you want the best Athletes to travel for a minimum of 3 jumps.

What a stupid rule. Dumb. Hopefully IAAF changes this rule next year. As I don’t think it’s fair on the Athletes and people like myself who are happy to travel the world and see their favorite athletes.

We touchdown in Sweden and the weather from London was obviously following me as it poured of rain from the moment we had arrived;

Obviously, I wanted the rain to clear as I wasn’t on watching Athletes compete in the awful weather. But it wasn’t meant to be and sat there for 3 hours. The rain didn’t stop us! We put on the blue overalls the stadium gave us and we sat there and watched the event!

Still a good meet despite the lack of “big names” as CT pulled out the best performance of the night in my opinion. Finishing with 17.59m in the rain and cold. We were actually sitting on the opposite side of the pit. Ask the guys, this was my face when we sat down in our ‘seats’

Nevertheless, we managed to get to the right side and actually watch the jumps from an awesome view. Plus as it was raining, most of the crowd, hid under the shelters. So we had free seats available to choose from;

So another Diamond League added to the list. I wonder where we will go next year (if we haven’t booked/decided already). Bring in 2017!!!

Thanks for reading as usual.

JRT