Before this afternoon, Emma Coburn wasn’t the best steeplechaser in her own ice bath in Boulder, Colorado. Now, she’s the greatest steepler in the history of the Western hemisphere.  Her 9:11.42 in Glasgow makes her the 11th fastest performer ever, and slices a full second off of Jenny Simpson’s American record.

Coburn emailed* the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix meet director this week beseeching for a little longer pacing than she’d received in Shanghai and Paris and was rebuffed. ON THE FREAKING STARTING LINE, like a desperate college runner at a last chance qualifier, Coburn asked the rabbit if she could go a little longer than the predestined kilometer.  The pacer didn’t speak English, but Milcah Chemos graciously translated: “No.”

And so reality hardened in Coburn’s brain: if she was going to break the American record, it was going to be from the front.

The first two kilometers of the race may frequently get mistaken on the street for its Parisian cousin. These sentences accurately describe both races: The rabbit pulled the field through 1k in 3:03 before stepping off as soon as she crossed the line.  Coburn slightly gapped the pack with a 3:07 second kilometer. Hiwot Ayalew broke out of the pack and started to hunt Coburn in the last two laps.

In France, the outcome of the race was never in doubt once Ayalew entered Coburn’s peripheral vision. In Scotland, Coburn fought like hell, caught Ayalew right before the water jump, and was only assured second place when Ayalew got a much better clearance into the water pit.  Coburn continued to chase Ayalew and her scintillating 68.6 final lap (h/t LetsRun) locked up the American Record. Now let me get the hell out of her way.



*It’s fun to imagine Coburn furiously composing this email, or maybe arguing with the meet director over gchat. “Hey, can I get twelve hundred meters?” “No.” “Eleven hundred?” “No.” “ONE THOUSAND AND FIVE?” “No.”

I hate the constant comparisons between track and mainstream sports, but will make an exception for this one: the other steeplers in today’s field should send some renumeration to Coburn, like how NFL quarterbacks buy gifts for their offensive line after they have a successful season. Ayalew’s time was a world lead, Swedish (Charlotta Fougberg) and Finnish (Sandra Eriksson) national records went down along with the World Youth record (Ethiopian Tigist Getnet), Chemos set a season best in a surprising return to form, and Genavieve Lacaze and Stephanie Garcia set PRs. I talked to Garcia after the race.

(Watch that Coburn interview if you haven’t yet)

Everything else that happened:

- Sammy Tangui’s 49-second first lap was too quick for the entire 800 field except for one man: his training partner, David Rudisha.  The world record holder and Olympic champ ethered the entire field in 1:43.34, setting the stage for a fantastic battle in Monaco with Nijel Amos, Mo Aman, and Duane Solomon. Americans Matt Centrowitz and Erik Sowinski both stuck their noses in it and ran 1:46 for fourth and fifth, respectively.  Here are their post-race reactions.

- Amos was in the 400, and he wasn’t even the first Batswana* to cross the line.  That would be African record holder Isaac Makwala, who remains two-hundredths of a second from being the second non-American (after Kirani James) to break 44.00.

- The UK-based Christian Taylor (sorry) won the triple jump on his sixth and final go over fellow American and Diamond Race leader Will Claye.

- Silas Kiplagat was clearly the class of the field in the 1500, with Leo Manzano having one of his best European races ever in third. Ex-Tulsa runner Chris O’Hare tried to steal the race with 100 to go and was rewarded with a new PB of 3:35.06 in fifth.

I couldn’t interview O’Hare post-race because he was copiously returning his breakfast to the ground, but I did catch up with Manzano, Garrett Heath (10th in 3:35.89) and David Torrence (13th in 3:37.73).

- In the 200, Dutch heptathlete Dafne Schippers stunned pre-race favorites Allyson Felix and Blessing Okagbare with a 22.34 national record to go with her 11.03 that won the quote-unquote ‘B’ 100 yesterday.

- American champ Ajee’ Wilson destroyed the best that the Brits had to offer in the 800.  Her 0.26 second margin of victory doesn’t reflect how easily she won the race, as she cruised in the last fifteen meters.

- In the Women's 100m, world leader Michelle-Lee Ahye won by daylight in 11.01. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, whose last two months have been quite poor, finished second in a season's best of 11.10. American Carmelita Jeter finished 6th in a season's best of 11.33 and voiced some regrets for running injured at the World Championships last year.

- Queen Harrison ran a superb 100mH, fending off Lolo Jones to take the win, 12.58 to 12.68, respectively. Australia's Sally Pearson finished third in 12.87 as she prepares for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

*thanks to Flotrack senior site editor/cultural anthropologist Mitch Kastoff for correcting me on this usage.