Mo is back! 

For the British faithful, that’s the only headline needed for them to come out in droves to support their local hero during Sunday’s Diamond League meeting in Birmingham. 

Farah will be the showstopper in the men’s two-mile, the final race of a meet that will feature a number of events with tight competitions and implications for the Diamond Race. As the season winds toward its conclusion, those athletes near the top of the standings will be looking to go out in style and claim the $40,000 that goes with the Diamond Race title. Several athletes, including Eunice Sum and Silas Kiplagat can all but close out their respective titles, and head into the offseason with that nice parting gift. Here are the events we will be paying close attention to.

Men’s Mile
The last time this crew got together, lightning hit the track in the form of the Monaco Diamond League. Seven men ran under 3:30 (!!), and a new DL record was established by Kiplagat. This weekend they’ll be racing the full mile with intentions again on running scary-fast. Sub-3:47 might not be out of the question. 

That’s no small task. The fastest mile this century is still owned by Hicham El Guerrouj, and that 3:44.95 was run in June of 2001. You have to go back to Alan Webb’s American Record (3:46.91) in 2007 to find the last time a miler broke 3:47. Doping was more prevalent back then, and the sport’s been cleaned up quite a bit since the early 2000s. It’s not a coincidence that there’s been a drought of fast times since then. Come on WADA, we were having so much fun!

Regardless, this field is as talented as you’ll find. The average season best of the competitors is a staggering, 3:50.54. You know it’s a stacked race when Garrett Heath’s 3:53 drags down the rest of the field.
So who’s going to pick up the win?

Kiplagat has been outstanding this season, and he can all but clinch the Diamond Race with a victory, but it’s tough to pick against a guy  who just dominated Asbel Kiprop at the African Championships, so we’ll say Ayanleh Soulieman wins in 3:48-mid. In the battle for top American, Matthew Centrowitz vs. Leo Manzano is always a tough bet. We’ll take Centro, but only because August is consistently his best month of racing each year. Fingers and toes crossed for a sub-3:50.  

Men’s 2 Mile
Mo Farah flashed the MoBot twice last week, and it was a welcome sight following his long absence from competitive racing. Farah scored victories in both the 5k and 10k at the European Championships, which came on the heels of his being forced to miss the Commonwealth Games after a bizarre fainting episode left him hospitalized. With that now behind him, Mo can put to rest the rumor that he’s been dodging competition all season.

Or not…
Anytime Farah runs it’s exciting, especially in the UK, but the 2 mile in Birmingham leaves something to be desired. No disrespect to the field, but we wanted to see him racing Galen Rupp and the East Africans Thursday in Stockholm instead of running in this B-level race. 

Let’s be real though, the best distance runner in world can do what he wants. 

This race could still be exciting even without a ton of competition. Farah is an entertainer, and he knows how to make a race worth the price of admission. He will likely do all he can to slow down the race, save himself for another shockingly fast kick, and drop a 52 final 400 that will satiate the fans desire to see Mo being Mo. The field isn’t going to be interested in a slow pace that plays into Mo’s hands, so Farah will probably have to do a little more work than he wants. Nonetheless, he should win convincingly in around 8:20.  

Women’s 800m
We’re in the midst of a golden era for American middle-distance running. While the depth of U.S. women’s 800m was formally a laughing stock, the Americans have turned that narrative around quickly and are proving to be among the best in the world. Look no further than Brenda Martinez, who won bronze in Moscow last season, but has been relegated to an also-ran by the tear Ajee Wilson has been on. Wilson comes into Birmingham after winning the Monaco DL in a world-leading 1:57.67, and will once again duel Kenya’s Eunice Sum in a battle for world dominance. 

Sum added a Commonwealth gold to her already outstanding season, and a victory here would lock up the Diamond Race title. But Wilson’s emergence seems to have set the stage for a rivalry heading into the 2015 season. The 20 year old made it look easy in Monaco, and it could be a matter of time before she claims the American Record. That 1:56.40 won’t go down in Birmingham, but something quicker than what she clocked in Monaco is possible. We see Wilson taking down Sum in 1:57.5. 

Men’s HJ
It’s not often that we’d be ok with field events interrupting track action, but with men’s high jump this year, we’ll make an exception. Both Bohdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Essa Barshim have jumped 2.42m this season, and the former had 2.43m all but cleared in Monaco before his heel hit the bar on the way down. 

The weather will play a factor in how high these men jump, as temperatures in Birmingham are expected to be in the 50s during the meet. That may be too cold to see anything above what these two have previously jumped. Javier Sotomayor’s world record of 2.45m appears to be safe, and we’ll say Bondarenko with a 2.40.