LIKE the blurred carriages of a high-speed train whistling past a peaceful rural station, that is how this 2016 summer of athletics feels to me; relative peace and quiet one moment, all hell breaking loose for a brief time, then the return of bird song. It’s only late June yet half the Diamond League (DL) meetings are done and dusted!
But hold on tight for the second half of“Rio summer” – actually, the last two-thirds – because the best is yet to come, with the usual attendant scandals, mind-blowing performances and shocks (good and bad) that are part and parcel of international sport. The continued rise in performance quality through the DL Series, the European Champs in Amsterdam, the US Olympic Trials in Eugene (unbeknown to many, this is about the best track meeting in the world after the major global championships), the Olympics themselves in Rio and the freespirited DL Finals in Zurich and Brussels, will ensure more world records, wonderful clashes and the inevitable cluster of suspicious performances.
Tim Hutchings: believes the Diamond League should encourage constructive criticism