If you found yourself sleeping in Saturday (and you’re reading this newsletter in a U.S. time zone), you may have missed the second China-based Diamond League meet of the season. And that’s a shame! While cracking open a cold one with the boys for three afternoons straight is a great way to watch GST, curling up on your couch with a coffee for a quick two-hour showcase of the best of track and field is a great reminder that the DL is still a very entertaining and easily digestible sports product.

There were a fair few world leads posted in Shanghai. Perhaps the most notable came in the women’s 800m where Tsige Duguma ran an impressive 1:56.64 to break the Ethiopian record and reminded the world that her underwhelming World Indoor performance was a bit of a fluke. Duguma may be the reigning Olympic silver medalist but she sure isn’t running like some aiming for second in Tokyo.

Karsten Warholm cruised to a 47.28 over the 400m hurdles, a performance that likely would’ve been closer to the 47-second barrier had he not stutter-stepped a late hurdle. He and Alison dos Santos continue their long-distance tango two continents apart, but they’ll finally meet head to head, alongside Olympic champ Rai Benjamin in Oslo. And while they weren’t world leads, two of the most memorable performances came from a pair of up-and-coming American sprinters: Anavia Battle continued her undefeated season with a second straight win in the 200m and Chris Bailey flipped the script on Bayapo Ndori with a win in the 400m after coming up short in Xiamen.

The Diamond Leaguers also made the most of the offerings conspicuously absent from GST, delivering banger after banger of field event competition. World record holders Mondo Duplantis and Yaroslava Mahuchikh did what they do best in the vertical jumps, making the greatest pole vaulters and high jumpers in the world look like afterthoughts by comparison. The women’s shot put continues to be one of the most exciting and competitive events on the circuit, this time with Chase Jackson triumphing over last week’s winner Jessica Schilder, thanks to an incredible series of throws, the best of which soared 20.54 meters. No matter how common it becomes, we can’t take for granted how exciting it is to have Jackson, Schilder, and Sarah Mitton throwing head to head at the top of their games week after week.

Despite the litany of strong performances, only one athlete walked away from Shanghai with all the headlines and a shiny new target on his back: Cordell Tinch, who clocked an incredible 12.87 victory in the 110m hurdles.

After Grant Holloway’s uncharacteristic performance in Xiamen and subsequent withdrawal from Shanghai, there was a bit of a question mark hanging over the high hurdles heading into the weekend. Heading out of the weekend, there’s still unanswered questions, but one thing appears clear: even if Holloway is injured or otherwise hampered, Team USA will have no problem contending in the event internationally thanks to Cunningham and Tinch.

If you missed the race, it’s worth a rewatch. Tinch not only executed flawlessly, getting out well early and pulling away from the field by halfway; he also looked extremely comfortable and controlled throughout the race, and it’s not crazy to suggest that, even if Holloway were on the starting line in tip-top shape, he’d be hard-pressed to top that performance in the moment.

Tinch knocked nearly a full tenth of a second off his PB in one race and became the seventh hurdler ever under 12.90 seconds—and the first ever to do so in May. He’s now the third fastest currently active, behind fellow Americans Holloway and Devon Allen. It’s hard to say if the men’s or women’s high hurdles team is a harder team to make, but given that Olympic silver medalist Daniel Roberts is only the fifth fastest domestic hurdler at the moment, the U.S. contingent faces something of an embarrassment of riches.

In the past, Tinch has arguably been portrayed as somewhat of an underdog or, less generously, an also-ran in the event. That could be in part because of his rags-to-riches story as a football player-turned-cell phone salesman-turned-DII national champ, and it could also be due to his split focus over multiple events. He also has NCAA DII titles in the long jump and high jump, and at the last two U.S. championships, he’s gone back and forth between the homestretch and the long jump runway at the same meet.

Tinch finished an unenviable fourth at the Olympic Trials. Even if he wound up there again this year he’d still make his second U.S. team as Holloway has a bye into this year’s World Championships. But with the way he looked in Shanghai, it’s hard to see fourth place as anything but a floor, not a ceiling.

What powered the jump forward? One possible answer is that he’s lifting for the first time in his life. Another is that Tinch, a Challenger in Kingston, has been working on his flat speed for GST competitions. And a third is simply that the supremely talented 24-year-old is benefiting from finally narrowing his focus and entering his prime.

Regardless, the next time Cordell Tinch faces Grant Holloway, Trey Cunningham, or anyone else in the world, he won’t be viewed as a novelty or an insurgent: he’s now the man to beat.

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