The 2025 Diamond League season concluded on Thursday in Zurich and, despite the threat of heavy rain, the weather held up to provide fans with an excellent night of racing. Some athletes looked for a statement performance, a nice payday, or momentum leading into the World Championships in Tokyo (Sept. 13-21) while others were seeking a final lifeline to get there.

Mac Fleet and I jumped on the mics right after the meet to record a nearly two-hour reaction show that you can now stream, download and listen to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

Here are some quick parting thoughts on the track races that went down in Zurich:

Julien Alfred Is Back, But Melissa Jefferson-Wooden Still Favored For Worlds

After missing three Diamond League meets in August, there was a level of concern around Julien Alfred’s health, with conflicting reports that she was missing time due to injury or that she was in training. It appears to have been the latter as she got back to her winning ways with a 10.76 victory. However, the oddsmakers will likely also agree that Alfred heads to Tokyo now as not the favorite for gold. Jefferson-Wooden has run 10.76 or faster five times this year and beat Alfred at the Prefontaine Classic. Unless Sha’Carri Richardson makes an extraordinary jump in fitness over the next three weeks, this is the match-up to watch in the women’s 100m.

Did Christian Coleman Just Snag Trayvon Bromell’s Relay Spot?

Christian Coleman’s first win of the season came just at the right time. The former World champion just barely edged out Akani Simbine for the Diamond League trophy. Coleman has been relied upon as the leadoff leg for Team USA in every global championship since 2022 so he was likely favored for it as well in 2025—especially since he’ll be fresh without the individual 100m to contest—but Thursday’s run likely solidified him for it over any consideration to slot in Trayvon Bromell in his place. Bromell finished sixth in 10.14 (his slowest time of the year) in the Diamond League final but is still in the relay pool for Tokyo.

Brittany Brown Takes The Long Way To Tokyo

At the U.S. Outdoor Championships, the third spot on Team USA’s 200m squad came down to one-thousandth of a second between Olympic champion Gabby Thomas and Olympic bronze medalist Brittany Brown. As a result, Brown found herself in the hunt for the Diamond League wild card. A runner-up finish in Silesia and a victory in a downpour in Lausanne provided good momentum for Brown as she charged home for the Diamond League trophy in a season’s best of 22.13 over Dina Asher-Smith. Brown is coming along at the right time (especially since her start to the season was delayed due to a surgery to treat her pain for endometriosis) and a podium run is not out of the question in Japan.

Noah Lyles And Letsile Tebogo Is Heating Up

We love a good showdown between the reigning Olympic champion and World champion. We got our first taste of this in the 200m at the Monaco Diamond League with Lyles beating Tebogo, and it happened again on Thursday night. Lyles again came out on top, 19.74 to 19.76. Lyles did what he did best and closed hard to catch Tebogo with his top-end speed. After two head-to-head wins, Lyles has to be the favorite to defend his World title in the 200m and is only showing signs of improvement each time out.

Here’s a wild stat: In the last six years, Noah Lyles has lost exactly two 200-meter races over 33 attempts. They just happen to be the Tokyo and Paris Olympic finals. In his post-race comments, Lyles raised a fun scenario.

“This idea has been circulating in my head, if there was an option to get any color medal in the 100m but then break the world record in the 200m, which one would I choose,” Lyles said. “I don’t know why that idea has been circulating in my head but it’s like, ‘Dang. I might take that world record.’”

Thank You, Jacory Patterson. Sincerely, Vernon Norwood Fans

Jacory Patterson, who quit his job delivering packages and working overnight for UPS earlier in the season, has slotted himself as a gold medal favorite for the World Championships with a 43.85 victory and personal best in Zurich. Patterson is riding a four-race win streak and his last loss, a third place run at the Pre Classic, was still a strong showing.

As a result of Patterson’s victory, a fourth individual spot for the 400m at Worlds was unlocked for Team USA and veteran Vernon Norwood (who was fourth at the U.S. Championships) will get it. After finishing fourth at the World Championships in 2023, Norwood will again get a chance to star solo in the event after mostly being viewed as the leader of the relay teams in 2024. Norwood beat Olympic bronze medalist Muzala Samukonga in Zurich, and with Olympic champion Quincy Hall out due to injury, the event is a bit more wide open.

(If Matthew Hudson-Smith reads this, he will continue to call me out for my American bias in the event.)

Salwa Eid-Naser Isn’t Peaking Too Early

The Olympic silver medalist raised eyebrows back in April with her 48.94 in late March and then took down the Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino with a 48.67 at Grand Slam Track: Kingston. It was her first career victory over Paulino and so many thought the “rivalry” would trade blows throughout the season. Paulino went on to beat Naser in their next four 400m meetings. But in the Diamond League final, the Bahranian star shook up the rivalry again by hanging on for a 48.70 victory over Paulino (49.23) for a slight momentum swing heading into the World Championships. It was Paulino’s first Diamond League 400m loss since July 2023. The duel in Tokyo will only get more interesting once you insert Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone into the mix.

Pay Attention To Audrey Werro

While Keely Hodgkinson’s dominance snatched the headlines in Lausanne, Swiss star Audrey Werro ran a solid 1:57.34 for second and then impressed many with a 1:56.29 at her national championships for a personal best and the second-fastest time in the world this year. She estimated she could run 1:55 with a pacemaker and did just that, clocking a 1:55.91 to win the Diamond League title in front of a home crowd. The 21-year-old appears comfortable going out in 56 for the first lap and that will be key for whoever is leading the chase pack on Hodgkinson, if she employs a similar strategy to what won her gold in Paris.

Georgia Hunter Bell, who has officially decided to run only the 800m in Tokyo, took Werro to the finish line and came out with the first sub-1:56 of her career as well, running 1:55.96. While Werro is inarguably a medal threat, the chances of two British medals in the 800m look better by the day.

No Magic For Josh Hoey

World Indoor champion Josh Hoey entered the meet looking to repeat his Lausanne upset of Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, but it was not meant to be. Wanyonyi got after this one aggressively and then hung on for the narrow victory over Great Britain’s Max Burgin in 1:42.37 to 1:42.42 – with Olympic silver medalist Marco Arop also on their heels in 1:42.57. Hoey, who did his best to cover Wanyonyi’s move, faded hard in the final 100m and finished 8th in 1:44.25.

Hoey, who owns the second-fastest time in the world this year, will watch the World Championships from home. It would’ve been an epic redemption to get the Diamond League wild card after his fourth place finish at the U.S. Championships but alas, the talent in this event is just too strong. It’s been a great season for Hoey regardless, breaking the American record in the 800m and 1000m indoors, claiming a gold medal at World Indoors, and then moving to No. 2 on the U.S. all-time list. Hoey opted not to take a break following last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials, but he’s got time now for some well-deserved rest.

How Will Jess Hull Recover From This?

In the absence of Faith Kipyegon and Gudaf Tsegay, Olympic silver medalist Jess Hull was the heavy favorite in the 1500m for the Diamond League final since her season’s best was nearly four seconds faster than anyone else. She did her best to press from the front and run away from the field, but she ran out of gas and faltered badly in the final 100m and was nipped at the finish line by Nelly Chepchirchir. Hull’s first Diamond League 1500m victory will have to wait.

Hull stayed on the ground for a while after the race, probably due to a combination of fatigue and the emotional effort.

“I’ve never felt like that before. It was a bit of a strange one,” she told CITIUS MAG after the race. “I kind of lost my legs in that last little bit, but I think if anything it tells me I’ve come in pretty loaded and it’s probably time to taper.” 

On our post-race podcast, Mac Fleet mentioned that it’s less about how she feels immediately after the race but to instead monitor how the recovery from such a hard effort may affect the training calendar over the next two weeks. The taper is on.

Niels Laros’s Kick Looks Unmatched Right Now

The men’s 1500m at the World Championships or Olympics has not seen a back-to-back champion since Asbel Kiprop’s 2013 and 2015 victories (Kiprop was later banned for four years after testing positive for EPO in November 2017). And Laros could be the next man to add his name to the list of champions with his current form. After opening the year with a 7:29.49 3000m indoors, the clearest sign of his level-up was his win at the Bowerman Mile by hawking down Yared Nuguse. The dream season continued, as the 20-year-old has been undefeated in all of his 800m, 1500m, and 5000m races this year. He showed great tactical prowess with navigating traffic in the final lap of the Diamond League final to kick down a strong field (which included two 3:27 runners) and win in a personal best of 3:29.20. His final 100m was clocked at 12.5 seconds.

Whereas he may have been first viewed as a prodigy finishing 10th at Worlds in 2023 and a rising star with his sixth-place finish at the Olympics in 2024, he’s now firmly in the conversation for gold.

Laros’s win also eliminated the threat of Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse in Tokyo by denying the American the Diamond League wild card. Of the group poised to show up, there are a ton of question marks around Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who opens up his outdoor season in Tokyo. Josh Kerr appears to be training well in Albuquerque and has a proven record with a 1500m medal in three of the last four global finals. Olympic champion Cole Hocker opted to bypass the European circuit to stay the course with his training, aiming to peak in Tokyo.

The stats on paper show Laros’s closing speed is faster than all of those guys right now, but the race isn’t determined by data. But the Dutchman has backed it all up with his dismantling of these Diamond League fields, landing atop anyone’s hypothetical 1500m power rankings heading into Tokyo.

Grant Fisher Comes Up Just Shy Of The Win

Grant Fisher ended up 0.03 seconds away from his first-ever Diamond League victory as Jimmy Gressier got the best of a blanket finish between him, the Olympic bronze medalist, and Andreas Almgren. You could view this performance through two different lenses. It’s fair to say Fisher needs to improve the timing of his moves when the race goes tactical, because that’s what may have cost him against Isaac Kimeli in the Lausanne Diamond League 5000m race and again in Zurich. But if you’re just looking for him to add another medal rather than win outright, he’s solidified his spot as a consistent podium finisher and you can see Zurich's performance through a more positive lens.

Side note: Mac and I were in agreement that Zurich opting to run a 3000m instead of the 5000m makes it hard to truly conclude anything heading into Tokyo. Yes, Gressier is a very good runner but is he more of a medal threat over 5000m because of yesterday’s victory? Only if the Ethiopians in Tokyo let it become a sit-and-kick race.

Confusion In The Women’s 3000m

At first, much of the world believed Aleshign Baweke had won the Diamond League trophy since the Ethiopian star crossed the finish line in 8:40.56. However, it was not Baweke and instead Fantaye Belayneh, who was wearing the wrong bib. We didn’t catch it at the moment. The commentators didn’t catch it. LetsRun’s Jonathan Gault was quick to work up a post about it. The results were updated in the middle of the meet to correct the ID. Belayneh, who has run 14:30.90 for 5000m on the season, now has the wild card for a fourth Ethiopian to be selected for the World Championships pending the decision from the Ethiopian Athletics Federation.

It was also an encouraging result by Josette Andrews, who took second in 8:40.95. Andrews deserves a lot of credit for controlling the race from the front once it slowed and almost pulled off a quintessential wind-’em-up win had Belayneh not gotten past her in the final few meters.

3000m Steeplechases Lacked Top Stars

The women’s 3000m steeplechase was won by Olympic bronze medalist Faith Cherotich by almost 13 seconds. Olympic champion Winfred Yavi was absent. On the men’s side, Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali also passed on the Diamond League final, which opened the door to Germany’s Frederik Ruppert to win in 8:09.02 and become the first European to claim the Diamond League trophy. 17-year-old Edmund Serem gave him a good battle until the final barrier. With world record holder Lamecha Girma continuing a slow return to form after his scary fall in Paris, many will be looking to Ruppert to knock El Bakkali off the top of the podium, which he’s occupied every since 2021. And Kenyan fans will be hanging their hopes on Cherotich to dethrone Yavi and finally deliver a gold medal in their cherished event to the nation for the first time this decade.

Ackera Nugent Shuts Down American Hopes

The United States had a few opportunities to add a fourth member to the World Championship squad but Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent denied those hopes by claiming the win and tying her season’s best in 12.30. Nugent is looking like Olympic champion Masai Russell’s biggest threat for gold, a familiar sentiment for NCAA track fans who watched them finish 1-2 in the event at the 2023 championship. After crashing out in the Olympic final, Nugent can target the podium even more clearly with Olympic silver medalist Cyrena Samba-Mayela missing Tokyo and Olympic bronze medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn on the mend from injury. But the unpredictability of the 100m hurdles makes it one of the more fun events to watch.