Can we start calling him WvN now?

Steff Twell playing a very canny tactical game here, reckon there's a big finish coming.

Another opera analogy but at the other end of the vocal spectrum springs to mind with Semenya.

Wow Ayana just missed world record in 5,000

So close again for Ayana!

Good girl, Steph! Sub-15 for the first time since 2010 just before she had her horrendous injury. I said after her indoor season that she'd do that again this year. Still one of only 6 UK women to have gone sub-15 (#4 on the list).

Just needs a wee bit better race building and pacing, it's crazy to try to do it running 7 laps solo.

Great run from Pozzi, good for him, he deserves it. Kind of like the Grand National, though, the stewards will be round with the shotgun later.

Viljoen wins the javelin, so three wins and a second place tonight for Zuid-Afrika.

The women's 100 wins the prize for most tattooed event of the evening.

Suprisingly no tattoos on the men.

Good win for Greg, shows that he wins medals because he's a better competitor than the others.

Very close to WR for Ayana. If I was Benzene Dibaba I'd give the 5000 a wide berth and concentrate on 1500.

Good night for the Brits, lots of Olympic qualifying standards and top 3 placings. So good to see Pozzi back, really hope he remains injury free for the next 2 and a half Months. Another win for Rutherford against a field that will likely take up a big chunk of the Olympic final. This new rule is ridiculous though, IAAF need to realise it's not working and scrap it ASAP.

Ameer Webb is in good form. Good win in the 200 & nearly beat Gatlin over 100. I know Gatlin is saying he is building for Rio but I'm not convinced. He is struggling in 2nd half of races. His 200 will be interesting, apparently he's not racing it before US trials and at this stage I wouldn't be shocked if he doesn't make US team

The biggest hair-do too. I am sure if Elaine Thompson had a short back and sides she would better her PB.

A good two hours. Absorbing.

There were 4 world leading marks in today's DL meet.

Women's 400mH - 53.96 PB for Janieve Russell, who's steadily improved since winning the world junior title back in 2012. First time under 54 seconds for her too.
Women's 800m - 1:56.64 (again) for Caster Semenya; enough said.
Women's 5,000m - 14:12.59 PB* for Almaz Ayana puts her second on the all-time list, though the BFD's WR is proving to be a bit of a tough nut to crack.
Men's 3,000mSC - 8:01.41 for Conseslus Kipruto; probably the most likely to end Kemboi's title streak as he won WCh silver in Moscow/Beijing.

{* Think that's the third 'nearly' WR in a week now]

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Ibargüen's unbeaten triple jump streak (now 34-strong) lives on.

Not a bad evening for the Brits, headed of course by Greg with his winning long jump of 8.31m (-0.3m/s). Those that made top-3 were:

Robbie Grabarz - 2.30m SB [mHJ]
Andrew Pozzi - 13.37 (+0.6m/s) [m110mH]
Eilidh Doyle - 54.81 [w400mH]
Lynsey Sharp - 1:59.03 SB [w800m]

Greg may give Birmingham a miss - would be disappointing for the home crowd, but the last couple of years have shown he clearly knows what he's doing.

And yet, the BBC still name Gatlin (albeit jointly) in their article headline.

Ayana was amazing

You wonder how fast Caster can run if she actually tried. She didn't seem bothered *at all* outclassing a very good field. I think she could have gotten close to 1.54.00 and even better, and the WR can actually be broken.

Apparently she stopped taking the medicine that reduced her testosterone which kinda makes sense, but they said it was put on hold, so maybe she has to start taking it again, in that case she better break the WR this season

For the CAS ruling to be overturned the IAAF have to prove that unnatural testosterone levels give an unfair advantage over other female competitors. It seems like a "Well, duh!" moment especially given Semenya's mediocre times when she was undergoing the testosterone reduction therapy, but apparently not ...

Does anyone know, does it have to be biological evidence or can they just present a bunch of 'unnatural' race data as proof? E.g., the marked recent improvement in her times since the ruling (as well as the improvements of others who are hyper-androgenic), the fastest ever last 100m in a women's 800m (13.6 off a sub 1:45 700m in Rabat), 27.9 for the last 200 last night after a 1:28.7 600m ... These last 2 are stats that are probably only approached by the old Eastern Europeans who had, you guessed it, elevated levels of testosterone.

It makes me angry because that was such a cracking event last year - new faces on the scene & super-close racing. It was probably the most competitive event of all in Beijing. Now, however, they're all relegated to also-rans who we can barely see on the screen in the home straight as the camera follows Semenya.

Seems Nesta Carter is one of those who has failed a test in Beijing based on the retests. It's for a stimulant, Jamaica could lose the relay gold medal from Beijing but as it's not a hardcore substance like a steroid or Testosterone I doubt they'll lose any medals from later years

Meanwhile as the news breaks, Bolt is on Snapchat showing that he is having a blood test today. Hate that he will lose out because of this but hey. This is the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

All these things are pretty arbitrary when they're viewed close up. There's a huge range of natural human variation and at some point someone just draws a line and says "Here". This means that there will unfortunately always be hard cases.

Weather forecast is very decent for Birmingham on Sunday

Very nearly sold out as well apparently.

Looks like Mo intends to stay on the track in 2017. Must be the lure of another home championship...also worth noting the men's 10,000m will be the sole final of the opening day (4 August).

Emily Diamond ran a big PB in the 400 in Germany this afternoon of 51.23 Certainly ups the stakes ahead of trials. Laviai Nielsen was again just outside the Olympic qualifying in 51.32 Hope she gets the time, she might even need to run sub 52 to get a relay spot.

Jack Green also ran an Olympic qualifying time of 49.39 in 400 hurdles

You mean 52.32 for Nielsen? Otherwise she would have the standard.

Yes it was 52.32 she ran

5 things to look out for in Birmingham:

http://www.diamondleague.com/news/si...-look-out-for/

Women's 100m hurdles will be my personal highlight. Doesn't look like they did much research on the women's 100m entrants.