The battle in the men's Dream Mile, between Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Ollie Hoare and Jake Wightman was fantastic! Jakob had company until the last 200 meters, and he pushed himself on from there. Ollie finished one second behind and Jake was three seconds. What a brilliant and exciting race.

All three of those guys ran as juniors or high school athletes, and Jakob started as an 8 year old. Each has different paths, which path will you follow?

Think about that! How far do you want to go?

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, photo by Diamond League AG

I loved the Paris meeting each season. Most seasons, I would fly over to Paris after the US Champs and then visit several of the Diamond League meetings. What did I love about the Paris DL?

Well, the presser day was fantastic. I was able to interview 8-10 athletes at the pressers, and they were relaxed and open.

The meeting should be fun tomorrow. Enjoy!

Andre De Grasse won the 100m in Oslo, in Paris, he's racing the 200m, photo by Diamond League AG

Christian Coleman, photo by British Athletics

Following a revision to the UK Athletics performance plans and structures, backed by the UKA Performance Management Group and UK Sport, UK Athletics can confirm that the role of Olympic Head Coach - currently held by Christian Malcolm - will be discontinued after this summer's European Championships in Munich. Other opportunities created as a result of the revised structure will be discussed with him over that period as a number of changes are made.

The revised plans, which have been part of an ongoing strategy review with UK Sport over recent months, will come into play from September. As part of a range of amendments to the previous approach, the key principles include:

• Further Increasing levels of support and engagement with athletes on the World Class Performance (WCP) programme;
• A significant increase in financial investment into the personal coaches of athletes on the WCP (Olympic and Paralympic)
• Investment into planned new athlete performance and technical innovation centre
• Increased investment into Event Group Leadership across the WCP.

To ensure athletes across the programme continue to receive the support and focus required, new roles will be introduced to the programme. As well as the previously communicated incoming role of Technical Director with extensive coaching knowledge to lead the WCP, there will be new event leadership appointments in due course to sit alongside the WCP Head of Sprints & Relays and WCP Endurance Performance Manager that already exists, and a number of additional athlete support roles.

As a result of this change, combined with increasing the financial investment into personal coaches of athletes on the WCP, the role of Head Olympic Coach has been removed from the structure.

Christian Malcolm will continue to deliver his Head Coach role for the duration of this summer's major championships, working alongside Paula Dunn, Team Leader for this summer's World Championships in Eugene and European Championships in Munich.

Mark Munro, interim CEO for UKA, said: "We are extremely grateful and appreciative to Christian for his time and efforts as well as his commitment and professionalism during his time as Head Coach.

"Taking on board a role during a pandemic and the associated challenges that bring - alongside staffing and structure changes - has been incredibly challenging. He has worked hard to steady the ship and continued to be professional throughout.

"Unfortunately, given all the changes we need to make, and the greater prioritisation for investment into personal coaches, the Olympic Head Coach role does not sit within the revised structures. However, we have made a commitment to work with Christian over the summer with the potential for exploring other roles within the structure to enable us to maintain his involvement with UKA.

"Ensuring the WCP is in the right shape to support athletes towards the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games is an absolute priority for UKA. Therefore, we will continue to evolve our systems to ensure greater support for WCP athletes and their coaches, as well as increasing investment into excellent support environments for athletes either locally or at a central point they can access."

Christian Malcolm said:

"I am very disappointed to hear about the news but understand the rationale around this decision.

"My priority now is to continue working in the same way, maintaining professionalism and doing my job throughout the summer. I am fully focused on supporting our athletes and coaches during this extremely busy summer for our sport.

"We have some incredibly talented athletes - some of whom have ambitious aims to compete across three major championships this summer. I'm looking forward to seeing them compete and supporting those individuals towards the World and European Championships, as well as representing their home nations during the Commonwealth Games."

UKA can confirm that the recruitment process for the new UKA Technical Director has been ongoing with a view to appointing shortly, with a start date in September.

Each year, I would wait to see the TV on the weekend (in the 1970s and 1980s) and the newspaper article on the next day. I remember reading about Seb Coe, Steve Scott, Ray Flynn, and of course, Eamonn Coghlan and Thomas Wessinghage among the mile cognoscenti.

This year was one of the most exciting in the past three decades.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is a fine middle-distance runner. On February 17, 2022, Jakob ran 3:30.60 for the World Indoor record. Nice way to open the season.

In March, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, ran 3:38.42 on March 19, and on March 20, took 2nd the 1,500m at the World Indoor at 3:33.02. The next day, Jakob had a COVID-19 positive test.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Ollie Hoare, Oslo Bislett Games, June 16, 2022, photo by Diamond League AG

On May 6, Jakob ran a well-executed 5,000m at The TRACK MEET by Sound Running, running a then WL 13:02.03.

On May 29, 2022, Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the Bowerman mile in 3:49.76, his 1,500m split was 3:34.19.

The thing about Jakob's training is that his high-quality work, done with very short rests, gives him the ability to handle a 56 pace a lap in the 1,500m/mile and 61-63 a lap at 5000m with a 55-56 last lap.

On June 7, in Trondheim, Jakob ran an 800m for the first time in years, ran 1:47.22, taking 4th.

The Oslo Dream Mile was spectacular. Jakob came oh so close to Steve Cram's incredible record. Steve was doing the global broadcast with Tim Hutchings, and Tim Hutchings did the call on the race. Steve then came back and gave Jakob praise on his race, the fastest in many years.

Please enjoy Stuart Weir's coverage of the event.

Oliver Hoare did his best, but no one was going to spoil the narrative of the first Norwegian winner of the Bislett Games Dream Mile. The race goes back to 1974 and was at one time a kind of British Championship with Steve Cram winning it four times and Seb Coe and Steve Ovett also winning with all three breaking the world record in the event.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the race but needed a World Lead, National record, and Diamond League record to do it - to be fair, "The mile" is probably not run that often these days. A better stat is that the top four all ran PRs.

Paced through the first two laps in 56.01 and 1:53.30, Ingebrigtsen was tracked closely by Australia's Oliver Hoare and Britain's Jake Wightman for most of the race.

The final results were

1 Jakob Ingebrigtsen 3:46.46

2 Oliver Hoare 3:47.48

3 Jake Wightman 3:50.30

4 Neil Gourlay 3:52.91

Jakob commented: "It felt great, I was ready to run fast and was happy to do that and to win. Some work needs to be done before the World Championships. It was an awesome crowd. Oslo is always perfect, and for me, it's the best meeting in the world so it was an awesome experience. Last year I was sick, so couldn't race here, unfortunately, so it was even more special here tonight, as was becoming the first Norwegian to win the Dream Mile - doing things nobody else has before is really great. I take it one race at a time, it's important to have short-term goals - that's how my mindset works to keep the motivation high. Confidence is a really important thing in sports, and I'm confident in what I do in training and, of course, am aiming for gold in Eugene".

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, speaking with media, 2022 Oslo Bislett Games, June 16, 2022, photo by Stuart Weir

Jake Wightman was delighted to break a 40-year-old Scottish record - although he was not aware until I told him. "I believe so [a Scottish record], but I wanted to be under 3:50, but it was so quick. From the first lap, I was worried about what my last lap would be like. The pace was so hot that I didn't quite have the strength to back it up. It was a lonely last lap.

"There was only one person the crowd was cheering for. It was like playing a hostile away football game. If he is going to attack it like that, that is my best chance of running quick. A little bit disappointed I wasn't closer".

With Jake and Neil each running PRs and Josh Kerr in the mix, too, the Commonwealth Games 1500m looks like a hot race with Hoare facing the three Scots along with some tough Kenyans. Thank goodness Norway is not in the Commonwealth!

Oslo Bislett Games, June 16, 2022, photo by Stuart Weir

The Oslo Bislett Games are one of the most iconic annual meetings in all of track & field. The event is held in the Oslo, Norway, in the Bislett Stadium, a stadium that has seen the likes of Paavo Nurmi, Willie Ritola, Steve Cram, Seb Coe, and Grete Waitz, among others, compete over the last 100 years.

Stuart Weir is there, and his love of this event is evident. That he can brave the hot and cold today in Oslo, shows his dedication. Enjoy this piece.

The Bislett Stadium in Oslo is 100 years old. History is all around you. The list of winners of the Bislett medal for the outstanding performance of the Games is like a list of the great and the good of our sport: Mike Boit, Grete Waitz, Ralph Boston, Seb Coe, Mary Decker, Said Aouita, Heike Drechsler, Blanka Vlasic, Usain Bolt and Marlene Ottey to choose but ten.

The Dream Mile, going back to 1974, has its own history with winners such as Steve Cram (4 times), Hicham El Guerrouj (3), Asbel Kiprop (3), and Steve Scott (2), etc. Steve Cram, Seb Coe, and Steve Ovett have all broken the World Record in the race. Coe, in fact, set world records at 800, 1000 (twice), and the mile. Just as I wrote that sentence, Steve Cram walked past me on his way to the BBC commentary position. Seb Coe was interviewed on the infield about Jakob's run. Ovett now lives in Australia.

Bislett 2022 was a sell-out with a two-hour DL program of six men's races, 4 women's, and two field events each. Unfortunately, the women's shot, won by Chase Ealey with a PR of 20.23, was over before most of the spectators had arrived. The pre-program included two and a half hours of local and youth events plus an international 100m para sprint.

Despite the rain, it was a great evening's entertainment with steller Scandinavian performances from Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Mondo Duplantis. There was a good number of Ethiopian flags waving when Telahun Haile Bekele won the men's 5000 in an Ethiopian 1-2-3. The women's 5000m was also an Ethiopian 1-2-3, with Dawit Seyaum winning.

Keely Hodgkinson won the women's 800, followed by Laura Muir for a British 1-2.

Sandra Perkovic got the better of Valarie Allman in the women's discus with a throw of 66.82.

Devon Allen won the 110m hurdles in 13.22 into a headwind from Asier Martinez. His task was perhaps made easier with Omar McLeod not starting. With Grant Holloway no longer invincible and Omar McLeod looking string, not forgetting Olympic champion Hansle Parchment, the event looks like one of the highlights at Oregon. Allen will be right there in the mix.

Sadly the children's snowball throwing competition has been dropped from the program.

Lamencha Girma goes sub 8 minutes for the third time this season! photo by Diamond League AG