 "Athletics Relay, Tokyo Olympics 2021")
Athletes are seen in action during the men’s 4x400m relay during the Tokyo Olympics 2020, in Tokyo on August 6, 2021. (Photo: Reuters)
Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi ran the fourth-fastest 800 meters time in history Thursday at the first major track meet after the Paris Games.
Wanyonyi clocked 1 minute, 41.11 seconds 0.08 faster than his winning time in Paris two weeks ago to tie Wilson Kipketer’s mark in 1997 that was a world record then. Only Wanyonyi’s fellow Kenyan David Rudisha has run the 800 faster.
I’m so happy to have run that crazy time here in Lausanne, Wanyonyi said. I really loved the crowd here.
It was a fast early start to the storied Athletissima meet as the global Diamond League circuit resumed after a pause for the Olympics.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen regained his authority in the men’s 1,500 after a shocking fourth place in Paris to beat Olympic champion Cole Hocker by more than two seconds.
In the men’s 200, Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo kept his form despite a return trip home to Botswana to win in 19.64 seconds easing into the line.
It was a great race for me here today, said the 21-year-old Tebogo, who said on the eve of the race he had not trained in the previous week.
Tebogo still finished 0.14 ahead of Erriyon Knighton, who placed fourth in Paris. Noah Lyles, who took bronze in 200 in Paris after becoming the Olympic champion at 100, skipped the Swiss meet.
The standout performance was by the 20-year-old Wanyonyi, who surged past Marco Arop on the back straight and finished 0.61 clear of the Olympic silver medalist from Canada.
Wanyonyi was 0.20 off Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 set winning the first of his back-to-back Olympic titles in 2012 in London.
Ingebrigtsen’s winning time of 3:27.83 was a meet record in Lausanne though still would have been fast enough only for fourth place at the Olympics.
For me, a lot of it has been mental including going home, taking some easy days and then getting back to work, said Ingebrigtsen, who did win Olympic gold in the 5,000. Tonight’s race gave me good answers.
Hocker acknowledged it had been a new challenge being announced as Olympic champion, though the American’s 3:29.85 time was second fastest in his career behind his 3:27.65 in Paris.
Dina Asher-Smith won the women’s 100 clocking her season-best time of 10.88. That would have won a bronze medal in Paris where the British star failed to make the final.
After the Olympics I took some time to refocus and now I’m just enjoying running, feeling fit and injury free, Asher-Smith said.
Olympic champions Yaroslava Mahuchikh in women’s high jump and Miltiadis Tentoglou in men’s long jump both took repeat wins.
Mahuchikh cleared 1.99 meters and Tentoglou finally went beyond eight meters with his sixth attempt to post an 8.06. That took the win from Wayne Pinnock, the silver medalist in Paris, who had led at 8.01.
It was a good night for Olympic bronze medalists taking victories two weeks later.
In the 110 hurdles, Olympic gold medalist Grant Holloway was edged near the line by the surging Rasheed Broadbell, who won in 13.10 to avenge the Paris result.
Femke Bol won in the women’s 400 hurdles, in 52.25, after being third in Paris behind the world-record run of Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won the 100 hurdles clocking 12:35 and Mary Moraa won the women’s 800 in 1:57.91.
In the men’s 400, Olympic silver medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith of Britain dipped under 44 seconds to win in 43.96.
Like Asher-Smith, Chase Jackson won Thursday after not qualifying for her Olympic final, in women’s shot put. Jackson’s winning mark of 20.64 was more than three meters farther than her best effort in the Olympic qualifying round.
The Diamond League continues with four more meetings: On Sunday in Silesia, Poland; on Aug. 30 in Rome; the Weltklasse meet in Zurich on Sept. 5; the finals meet in Brussels on Sept. 13-14.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Aug 23 2024 | 12:58 PM IST
