South Africa’s Caster Semenya was without doubt the standout athlete of the Monaco Diamond League on Friday as she raced to a lifetime best of 1:55.33 to set a World Lead (WL), Meeting Record (MR) and Diamond League Record (DLR) in the process, thus erasing her former time of 1:55.45 set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
Semenya was also the only athlete to set an MR in Monaco, and there was just no stopping her as she went on to break Svetlana Masterkova’s 10-year old record of 1:56.04. She also inspired a 1-2-3 for Africa with World Indoor Champion Francine Niyonsaba coming 2nd with a National Record (NR) of 1:56.24, as Kenya’s Margaret Nyairera placed 3rd with a Personal Best (PB) of 1:56.64.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3fiiwouEBY
Semenya bagged three GOLD medals (800m, 1500m and 4x400m) at last month’s African Championships in Durban, and the London 2012 Silver medallist definitely looks certain to upgrade to GOLD in Rio, seeing that she has remained undefeated in the 2016 Athletics season.
Compatriot Wayde Van Niekerk was gifted with the perfect birthday present as he also maintained his unbeaten streak in 2016 to clock a time of 44.12s in the men’s 400m. He is now tied with LaShawn Merritt with 20 points at the top of the Diamond Race standings.
It was a PB for 20-year old Machel Cedenio from Trinidad and Tobago who followed in 2nd with 44.34s, and Grenada’s Bralon Taplin 3rd in 44.38s, also a PB.
European Champion Dafne Schippers overtook Elaine Thompson on the Diamond Race standings after taking the women’s 100m in 10.94s, finishing ahead of Veronica Campbell-Brown (11.12s) and South Africa’s Carina Horn who finished 3rd with a time of 11.14s. The race wasn’t without a fair dose of drama as African 200m Champion Marie Josee Ta Lou was disqualified for a false start.
Panama’s Alonso Edward was the man to beat in the 200m, taking the race in 20.10s, with former European Champion Christophe Lemaitre coming through in 2nd with an SB of 20.24s. 100m European Champion Martina Churandy was 3rd in 20.29s.
World Leader in the 110 Hurdles, Omar McLeod’s unbeaten run finally came to an end as the Jamaican hit several hurdles before crashing to the ground with about 15m to go. It was Orlando Ortega who took the race with an SB of 13.04s, as European Champion Dimitri Bascou followed with a PB of 13.12s, while compatriot Pascal Martinot-Lagarde placed 3rd in an SB of 13.17s.
Great Britain’s Eilidh Doyle put up a strong performance to emerge the surprise winner in the women’s 400m Hurdles, clocking a PB of 54.09s to finish ahead of Cassandra Tate (54.63s) and European Champion Sara Peterson (54.81s).
An upset was recorded in the 1500m as World Champion Asbel Kiprop was relegated to a distant 6th. The fans kept waiting for the Kenyan to pull away in the last lap as he was usually wont to doing, but Ronald Kwemoi sped past with about 30m to go, winning in an SB of 3:30.49. Elijah Manengoi and Olympic Champion Taoufik Makhloufi clocked SBs of 3:31.19 and 3:31.35 respectively.
Two-time World Championships Silver medallist Conseslus Kipruto maintained his unbeaten run as he recorded his fifth straight Diamond League victory with a time of 8:08.12, while Hellen Obiri claimed the women’s 3000m race in 8:24.27 to finish ahead of Mercy Cherono.
World Champion Caterine Ibarguen saved the best for last, winning the Triple Jump title with her final leap of 14.96m. World Indoor Champion Yulimar Rojas and Kimberly Williams followed in 14.64m and 14.47m respectively.
European Champion Gianmarco Tamberi won the men’s High Jump with an NR of 2.39m, while Bohdan Bondarenko followed in 2nd with 2.37m to lead the Diamond Race standings. However the Italian got injured after his last jump and was in serious pain, and had to be taken to the hospital.
Jamaica’s Damar Forbes won the men’s Long Jump with a distance of 8.23m as Fabrice Lapierre (8.21m) and Gao Xinglong (8.00m) followed in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Olympic Champion Valerie Adams’ confidence was surely boosted with her win in the women’s Shot put after throwing a Season’s Best (SB) of 20.05m to defeat European Champion Christina Schwanitz (19.81m) and Michelle Carter (19.51m).
Tatsiana Khaladovich’s opening throw of 65.62m was good enough to take victory in the women’s Javelin throw, while Katerina Stefanidi’s clearance of 4.81m saw her finishing ahead of World Champion Yarisley Silva (4.71m) in the women’s Pole vault at the Monaco Diamond League.
