Noah Lyles continued his impeccable rise to the top of global Athletics as he once again showed his class on his way to winning the men’s 200m race at the Lausanne Diamond League, equaling his Personal Best (PB) and World Leading (WL) time of 19.69s in the process.
Lyles, who is coming off a fantastic performance at the US Trials last month, had his fellow American Michael Norman to contend with in the race. After having a slow start, Lyles was able to shove away competition from his countryman, as he streaked away in the last 80m to clinch his third victory in the Diamond League (DL) this season.
Collegian Norman had to settle for 2nd in the race, clocking a time of 19.88s. Ecuador’s Alex Quiroz whom he beat last time out in Paris, placed 3rd in 20.08s.
Also, Ivorian sprinter, Marie Jose Ta Lou extended her winning streak in the women’s 100m. Despite a slow start in the race, Ta Lou found another gear in the final 50m, taking home the victory in 10.90s.
Olympic champion Elaine Thompson, who has so far had a turbulent year, also produced a great finish to place 2nd ahead of Jenna Prandini. Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor Did Not Start (DNS) the race.
World Champion Christian Taylor turned the volume a notch higher in the 3rd round of the men’s Triple Jump as he finally got a revenge on Pedro Pablo Pichardo after the Cuban had beaten him earlier in the season. Pichardo finished just 1cm shy of Taylor.
Recording just three legal throws, Commonwealth Games Champion Tomas Walsh still found 21.92m in the fifth round to win the men’s Shot put and move to the top of the Diamond League standings.
Another athlete who produced another peerless performance on the night was Abderrahman Samba. The Qatari remained unbeaten in the men’s 400m Hurdles this year, recording yet another sub-48s to win in Lausanne in 47.42s.
Karsten Warholm, the World Champion, had done his usual thing and hurtled out of the blocks, but Samba ran smartly on his inside, moving up through the second bend and down the straight for another win.
The only Meeting Record (MR) that was recorded on the track today came in the women’s 1500m race, as US champion Shelby Houlihan raced to an MR of 3:57.34, which was also a PB for her.
The US Champion ran down Laura Muir and Sifan Hassan in the final 100m to clinch the victory. Britain’s Muir was good enough for 2nd ahead of Hassan. Caster Semenya, stepping up from her usual 800m, paid the price for going out strong by fading to 6th behind Rababe Arafi.
US Champion Shamier Little picked up a Season’s Best (SB) in the women’s 400m Hurdles, holding off Commonwealth champion Janieve Russell to win in 53.41s.
Also, Salwa Eid Naser ran the 400m beautifully to record her forth consecutive victory to win in 49.78s. The Bahraini athlete now moves to the top of the overall DL standings.
The men’s 5000m produced a lot of drama! Yomif Kejelcha had taken the lead on the bell lap after Selemon Barega had led throughout. The Ethiopian pair then turned a metaphorical scrap into a literal one as they jangled on the final bend as the pace reached frentic. Both athletes hit the deck, with Kejelcha appearing to hold the shorts of his younger compatriot as he went down.
Birhanu Balew profited from the scramble, running clear of the arguing duo to win in a World Lead (WL) and PB of 13:01.09. Barega, somehow, recovered just in time to finish 2nd.
Danil Lysenko was peerless in the men’s High Jump, going over at 2.37m to back up the form that saw him win the World Indoors title back in March.
In the women’s Long Jump, Malaika Mihambo produced a last round 6.90m effort to win ahead of Ivana Spanovic. The German’s 6.70m second best effort was better than the Serbian’s 6.67m. Nigeria’s Ese Brume placed 4th at her DL debut with a best jump of 6.66m.
