World Champion Tom Walsh produced a dominant performance in the Meeting de Paris as he led the way among a quintet of 22-meters throwers in the men’s Shot Put at the IAAF Diamond League (DL) in Paris.
In spite of it being the first time in DL history that eight men have thrown over 21m, the New Zealander’s stunning opening throw of 22.44m was enough for him to take the spoils on the night.
The mark was a Meeting Record (MR), Season’s Best (SB) and a first DL win for the Commonwealth Games Champion this year. Joe Kovacs took second with 22.11m while Darlan Romani was third in 21.56m.
Like Walsh, American Will Claye turned on the after burners to win the men’s Triple Jump. It however did not come easy for the jumper as he was truly put to the test by his great rival Christian Taylor, who got well into his jumping after a tough start.
Claye had the answer though and it was in the form of a stunning 18.06m jump to break the MR just moments after Taylor had already broken it with a fifth round jump of 17.82m, taking the win in the process.
Infield, Noah Lyles roared to victory in the men’s 200m race, setting a new MR of 19.65 to easily win another Diamond League 200m race. The Diamond trophy holder in the event didn’t get the best of start, but when he got into his groove, he was unstoppable.
World Champion Ramil Guliyev got 2nd in 20.01 ahead of Aaron Brown with 20.13. Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru was 6th in 20.50s.
The women’s 100m was a very hotly contested race but it was Elaine Thompson who continued her comeback this season. The Olympic champion emerged from a very tight pack to take the win in with 10.98. Marie-Josee Ta Lou settled for 2nd place with 11.13, while Dafne Schippers was 0.02s behind.
Jamaica’s Stephanie Ann McPherson fought hard all the way to win her first 400m Diamond League race since 2016. She triumphed in her tussle with Ellis Kendall in 51.11. The win also qualifies her for the final in Zurich next week.
In the men’s 400m Hurdles, Karsten Warholm came in as the favorite and he certainly didn’t disappoint. The World champion stormed ahead in the early parts of the race to win by over a second ahead of Ludvy Vaillant who grabbed a 48.30 PB, while Warholm bags 47.26 for the win.
Ronald Musagala and Ayanleh Souleiman locked horns all the way to the finish in the men’s 1500m. With less than two meters separating them on the track, it was Musagala who had enough in the tank as he produced a stunning 3.30.58 Ugandan record and PB equaling time to come out on top of the fierce encounter.
They finished ahead of Jakob and Filip Ingebrigtsen as Filip won the sibling showdown with 3.31.06.
In what was the last track event of the night, young and talented 110m hurdler Daniel Roberts saw off competition from the likes of likes of Orlando Ortega, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Sergey Shubenkov to win the men’s 100mH in 13.08.
Elsewhere, it was business as usual for Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas in the women’s triple jump. The World Champion was under pressure after round one, but responded superbly. A 15.05m jump, her second-best ever was enough to seal a comfortable win . Liadgamis Povea settled for 2nd in 14.75m, while Keturah Orji leapt to a 14.72m PB for third.
Finally, Cuba’s Denia Caballero came storming out of the traps in the women’s Discus, as she saw off multiple World and Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic with 66.91m, while Bin Feng finished third in 64.60m.
