A new order seems to be setting in in the women’s Triple Jump, with World Leader (WL), Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas emerging victorious in a thrilling contest, which formed one of the highlights of the Rome Diamond League.
The 21-year old handed Olympic Champion Caterine Ibarguen a rare defeat as she dominated the event from her second attempt, after being fouled on her first jump. She took the lead with her second jump which landed at 14.76m, and then 14.08m on her third.
The game changer was her fourth attempt after she made an impressive leap of 14.82m, before extending it to 14.84m on her fifth. Reigning World Champion Ibarguen tried to respond but had to settle for 2nd place after falling short by just 6cm (14.78m).
However, it was a Season’s Best (SB) for the Colombian, while former Olympic Champion Olga Rypakova placed 3rd with an SB of 14.64m.
The women’s Pole vault was expected to be a two-horse race between Olympic Champion Katerina Stefanidi and Silver medallist, Sandi Morris, but it was not to be at the Rome Diamond League. The Greek jumper was the last woman standing at 4.85m (WL) and failed at all three attempts to make a clearance of 5.07m.
The American on the other hand, exited the competition after failing all attempts to go over 4.55m and finished a disappointing 6th. World Champion Yarisley Silva of Cuba cleared an SB of 4.75m, while youngster Eliza McCartney settled for 3rd with the same height.
Following his impressive form this year, Thomas Rohler was tipped to at least set a Meeting Record (MR) at the Rome Diamond League. However, things didn’t quite fall into place as quickly as anticipated for the Olympic GOLD medallist.
Jakub Vadlejch took the lead at some point with his mark of 85.38m, and then 86.37m. London 2012 Champion Keshorn Walcott overtook him with his SB of 86.61m, while Johannes Vetter also stole the show with 88.15m.
That notwithstanding, Rohler dug deep with his final throw and took maximum points with his mark of 90.06m. Beijing 2015 Champion Julius Yego is yet to return to the form that saw him snatch the title at the World Championships two years ago. He finished a distant 7th in Rome with an SB of 82.19m.
Mariya Lasitskene was in a class of her own in the women’s High Jump and remains the only woman to have gone over 2.00m this year. She already has an SB of 2.03m set in Eugene last month, and won the event in Rome with her clearance of 2.00m.
She was followed by Polish jumper Kamila Licwinko and Yuliya Levchenko of Ukraine with SBs of 1.96m and 1.94m respectively.
China’s Lijiao Gong extended her winning streak from Shanghai to dominate the women’s Shot put. The Beijing 2015 Silver medallist bettered her winning mark in Shanghai by 10cm, taking the title in an SB of 19.56m.
USA’s pair of Daniella Bunch and Michelle Carter threw 18.95m and 18.86m respectively. World Leader Anita Marton was 4th with 18.55m.
