Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce raced to a dominant 10.78 victory in the women’s 100m at the Muller Anniversary Games in London as the 2019 IAAF Diamond League resumed in the British capital on Sunday, July 21st.
Quickest out of the blocks, the three-time world champion gave a commanding display of gun-to-tape sprinting, as she came within 0.01s of equaling the Meeting Record (MR) she set in 2013, eventually claiming victory in 10.78s.
Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith was second with a 10.92 clocking, while Ivory Coast’s Marie Josee Ta Lou settled for third in 10.98s. Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare was 4th in 11.04s, a Season’s Best (SB) for her.
World Champion, Hellen Obiri delivered a new MR after surprising the favorite Sifan Hassan in the women’s 5000m.
The pace of the race was a little slower than expected, but Hassan was nonetheless ahead just before the penultimate bend, doing her utmost to hold off both Obiri and Agnes Tirop.
However, Obiri’s kick left the Dutch star in the dust, and both she and Tirop had long overtaken Hassan by the time they crossed the finish line. Obiri was a nose ahead, clocking an MR and World Lead (WL) of 14:20.36.
Despite being neck and neck with several athletes on the final bend of the men’s 400m, Jamaica’s Akeem Bloomfield pulled away on the final straight to clock an SB of 44.40. Barbadian Jonathan Jones finished second with a National Record (NR) of 44.63.
In the absence of World Leader, Sydney McLaughlin, Jamaica’s Rushell Clayton claimed a sensational victory in the women’s 400m hurdles, clocking a PB of 54.16.
Field Events
On the field, Swede, Daniel Stahl narrowly fell short of the 70m mark today. Nonetheless, he was still able to claim an MR with his third-round effort of 68.56m. His rival, Fedrick Dacres placed 2nd.
Malaika Mihambo was a class apart from the rest of the field in the women’s Long Jump, leaping to an MR jump of 7.02m. Brittney Reese was 2nd with a best jump of 6.82.
In the men’s High Jump, Majd Eddin Ghazal victory was assured after Mutaz Barshim’s failure at 2.32m. A final mark of 2.30m was enough for the Syrian to bag all eight points, and his place in the Diamond League Final.
Barshim, meanwhile, marked his Diamond League comeback with an impressive second-place finish. The seven points could prove to be invaluable, as they propel him up the rankings and into the top 12.
