Chorzów (Poland) (AFP) – Kishane Thompson eclipsed Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles at the Silesia Diamond League meet on Saturday, and Keely Hodgkinson made an impressive comeback over 800m, a year since winning gold at the Paris Games. A host of world and Olympic champions headlined the event, including Karsten Warholm, who delivered an incredible performance in the 400m hurdles, alongside Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis, Faith Kipyegon, and Femke Bol. They all shone in the hot and humid conditions in front of more than 40,000 fans in the Polish city of Chorzów.
In their first meeting since Lyles won Olympic gold by just five-thousandths of a second in Paris last year, Thompson made an electric start and led from gun to tape for victory in 9.87 seconds. “My job is to get the job done,” said Thompson. “I enjoyed competition against Noah today… nobody is perfect, but I am working on improving my strengths and improving on my weaknesses. Paris last year was a big learning factor. I learned it is me against myself.” Lyles had to be content with second place in 9.90 seconds as the athletes fine-tune their preparations for the world championships in Tokyo from September 13-21. “It makes me really excited for not only today, but also for next week and Tokyo,” the American said. “The more I run, the better I am getting. I get more excited each day and it is working. I need to keep competing.”
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There was a timely return for Hodgkinson as the 23-year-old Briton showed no sign of the lingering hamstring problems that had sidelined her for months; she clocked 1 minute 54.74 seconds, the fastest in the world this year. “I was just happy to step on the track after more than a year,” Hodgkinson said. “I planned to run a fast time because I don’t have five races anymore before Tokyo, I only have today and the meeting in Lausanne next week. So it had to be fast and I’m happy that it worked.”
Kenya’s serial world record breaker Kipyegon missed out on a long-standing world record in the women’s 3,000m. Six weeks after improving her own world 1,500m record in Eugene, Kipyegon clocked 8:07.04 over the non-Olympic distance, falling just short of the 8:06.11 world record set by China’s Wang Junxia in 1993. “I am so happy. I wanted to run a longer distance,” Kipyegon said. “It is all about Tokyo now, but Tokyo is a championship race, so anything can happen!”
Warholm looked in astonishing form in the 400m hurdles after a two-month training block at home in Norway, timing a world-leading 46.28 seconds. It was the third fastest time ever run over the distance, topped only by the Norwegian’s own world record of 45.94 seconds and American Rai Benjamin’s 46.19 seconds. “That race was great! I had great rhythm and speed throughout,” said Warholm. Dutch star Femke Bol comfortably extended her six-race win streak in the women’s 400m hurdles this year with victory in 51.91 seconds — another world-leading time.
Duplantis, fresh from setting his 13th pole vault world record with 6.29 meters in Budapest on Tuesday, failed to hit those heights but secured victory in 6.10 meters, having failed three attempts at 6.20. World leader Melissa Jefferson-Wooden equalled Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s meet record when she clocked 10.66 seconds for an impressive victory in the women’s 100m. World champion Sha’Carri Richardson could only finish sixth after a troubled few weeks following her arrest for a violent altercation with her partner. Jamaica’s two-time world champion Shericka Jackson claimed the honors in the 200m in 22.17 seconds as she powers back to form.
Cordell Tinch left it late, but the in-form American powered past three-time world champion Grant Holloway for a third victory this season in the 110m hurdles in 13.03 seconds. Olympic champion Masai Russell came out on top of a stacked field in the 100m hurdles in a Diamond League record of 12.19 seconds ahead of American teammate Tonea Marshall. “This win is very important to me because these are the women I’m going to be racing against at the world champs,” said Russell. Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic edged Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser for victory in 49.18 seconds in the women’s 400m, and Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay outpaced Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet for the win in the women’s 1500m in 3:50.62.
© 2024 AFP
