Kirani James was the star of the evening as he posted the fastest 400m time since 2007 at last night’s Lausanne Diamond League. James was not alone in running a quick time as many of the athletes took full advantage of the evening’s perfect weather conditions to treat fans to another meet full of world leads and personal bests.
Yesterday, James spoke about peaking for the Commonwealths Games, but it would appear that he is already starting to hit top form if his latest run is anything to go by.
Running against his familiar foe and the previous joint world leader, Lashawn Merritt, James left it until the last 50m to power past his rival and taking the race in a personal best time of 43.74. The performance was also a national and Diamond League record as well as his 2nd straight victory over Merritt.
After the race, James spoke about his win and the rivalry between the two athletes: “I’m just happy that I can come out here and put god on this platform, put my country on this platform and be here and put on a performance for my fans.” He added “He’s great, (Merritt) he’s a great competitor very experienced, so you know I have a lot of respect for him as an athlete and more importantly as a person, but It goes for all of the 6 other athletes in the race too, the way I look at it you have to respect them, there are the ones that push us on to being so good.”
In a competition where there are far more contenders for top spot, the high jump, there were once more some top class clearances as Bohdan Bondarenko followed up his victory at the New York Diamond League 2 weeks ago with another 2.40m+ win. Just like then, the Ukrainian also attempted a world record 3 times, again without success. He wasn’t alone in breaking that 2.40 barrier either, as he was joined by compatriot and perhaps surprise runner up, Andriy Protesenko, who jumped a PB 2.40m. Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov rounded off an all-European top 3 by clearing 2.38m to ensure that anticipation ahead of this summer’s Euro Champs increased even further. Also worth noting was Mutaz Barshim in 4th, who despite finishing outside the top 3 managed 2.38, the best ever performance by a 4th place finisher.
Aside from those performances there were also world leads from Caterine Ibarguen in the triple jump (14.87m) and Justin Gatlin with 9.80m as he beat Tyson Gay on his return after his year out serving a drugs ban. Gay said after the race he had maintained his training well during suspension and that he was happy with performance, going on to suggest that he had received a good reception from the fans. :”I’m happy with my time, I’ve been training all year it’s really been tough training, a lot of stress and stuff like that but I’ve made it through… the crowd gave me a great reception”
While Gay may have been making his first appearance of the season in Switzerland, many of the athletes who have started with a bang, continued their impressive early season form. Most notably Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in the 110 metre hurdles, who once more proved too strong for his rivals as he set a new personal best of 13.06 to beat a field that included world champions David Oliver and Jason Richardson to take his Diamond League total to 15 points.
Now even better off their own Diamond League standings with 16 points, are Euenice Sum, Valerie Adams and Renauld Lavillenie after the each recorded comfortable victories.
Sum won the 800m in a season’s best time of 1.58.48 and it now seems almost inevitable that she will crowd an outstanding season with victory at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this month. Her closest rival in the race from the Commonwealth was Great Britain and Scotland’s Lynsey Sharp, in 5th, who benefitted from Sum’s fast front running to go under 2 minutes for the first time. After her run an out of breath but delighted Sharp said: “I actually felt really good, I didn’t really feel like I was dying, it’s strange. It was such a good race, this was an amazing opportunity I didn’t really have to work, I just had to sit in.”
In the 1500m, the race was won by Ronald Kwemboi, 18, another young athlete who could well set the CW games alight in 3 weeks-time, in 3.31:48. The relatively unknown recent Kenyan trials 1500m winner, showed that result was no fluke, as he beat experienced compatriots Silas Kiplagat and James Magut as well as number world and Olympic medallists after breaking away with 100m to go on his Diamond League debut.
Brit Watch:
Greg Rutherford was once again consistent in the Long Jump as he posted four 8.10m+ jumps to finish 2nd. Although he was happy with the regularity of his distances, Rutherford was still left wanting more: “I seem to be jumping 8 metres for fun but, I’ve got to sort out part of my jumps still and then that’s when I’ll start jumping 50’s again.”
Steve Lewis also finished 8th in the men’s Pole Vault.
The best British performance of the evening came outside of Diamond League competition as James Dasaolu cruised to victory in the 100m ‘B’ race in 10:03, his fastest ever season’s opener, following which he said: “’10.03’s my quickest opener so I can’t really complain. I don’t think I got the best of starts, but it’s just great to be back competing again.”
In the other non Diamond League events, Bobby Clay took victory in the Under 20’s 1500m in 4:18.27 with Amy Griffiths 4th, while Desiree Henry was 2nd in the 100m in 11.40seconds. Both Henry and Clay will now be hoping they have done enough to join Griffiths on the plane to the World Junior Championships.
