https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLyi-RyZ1Ls
Middle distance running held the spotlight on the French Riviera, as the world of athletics headed to Monaco for the latest leg of the Diamond League season. The Herculis was the penultimate meet before the stars of track and field head to Tokyo for the Summer Olympics, which this week were confirmed to take place without fans, as the Japanese capital reimposes emergency measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The climax of the night saw Faith Kipyegon, the reigning Olympic champion over 1500 metres, reassert herself as the woman to beat over the distance at the expense of the Dutch superstar Sifan Hassan. Hassan scored a world record last month in the 10,000 metres, and was looking to repeat that sort of form as she arrived in Monaco requesting 61-second laps.
She led the race at the bell, with Kipyegon and Freweyni Hailu giving chase, but on this occasion it was the Kenyan who kicked ahead as the athletes rounded the final bend to face the finishing line. With a demonstration of speed, Kipyegon finished just outside world record time, her winning mark of 3:51.07 the fourth-fastest ever over the distance.
Timothy Cheruiyot continued his return to form over 1500 metres. After finishing fourth at the Kenyan trials last month, leaving his Olympic prospects in doubt, Cheruiyot came through in Monaco with a personal best of 3:28.28, beating out Jakob Ingebrigtsten who was making his return to the track following a bacterial infection. Instead it was the Spaniard Mohamed Katir who finished in second place, setting another national record in what is proving to be a breakthrough season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHE0NNVWTZM
With everything up for grabs over 800 metres, Laura Muir snatched the race by the scruff of the neck. Outkicking her compatriot Jemma Reekie and the American Kate Grace in the straight, the Scot claimed victory in a time of 1:56.73, with the first three competitors all setting new personal bests. Given that Muir took a couple of lateral steps before driving past her opposition, she can no doubt go faster still, though she plans to stick to the 1500 metres at the Tokyo Olympics.
In the men’s race, Nijel Amos rolled back the years to set a world-leading time of 1:42.91. The Botswanan athlete, who won silver back in London in 2012 and is still just 27 years old, appears to be rounding into form after long stretches blighted by injury.
There was high drama and low farce in the steeplechase, as a premature bell prompted a mad dash for the line followed by looks of strained disappointment. When the last lap bell rang out with two laps still to go, Benjamin Kigen kicked hard and thought he had claimed a memorable victory. Instead race officials urged the athletes on, and as the bell rang for a second time, the grief-stricken Kigen effectively stopped running, finishing in seventh place. Instead it was Lamecha Girma who came through in a world-leading time of 8:07.75, as he held off the challenge from Abraham Kibiwot.
The bell played no part as fiasco engulfed the woman’s race, with Hyvin Kiyeng guilty of her own misjudgement. When the Kenyan pulled up at the end of the penultimate lap, Emma Coburn of the United States looked ready to pounce, only to fall headlong at the final water jump. That handed the victory to Kiyeng, who managed to find a second wind to stay ahead of the world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech and Winfred Mutile Yavi, with a soggy Coburn having to settle for fourth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5Z4ggu5iPY
Even a victorious Shanieka Ricketts found fault with the format in the field, as the Jamaican leapt 14.29 in the decisive sixth round to claim victory in the triple jump. The world champion Yulimar Rojas had led after five rounds through a jump of 15.12, but fouled in the winner-takes-all sixth as she continues her push for a new world record. Ricketts celebrated her victory, but said ‘I think the person with the biggest jump should win’.
Orders were also reversed in the long jump, where Miltiadis Tentoglou ousted Tajay Gayle, and in the javelin as the 40-year-old Barbora Å potĆ”kovĆ” edged ahead of Christin Hussong and Maria Andrejczyk. In the high jump, Mikhail Akimenko was the only man clear at 2.32, with Ilya Ivanyuk and Gianmarco Tamberi going out in the early stages. And in the pole vault, Katie Nageotte cleared 4.90 at the first time of asking to pile the pressure on Anzhelika Sidorova and Katerina Stefanidi.
After scoring a huge personal best of 4.95 at the American trials, Nageotte is establishing herself as the favourite in the pole vault heading into the Olympics. But the discipline can be perilous: her fellow American Sandi Morris only managed sixth in Monaco, competing on equipment borrowed from Renaud Lavillenie after her own poles were left stranded on the tarmac at Newark Airport.
That left the sprints, which in Monaco played a rare second fiddle. Karsten Warholm couldn’t quite replicate his heroics from Oslo, where his time of 46.70 in the 400 metre hurdles broke a world record set all the way back in 1992. But the Norwegian still managed to ease to a new meeting record, easing ahead of Alison dos Santos to come home in a time of 47.08.
In a stacked 100 metres, the in-form Ronnie Baker prevailed with little to separate Akani Simbine, Marcell Jacobs, Andre De Grasse, and Trayvon Bromell who stretched from second to fifth. In the 200 metres a late surge from Shaunae Miller-Uibo saw her pip Marie-JosƩe Ta Lou on the line, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in third place.
But the fast times in the sprints had arrived earlier in the week, at the Gyulai IstvƔn Memorial in Hungary. With all eyes on Fraser-Pryce following a couple of huge personal bests and her dominance at the Jamaican trials, instead it was Elaine Thompson Herah who found form over 100 metres. Still the reigning Olympic champion over 100 and 200 metres, Thompson Herah stormed past Fraser-Pryce for a winning time of 10.71, just short of her own personal best while equalling her winning time from 2016 in Rio.
The Jamaican sensation Shericka Jackson, who also set a couple of new personal bests in Kingston, held off Shaunae Miller-Uibo over 200 metres in the Hungarian city of SzƩkesfehƩrvƔr, once more dipping under 22 seconds. And Stephenie Ann McPherson made it a Jamaican triple in the flats, as she crept under 50 seconds to take the 400 metres.
In the men’s sprints, Akani Simbine demolished the field over 100 metres. The only man to run under 10 seconds, his winning time of 9.84 marked a new area record for the sprightly South African. Andre De Grasse edged out Kenny Bednarek in the 200 metres, with Steven Gardiner excelling over one full lap of the track.
The preeminent Puerto Rican Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, already the world leader in the 100 metre hurdles, set another fast winning time of 12.34. Grant Holloway topped Orlando Ortega, Sergey Shubenkov, and Ronald Levy in the 110 metre hurdles. But the hurdling performance of the night came courtesy of the Dutch starlet Femke Bol, who went under 53 seconds for the second time in a matter of days to fend off the challenge from Shamier Little.
Meeting records fell thick and fast out in the field at the Gyulai IstvĆ”n Memorial. Liveta JasiÅ«naitÄ threw 62.73 in the sixth round to snatch a last-gasp victory in the javelin, while the former world champion Tom Walsh sunk a throw of 22.22 in the shot. The hammer contests were won by the young Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kokhan and the two-time Olympic champion Anita WÅodarczyk. Meanwhile Daniel StĆ„hl continued to dominate the discus, and Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk handed over a crisp card in the long jump.
The triple jump is shaping up to be one of the most fiercely contested disciplines in Tokyo, a straight shootout between Pedro Pichardo and Hugues Fabrice Zango. In Hungary, Pichardo pressed ahead with a winning hop, skip, and jump of 17.92 as both competitors set new season’s bests. And in the high jump, Maksim Nedasekau set the bar, climbing higher than Ilya Ivanyuk and Mikhail Akimenko to tie the world lead at 2.37.
Athletics now turns back towards Gateshead, with the final Diamond League session before the Olympic Games scheduled for the International Stadium on Tuesday night.
