Olympic champion Ruth Jebet broke the women’s 3,000m steeplechase world record by six seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday, while Kendra Harrison won the 100m hurdles without beating her own record.
The 19-year-old Jebet, born in Kenya and running for Bahrain, clocked 8 minutes, 52.78 seconds at the Stade de France.
The previous record was 8:58.81 by Gulnara Samitova-Galkina of Russia at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
“I tried many times to beat the world record,” Jebet said. “I was not expecting such a big difference with the record.”
Jebet’s performance was so dominant that she beat Diamond League rival Hyvin Kiyeng of Kenya by nearly 10 seconds, and Emma Coburn of the US by almost 20 seconds.
Harrison won in 12.44 seconds ahead of US countrywoman Dawn Harper-Nelson (12.65).
“I felt alright, even though I kicked a few hurdles, which made me a bit upset,” Harrison said. “The start wasn’t that great. Now I have a few days off, so I’m really looking forward to Zurich [on Thursday].”
Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers won the 200m in 22.13, and the US’ Natasha Hastings won the 400m in 50.06.
Ben Youssef Meite of the Ivory Coast won the 100m in 9.96 seconds ahead of South African Akani Simbine and Dutchman Churandy Martina.
Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, the Olympic bronze medalist in the 200m, pulled out after feeling a twinge when warming up.
“I didn’t feel well,” Lemaitre said. “There’s no point tempting the devil and getting injured.”
Kenyan Nicholas Bett won the men’s 400m hurdles ahead of the US’ Kerron Clement, while Kenyan Alfred Kipketer won the 800m.
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Kenyan Yomif Kejelcha won the men’s 3,000m in 7:28.19, the fastest time this year.
Olympic silver medalist Renaud Lavillenie of France won the pole vault with an effort of 5.93m, Czech Jakub Vadlejch won the javelin, and the US’ Chris Carter won the triple jump in 16.92m, with Cuban Alexis Copello second in 16.9m.
Tom Walsh of New Zealand just beat Ryan Crouser of the US, the Olympic champion, by 1cm in the shot put.
Britain’s Laura Muir set the leading time this year to win the 1,500m in 3:55.22.
“I couldn’t believe the time, especially since I didn’t do one track session since Rio,” Muir said. “I knew I had to dig in and hold on during the third lap.”
Serbian Ivana Spanovic won the long jump; Spaniard Ruth Beitia won the high jump and Croatian Sandra Perkovic clinched the discus.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier