Olympic champion Aries Merritt of the US broke the world record in the 110m hurdles, while Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake won their sprints in the final Diamond League meet of the season on Friday.
Merritt clocked 12.80 seconds, beating the mark of 12.87 set in 2008 by Cuban Dayron Robles, achieving a season-long obsession in his last race of the year.
“My vision was, if I did break the world record, to run 12.85. 12.85 is all over my everything. It’s in my e-mail, it’s the password for my phone,” he said.
Photo: AFP
The 27-year-old, who has talked in recent weeks of his desire to break the record, has dominated the event this year, with the most sub-12.95 performances in a single season.
“I was just trying so hard that I thought: ‘I can’t do it,’” he continued, adding he had put the world record out of his mind before Friday’s race.
Merritt, who said he got into hurdling after a friend dared him to jump a fence with the high-school coach watching, said he had one remaining task before packing his bags for home — to change the pass code for his mobile phone.
Triple Olympic champion Bolt, who shattered the 200m meet record at the previous Diamond League event in Zurich, pulled away towards the end of the 100m, crossing the line in 9.86 seconds, which is a modest time for him.
“I told my coach I felt lazy and drained,” Bolt said. “I’m just happy as I’m injury-free.”
Bolt still planned a final night out in Brussels and was due to perform a DJ set in the early hours of yesterday, having splashed out on nine pairs of jeans earlier in the day.
“Partying is different. If you’re tired you can just sit down,” he said, before dancing before the crowd to a post-race Shaggy concert before embarking on a six-week break from athletics.
Compatriot and training partner Blake, who took silver twice behind Bolt in the sprints at this year’s London Olympics and clinched gold in the 4x100m relay, easily won the 200m after establishing a big lead on the bend.
Blake, who set a personal best and equaled the third-fastest time ever in the 100m at the Lausanne meeting last month, won in 19.54 seconds, the third-fastest time this year.
In contrast to Bolt, Blake said he could keep running into next year, although he is to be heading back to Jamaica too — despite his jokey claims that he was not a mere earth human but from “somewhere in space.”
“I feel like I’m just starting. I feel I could go through until next year. I could do anything,” he said at the end of a “great year” with medals at his first Olympics.
“Next year it will be even better,” he promised, adding he too would be joining Bolt at the “Jamaica Party,” though more as a dancer than a DJ.
Earlier on Friday, Kenya’s Emmanuel Kipkemei Bett ran the fastest 10,000m of the season in 26 minutes, 51.16 seconds.
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
The Canterbury Crusaders edged the Waikato Chiefs 16-12 in an intense Super Rugby Pacific final battle in Christchurch yesterday to claim their 15th title in 30 years of the Southern Hemisphere competition. Hooker Codie Taylor scored a try and Rivez Reihana contributed 11 points from the kicking tee as the most dominant team in Super Rugby history extended their perfect home playoff record to 32 successive matches since 1998. The Chiefs, who were looking for a first title since 2013, scored first-half tries through George Dyer and Shaun Stevenson, but were unable to register a point after the break and fell to
RSS