Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt outsprinted fellow Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade and the US’ Justin Gatlin to win the 100m at the Zurich Diamond League meeting on Thursday.
Bolt, running into a slight headwind, made his customary sluggish start before accelerating away from the field to win in 9.90 seconds.
Ashmeade was second in 9.94, with former Olympic and world champion Gatlin two hundredths of a second further back. Gatlin finished second behind Bolt at this month’s Moscow world championships.
Another Jamaican, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who became the first woman to sweep the world 100m, 200m and 4x100m sprint titles in Moscow, won the 200m in 22.40 seconds.
Fifteen Diamond Race trophies were awarded, along with the US$40,000 first prize accompanying them, before a capacity crowd of 26,000.
The US’ world champion LaShawn Merritt defeated Grenada’s 2011 world gold medalist Kirani James in the men’s 400m to add US$40,000 to his bank balance.
Meseret Defar won the battle of the Ethiopians in the women’s 5,000m, beating compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba to the finish in 14 minutes, 32.83 seconds.
Dibaba took the 10,000m gold medal in Moscow, but opted out of the 5,000m, which Defar won with ease.
On Thursday, Dibaba took the lead with 600m to run, only to see Defar ease past her on the final bend.
Ukrainian world high jump champion Bohdan Bondarenko, who has been edging closer this season to Javier Sotomayor’s world record of 2.45m, which has stood since 1993, failed with an attempt on the Cuban’s mark after winning the event on a countback with 2.33m.
New Zealand’s world and Olympic champion Valerie Adams won the women’s shot put, which was staged in the city’s main railway station on Wednesday.
Adams set a meeting record and a year’s personal best of 20.98m.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
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