Olympic champion Elaine Thompson on Saturday cruised to victory in the 200m at the IAAF Diamond League Anniversary Games in London, as home favorite Laura Muir destroyed the field in the 1500m.
Jamaica’s Thompson, who won a 100m and 200m sprint double at the Rio Olympic Games, claimed victory in a time of 22.13 seconds, with Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast second and Britain’s Beth Dobbin third.
“I’m feeling great to be back in London competing over 200m,” said Thompson, quickest over 100m and 200m this year.
Photo: AFP
“It’s all work in progress. It’s a long season, so I just came out here to perform and enjoy it,” she said.
With US trials for the world championships taking place next week, no US athletes are taking part in the men’s or women’s 100m and 200m at the two-day meeting.
In the men’s 100m, South Africa’s Akani Simbine (9.93 seconds) beat Britain’s Zharnel Hughes into second place in a race in which five runners dipped under 10 seconds.
Former world champion Yohan Blake was third in a time of 9.97 seconds.
Scotland’s Muir won the 1,500m in a time of 3:58.25, seeing off the challenge of Kenya’s Winny Chebet after a blistering final lap.
“There’s huge strength in depth of the fields here, so you can run a world lead at one event and then someone else will do it at the next,” Muir said. “It really helps keep pushing you on. It’s great to have so much competition. My goal now is to win a medal in Doha [this year’s World Championships].”
In a thrilling men’s 5,000m, Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet held off Norwegian teen sensation Jakob Ingebrigtsen during the final lap to squeeze home by just 0.17 seconds.
European champion Ingebrigtsen’s time of 13:02:03 was a new national record.
Aged just 18, Ingebrigsten set the world alight last year by winning double European gold over 1,500m and 5,000m.
Gebrhiwet, the third-quickest over the distance this year, said that he was “pushed all the way to the line” by the young Norwegian.
Ingebrigtsen said: “I was fast over the last kilometer. I’m definitely able to go under 13 minutes. I was hoping for a personal best, but a national record is better.”
Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson won the women’s 400m in a time of 50.69 seconds, while compatriot Danielle Williams won the women’s 100m hurdles in 12.32 seconds, the fastest time of the year so far.
Tatsiana Khaladovich of Belarus won the women’s javelin with a throw of 66.10m, while Anzhelika Sidorova (4.75m), an authorized neutral athlete, won the women’s pole vault.
Portugal’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo (17.53m) beat two-time Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor into second place, while South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga won the men’s long jump with a leap of 8.37m.
Norway’s Karsten Warholm ran the fastest time of the year (47.12 seconds) in the men’s 400m hurdles and Kenya’s Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich won the 800m in 1:43.14.
Jamaica edged Britain to win the women’s 4x100m relay after a stunning final leg from Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
After London, there are to be Diamond League events in Birmingham, England; Paris; Zurich; and Brussels in the lead-up to the World Championships in Doha, which start on Sept. 27.
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