by Mark Cullen/Trackerati.com © 2019 All Rights Reserved
Note: I’m writing from Olympia, WA, where I’m covering the 35th Anniversary Celebration of the 1984 Women’s Olympic Trials Marathon. Joan Benoit Samuelson, Jacqueline Hansen, and Doris Brown Heritage are in attendance, along with many of the competitors who toed the line in 1984.
I’m presenting here an overview of Saturday’s Shanghai Diamond League Meet, along with a link to more
extensive results.
I’ll have much more from the
Marathon Trials commemoration in the coming week.
Diamond League Shanghai
Several events were highly
hyped in the run up to the meet, and not one of them disappointed.
The long-awaited clash
between 400m hurdles superstars Rai Benjamin (US) and Abderrahman Samba (Qat)
found them tied coming off the 7th hurdle, but Samba powered away
from Benjamin over the last two to win 47.27-47.80 and establish a new meet
record.
Sydney McLaughlin’s Diamond
League debut came in the 400m - not her specialty, which is the 400m hurdles.
Nonetheless, she finished a very creditable 2nd to Bahrain’s #1 of 2018,
Salwa Eid Naser.
If anything, the men’s 5000
was overhyped in terms of how fast it might be – it’s May and no one wants to
run 12:44 quite yet – but the competitive showdown between Ethiopian stars Yomif
Kejelcha and Selemon Barega did not disappoint.
Pacer Bram Som was instructed
to take the field through the first kilo in 2:30 and did so in 2:30.2 – late
again! – but the second pacer was not nearly as masterful as Brom and the pace
drifted into the 66 second per lap range. Barega then took the lead, followed
by world cross country champion, Joshua Cheptegai, who took it next.
It was a free for all on the
last lap with Kejelcha and Barega duking it out. Kejelcha, who has been working
on improving his finishing speed, put it on display with an especially
impressive last 50m to take the win. All is not lost for Barega: he’s 19.
There was a huge upset in the
women’s shot put as heavily favored Liu Gong lost to rising star Chase Ealy
(US)), who PRed in 19.58 – much to the disappointment of the hometown crowd. Yu
Wang won the high jump on the countback on home soil at 2.28 with three tied at
that mark. Li Ling scored a notable Asian record for China in the pole vault. The
top 4 all cleared 4.72, and she took 3rd with Greece’s Katerina
Stefanidi and Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou 1-2. Sandi Morris (US) was a notable and
unexpected 4th.
In the men’s 100m, Noah Lyles
(US) caught Christian Coleman (US) at the line after a furious finish over the
last 30m, 9.86-9.86. (That is not a typo). Can you say 4x100m relay?! Not incidentally, this is a personal best for the 200m specialist.
 |
| Noah Lyles at 2018 USATF Championships Photo Credit: USATF |
The women’s 100m featured
Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson (Jam), Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare, and Aleia
Hobbs (US), who had anchored the winning US 4x100m team at World Relays the
week before. Lo and behold, the veterans Okagbare and Thompson finished 2-3 to
Hobbs’ 11.03.
Said Hobbs, "This is my biggest win."
Hobbs was sporting a cast on her wrist after fracturing it while playing laser tag two weeks ago. Note to Hobbs: you just defeated Elaine Thompson and you may play laser tag again in 15 years.
Said Hobbs, "This is my biggest win."
Hobbs was sporting a cast on her wrist after fracturing it while playing laser tag two weeks ago. Note to Hobbs: you just defeated Elaine Thompson and you may play laser tag again in 15 years.
Our favorite spanning the
globe result came in the men’s long jump won by Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle, with
China’s Wang Jianan second, and South Africa’s Ruswahl Samaai third.
Complete results:
https://shanghai.diamondleague.com/en/programme-results/programme-results-shanghai/
No comments:
Post a Comment