National 3000m steeplechase record holder Avinash Sable finished ninth in the season-ending Diamond League final with a below-par time of 8 minute and 17.09 seconds on Friday. Amos Serem of Kenya won with a time of 8:06.90 ahead of Olympic and World champion Soufiane El Bakkali (8:08.60) of Morocco.
Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis capped a “beautiful season” with a meet record that was far from his world record.
After the Swede had made 5.92m that nobody else could match, he nailed 6.11 at his first attempt and stopped. That was one centimetre more than his own Memorial Van Damme record set last year, and he said he was too tired to continue.
Afterwards, he said his 100-meter victory over 400 hurdles world record-holder Karsten Warholm in Zurich last week took more out of him than expected.
“My legs felt terrible tonight and I’m just really tired,” Duplantis said. “It’s been a crazy couple of weeks: The race against Karsten and then I had to jump the day after. That took a lot more from my body that I expected.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the men’s 1,500 meters in a photo finish. The Norwegian star timed 3:30.07 after a typical last-lap surge ahead of Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, who was barely second in 3:30.93.
Alfred and Blake reign
Olympic champion Julien Alfred’s 100m clash with World champion Sha’Carri Richardson didn’t eventuate. Alfred won in 10.88s. Dina Asher-Smith was second and Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith was third. Richardson was eighth.
Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake won the men’s 100 in 9.93 seconds in a photo finish from Americans Christian Coleman (10.00) and Fred Kerley (10.01), the Olympic bronze medallist.
Australian discus thrower Matthew Denny broke a 40-year-old meet record. His 69.96m was two centimeters longer than the 1984 meet record of Imrich Bugar.
Published - September 15, 2024 01:12 am IST
