Diamond League: Ta Lou, Lyles and Bol shine in London
World champion Noah Lyles won a sparkling 200 metres as the American’s 19.47 seconds run improved his own fastest time in the world this year by two-tenths.
Published : Jul 23, 2023 22:50 IST - 2 MINS READ
Marie-Josee Ta Lou embraces Dina Asher-Smith after winning the Women’s 100m race during The London Athletics Meet. | Photo Credit: AP
Marie-Josee Ta Lou showed that she will be a force to be reckoned with at the age of 34 at next month’s world championships as she claimed another Diamond League 100 metres win in a scorching 10.75 seconds in London on Sunday.
It was the Ivorian’s third win of the series as she finished powerfully to reel in local favourite Dina Asher-Smith (10.85), with slow-starting Jamaican Shericka Jackson third in 10.94. American champion Sha’Carri Richardson withdrew from the race after an injury scare in her warm-up.
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World champion Noah Lyles won a sparkling 200 metres as the American’s 19.47 seconds run improved his own fastest time in the world this year by two-tenths. Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo was second in an African record 19.50 while Zharnel Hughes, who took the 30-year old British 100m record last month, also erased John Regis’s 1993 200m mark with 19.73.
Dutchwoman Femke Bol showed that she is in the hottest form when she blasted to a European record of 51.45 seconds in the 400m hurdles Only American world record holder (50.68) Sydney McLaughlin has gone faster and Bol, second behind McLaughlin in last year’s world championship and third behind her at the Tokyo Olympics, will be hoping to finally bag global gold in Budapest.
“Amazing. I’ve been wanting to run a 51 ever since Tokyo, I had a feeling I could do it but I still can’t believe I’ve done it,” Bol said. “I hope we can put up a great race at the World Championships and put on a great show.”
Her compatriot Sifan Hassan, who won the London Marathon in April, looked short of race sharpness as Ethiopian world champion Gudaf Tsegay swept past her old rival on the home straight to win the 5,000 metres in a personal best 14 minutes, 12.29 seconds.
South Africa’s world record-holder and 2016 Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk continued his climb back towards his best by winning the 400 metres in 44.36 seconds, just edging American Bryce Deadmon (44.40).
In the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, Kenyan Jackline Chepkoech produced a brilliant personal best of 8:57.35, making her the only athlete to go under nine minutes this year.
Around 50,000 fans created a fabulous atmosphere as the Diamond League returned to London’s Olympic Stadium for the first time since 2019, the biggest Diamond League crowd for five years and the last edition of this year’s series before the world championships in Budapest