MONACO, CMC – Dash darling Julien Alfred of St Lucia warmed up for the 2024 Olympic Video games with a assured win, and fellow medal hopeful Thea La Keen on Dominica returned a season’s finest in her pet occasion on the ninth World Athletics Diamond League meet for the 12 months on Friday.
Alfred, 23, gained the ladies’s 100-meter sprint, and world indoor champion La Fond, 30, completed runner-up within the girls’s triple leap on the Louis II Stadium in Monaco, the tiny however glamorous principality on the French Riviera.
Within the penultimate Diamond League cease earlier than the Olympic Video games, which begins on July 26 within the French capital of Paris, Alfred clocked 10.85 seconds. He was barely off her nationwide document of 10.78 set final month in Kingston.
She beat Tamari Davis of america and Dina Asher-Smith of Nice Britain, who each clocked 10.99 for second and third, respectively.
“I like this Monaco crowd and the occasion introduction with the lights,” Alfred mentioned. “I’ll return to follow and deal with my preparations for the Paris.”
La Fond, the one triple jumper to clear 15 meters this 12 months throughout the indoor season, flirted with the space once more. Nonetheless, her finest try was 14.87m within the third spherical of the competitors, the place the highest 4 finishers all posted the season’s finest measurements.
World bronze medallist Leyanis Pérez Hernández of Cuba took the highest spot together with her fifth-round leap of 14.96 after she managed 14.95 within the third spherical.
Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine returned from damage to leap 14.81 within the second spherical and take third place. On the identical time, Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica hit 14.67 within the third spherical for fourth, and compatriot Ackelia Ricketts cleared 14.30 within the fourth spherical to take fifth.
Elsewhere, Malik James King of Jamaica ran below 48 seconds for the second time previously three weeks when he clocked 47.73 seconds within the males’s 400m hurdles – however he nonetheless completed behind the three excellent 400 hurdlers of the period.
The three quickest of all time – reigning Olympic champion and world document holder Karsten Warholm of Norway, reigning world champion Alison Dos Santos of Brazil, and Olympic silver medallist Rai Benjamin of america – gave a style of issues to come back on the Paris Olympics in one other thrilling conflict.
Of their first battle because the Diamond League last final September within the American metropolis of Eugene in Oregon, the trio all went out arduous and appeared evenly matched off the ultimate bend.
However as they stormed down the house straight in a line throughout lanes 5, six, and 7, Warholm after which Benjamin confirmed the best ending power.
Benjamin finally got here off the ultimate hurdle quickest to win the conflict of titans in 46.67, sustaining his win streak from Eugene with Warholm six hundredths-of-a-second behind and Dos Santos coming third in 47.18.
The trio of Warholm, Benjamin, and Dos Santos has now achieved the 17 quickest occasions in males’s 400 hurdles historical past.
Andrew Hudson of Jamaica ran 20.43, and he additionally completed fourth within the males’s 200, which Letsile Tebogo of Botswana gained comfortably with a time of 19.87 to proceed his streak of sub-20 clockings, with Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic coming second in 20.02 and Tarsis Orogot of Uganda taking third in 20.32 seconds.
The ultimate World Athletics Diamond League meet earlier than the Paris Olympics is on Saturday, July 20, on the London Stadium in England.
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