Britain’s Amy Hunt, who won a historic four golds at the recent European Athletics Championships, had to be happy with second behind the American Kayla White in the 200m at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday.
White won in 22.18sec, with Hunt holding off Nigeria’s Favour Ofili in a photo-finish at 22.32. Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, the two-time former world champion in the event, pulled up with 70m of the race to run. Hunt said she had been “tired before the race and my pre-competition felt pretty stiff”.
Switzerland’s Audrey Werro clocked a meet best to win the 800m on home soil but fell well short of the world record.
The newly crowned European champion, the third fastest ever in the women’s two-lap race, is aiming to break the 1min 53.28sec run by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia in 1983. It remains the oldest world record in track and field, albeit one that is highly contested having come during a period when systemic doping of athletes was prevalent. Kratochvilova, however, never failed a doping test.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the world and Olympic champion, claimed victory in the men’s 800m in 1:42.19 ahead of Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, the two-time world silver medallist who won bronze at the Paris Games.
Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo dominated the men’s 200m, winning in 19.87 in a dominant display.
In the triple-jump there was no joy for Italy’s Andy Díaz Hernández, who went out to the third longest distance ever, of 18.15m, to win gold at the Euros in Birmingham. He finished third in Switzerland with a best of 17.20m, Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo winning with 17.44.
There were also meeting records for the American Masai Russell in the 100m hurdles (12.27) and for his teammate Rai Benjamin, who has been focused on the 400m flat this season, in the 400m hurdles (46.67), beating Edwin Moses’ mark of 47.14 from 1981.