Consistency at end of season pays off
Camacho-Quinn wins Diamond League Final with fifth consecutive sub-12.40 clocking
Jasmin Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico did not have one of the top dozen times in the world this year in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. But when it came to competing well during the last two months of the season, she was incredibly consistent.
In an event in which four of the top five finishers in the Olympic Games in Paris — aside from Camacho-Quinn — won a combined 16 races between them during the outdoor season, bronze medalist Camacho-Quinn won 10 finals, including six of her last seven.
Her latest victory came in the Diamond League Final in Brussels on Saturday when she ran 12.38 seconds to dominate a race in which Nadine Visser of the Netherlands placed second in 12.54, Ackera Nugent of Jamaica finished third in 12.55, and Grace Stark of the U.S. crossed the line in fourth in 12.59. In addition, Olympic silver medalist Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France placed seventh in 12.78.
Nugent’s yearly world-leading time of 12.24 seconds was more than a tenth of the second faster than Camacho-Quinn’s season best of 12.35 and the Jamaican also had clockings of 12.28. 12.29, and 12.30.
Stark, the fifth-place finisher in the Olympics, ran a personal best of 12.31 when she placed second to Masai Russell in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Eugene, Oregon, on June 30 and Samba-Mayela ran the same time when she won the European Athletics title in Rome on June 8.
Yet all of them finished well back of Camacho-Quinn in the race in the Memorial van Damme meet at King Baudouin Stadium on Saturday that marked an end to the Diamond League season that began on April 20 with a meet in Xiamen, China.
According to stats on the meet website, Camacho-Quinn was in sixth place after the first two flights of hurdles in the race, but she had moved into a tie for third by the fourth hurdle and she was in the lead at the fifth.
Camacho-Quinn, the 2021 Olympic champion in Tokyo, was two hundredths of a second ahead of Nugent and Visser at the seventh hurdle. But her lead had grown to .16 and .17 seconds over Visser and Nugent, respectively, when she crossed the finish line with her fifth-fastest time of the season.
Counting the semifinals of the Olympic Games, Camacho-Quinn had run 12.35 twice and 12.36 twice in her four most recent races prior to Saturday.
“Performance wise it was a bit sloppy today, but it’s really cold,” Camacho-Quinn said in quotes on the meet website. “I did the best I could and I was able to win, so I finally have that trophy.
“I got bronze in Paris, but I wasn’t satisfied with that. I almost false started there and when I realized that, I held back a little bit and then the gun went off. Something that minor cost me the gold medal. It was difficult to accept, because I was in great shape and I was ready to make history and to win my second gold medal at the Olympics, but it is what it is and I cannot go back and change it. Now I’m just looking forward.”
Visser, who lowered the Dutch record from 12.51 to 12.36 during the course of the year, said it was nice to end her season with a high finish against a strong field.
“My body was telling me these last couple of days that it needs some rest,” she said. “I encouraged myself to hold on a little longer for this last race. I knew that my standard level was something like the result of today and that I could go a bit faster if I pushed a little harder in training and have a good rest after the Zürich Diamond League. But my body said no.”
While Camacho-Quinn won her first Diamond League title in the women’s portion of the meet, Faith Kipyegon of Kenya won her fifth championship in the 1,500 meters during a night in which compatriots Beatrice Chebet and Faith Cherotich also placed first in the 5,000 and 3,000 steeplechase, respectively.
Those victories came a day after fellow Kenyan Mary Moraa won the 800.
Kipyegon had lowered her world record in the 1,500 to 3 minutes 49.04 seconds earlier in the season, but her main goal on Saturday was to better the meet record of 3:55.33 that had been set by Sureyya Ayhan-Kop of Turkey in 2003.
After pacesetter Vivian Kiprotich of Kenya came through 400 meters in 61.84 and 800 in 2:04.63, Kipyegon was in first place when she came through three laps in 3:11.06. Ethiopians Diribe Welteji and Freweyni Hailu, and Australian Jessica Hull were not far behind the three-time Olympic champion at that point, but the race for first place had turned into a duel between Kipyegon and Welteji as they entered the home straightaway.
The Ethiopian closed well, but she could not keep pace with the Kenyan as Kipyegon crossed the finish line in a meet record of 3:54.75, followed by Welteji at 3:55.25. Olympic silver medalist Hull finished third in 3:56.99 and Hailu placed fourth in 3:57.26.
“The world record was not on my mind today,” Kipyegon said. “My goal was to finish my Diamond League season in a good way and I did. It was a good race, but definitely not an easy one. It was a bit cold to run 61 seconds in the first lap and 62 seconds for the next lap. I tried to be myself and focus on the finish line.”
Chebet won the 5,000 in a meet record of 14:09.82, with second-place Medina Eisa of Ethiopia setting a world U20 record of 14:21.89.
Chebet’s performance came nine days after she had run a yearly world-leading time of 14:09.52 in the Weltklasse meet in Zurich.
She had started that race with a goal of breaking the world record of 14:00.21 set by Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia last year. Her plans were not as ambitious in Brussels, yet her final time was only three tenths of a second slower and the eighth-fastest performance in history.
After following pacesetter Eleanor Fulton of the U.S. through the first kilometer in 2:52.36, Chebet was in the lead when she came through two kilometers in 5:41.27. She then proceeded to produce splits of 2:49.82, 2:50.97, and 2:47.76 for her final three kilometers of the race while cutting more than nine seconds off the previous meet record of 14:18.89 set by Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia in 2016.
In addition to Eisa in second place, Ethiopian Foyten Tesfay finished third in a personal best of 14:28.53 and compatriot Ejgayehu Taye was fourth in 14:29.70.
The steeplechase had been billed as a rematch between Winfred Yavi of Bahrain and Faith Chemutai of Uganda, the gold and silver medalists in the Olympic Games and the runners who had clocked 8:44.39 and 8:48.03, the second- and third-fastest times in history, in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome on August 30.
However, 20-year-old Cherotich upset the form charts when she placed first in 9:02.36 while finishing in front of second-place Yavi in 9:02.87 and third-place Chemutai in 9:07.60.
Pacesetter Olivia Gurth of Germany had come through the first kilometer in 2:55.43, but the pace slowed significantly in the second kilometer as Cherotich led at 2,000 meters in 6:00.14.
Chemutai was in the lead for most of the ensuing 700 meters, but Cherotich was in first place entering the final curve and she repelled Yavi’s vaunted kicked in the final straightaway after having finish third in both the Olympic Games and the Golden Gala meet.
“I didn’t expect to win today, but I think that I ran a good race,” Cherotich said. “It wasn’t easy, but I kept saying to myself that, if I’m still in the lead after the last water jump, I was going to win.
“Winning the Diamond League means a lot to me.”
In the two other track events contested in the women’s meet on Saturday, Femke Bol of the Netherlands won the 400 hurdles and Brittany Brown of the U.S. placed first in the 200.
The field event winners were Nina Kennedy of Australia in the pole vault, Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan in the javelin, and Larissa Iapichino of Italy in the long jump.
Bol ran 52.45 seconds to win the 400 hurdles by more than a second as Anna Cockrell of the U.S. placed second in 53.71 and Shiann Salmon of Jamaica finished third in 53.99.
Cockrell had run a personal best of 51.87 while winning the silver medal in Paris ahead of bronze medalist Bol, who clocked 52.15. But the Dutchwoman pulled away from everyone during the final 120 meters of the race in the Memorial van Damme.
Brown, another Olympic bronze medalist, won the 200 in 22.20 while finishing well clear of second-place Daryll Neita of Great Britain in 22.45. Anavia Battle of the U.S. placed third in 22.61.
Brown had finished a scant two hundredths of a second in front of Neita in the Olympics, but she picked up a lot of ground on the Brit in the home straightaway in Brussels after coming off the turn with a small lead.
Olympic gold medalist Kennedy cleared 4.88 meters (16 feet) in winning her eighth consecutive meet in the pole vault.
Sandi Morris of the U.S., Alysha Newman of Canada, and Molly Caudery of Great Britain all cleared 4.80 (15-9), but Morris placed second because she made that height on her first attempt while it took Newman and Caudery two tries.
Olympic bronze medalist Newman was awarded third place ahead of World indoor champion Caudery because she had fewer total misses during the competition.
Kennedy was in second place behind Morris after it took her two tries to clear 4.80, but she regained the lead when she made 4.88 on her first try and won the competition when Morris, Newman, and Caudery missed all three of their attempts at that height.
She then missed three times at 4.95 (16-2 ¾).
Olympic champion Kitaguchi won the javelin on the final throw of the competition with a mark of 66.13 (216-11). Adriana Vilagos of Serbia finished second at 65.23 (214-0), followed by Maggie Malone-Hardin of the U.S. at 62.40 (204-8).
Kitaguchi, who had also won last year’s World Championships on her final throw, led for most of the competition on Saturday after registering a mark of 65.08 (213-6) in the second round.
However, Vilagos took the lead with a throw of 65.23 (214-0) on her final attempt before Kitaguchi responded with her clutch effort.
Iapichino, who finished fourth in the Olympics, won the long jump with a best of 6.80 (22-3¾) and she also had a leap of 6.77 (22-2½) that would have been far enough to win.
Monae Nichols of the U.S., the runner-up in the World indoor championships, finished second at 6.68 (21-11). She was followed by compatriot and Olympic bronze medalist Jasmine Moore at 6.61 (21-8¼).
You can click here for complete results for the meet.