Nuguse motors on in Zurich
Olympic bronze medalist outkicks Ingebrigtsen in highly-anticipated 1,500
Yared Nuguse of the U.S. snapped a five-meet winless streak in convincing fashion when he won a highly ballyhooed men’s 1,500-meter race in the Weltklasse Diamond League meet in Zurich last Thursday after pulling away from Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway in the final 40 meters of the contest.
Nuguse had passed a fading Ingebrigtsen in the final 20 meters of the 1,500 in the Olympic Games in Paris to garner the bronze medal, but the Norwegian had bounced back to win the gold medal in the 5,000 four days later on August 10 and then ran 3:27.83 to win the 1,500 in the Athletissima meet in Lausanne on August 22 when he finished more than two seconds in front of Olympic gold medalist Cole Hocker of the U.S.
He followed that with a scintillating performance in the 3,000 three days later when he took more than three seconds off the world record with a 7:17.55 clocking in the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Chorzow, Poland.
In contrast, Nuguse’s only race since the Olympic final on August 6 had been a road mile in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Sept. 1 when he ran 3:51.9 to place second to Elliot Giles of Great Britain, who clocked 3:51.3.
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Although Giles’ time was a world record for a mile on the road, it should be noted that World Athletics has only been keeping an official record for the event since April of last year. In addition, a 3:51 mile at this stage of the season is nothing extraordinary when one considers that Ingebrigtsen and Nuguse had run 3:43.73 and 3:43.97, respectively, in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, last September, and that Josh Kerr of Great Britain had run a British record of 3:45.34 in this year’s Prefontaine meet in May while defeating second-place Ingebrigtsen, who ran 3:45.60, and third-place Nuguse, who clocked 3:46.22.
Most experts had expected reigning World champion Kerr and defending Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen to battle for the gold medal in Paris, but Hocker and Nuguse blew up a lot of form charts with their 1-3 finish in a race in which Kerr narrowly held off Nuguse for the silver medal.
All four runners were in the race in Zurich, but the final 300 meters turned out to be a two-runner duel between the 23-year-old Ingebrigtsen and the 25-year-old Nuguse.
Ingebrigtsen ran in third place behind pacesetters Zan Rudolf of Slovenia and Giles for the first 800 meters of the contest and he was in second place behind Giles before the Brit dropped out with about 370 meters left in the race.
The Norwegian then led the field through 1,200 meters in 2:48.07. Nuguse was a stride back of him that point in the race, but there was a gap of three to four meters to Kerr, who was being closely followed by Hocker and 19-year-old Niels Laros of the Netherlands.
Hocker had overtaken Kerr heading into the final curve, but Ingebrigtsen and Nuguse were six or seven meters ahead of him and he never drew close enough to them to figure in the battle for first place.
Instead, Nuguse moved to the outside of Ingebrigtsen’s right shoulder entering the home straightaway and began to gradually make up ground on him. The two of them ran together for about 20 meters at one point before Nuguse began to pull in front with about 40 meters left in the race.
He smiled broadly and pumped his right fist in the air as he crossed the finish line in 3:29.21, followed by Ingebrigtsen in 3:29.52. Hocker finished third in 3:30.46, with Laros fourth in 3:31.23 and Kerr in fifth in 3:31.46.
“This race was so highly anticipated and I knew that it was going to be quick in the end,” Nuguse said in quotes on the meet website. “Everyone could have got this race. I am glad I was still able to win. From the beginning, I just tried… not to do any wrong move and to be where I wanted to be. And then you need to be ready for the end.”
Ingebrigtsen had said before the race that he wasn’t at full strength after dealing with an illness following his world record in the 3,000, but he was still glad he ran.
“It was worth it to come here and race,” he said. “But one more week of recovery would have been better for me and given me more stimulation. Everything is about experience. My gut feeling is always right. With how I felt yesterday, today's race wouldn't have been so fast.”
Three of four to meet again: Kerr concluded his season with a course-record win in the 5th Avenue Mile in New York City on Sunday, but Hocker, Nuguse, and Ingebrigtsen will renew their competitive rivalries tomorrow when they will compete in the men’s 1,500 meters on the first day of the two-day Diamond League Final that will be staged in the Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels.
While Ingebrigtsen has won the last three Diamond League titles in the 1,500 meters/mile, Hocker and Nuguse will be shooting for their first championship. And if Nuguse beats Ingebrigtsen, it will mark the first time since 2019 that a runner has defeated the Norwegian in three consecutive races in the same season.
Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya beat Ingebrigtsen in five 1,500-meter races in a row during the 2019 season, with his final victory coming in the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, when he placed first and the 19-year-old Ingebrigtsen finished fourth.
Making an impact: Nuguse is only in his second full season as a professional runner, but he currently sits in the No. 9 position on the all-time performer list in the 1,500 meters with a best of 3:27.80 and he is fourth in the mile at 3:43.97. In addition, he has run the second- and third-fastest times in history in the indoor mile with efforts of 3:47.38 and 3:47.83.
Not bad for a runner who had personal bests of 3:33.26 in the 1,500 and 3:53.34 in the mile at the start of last year.
Cutting it close: Letsile Tebogo of Botswana won his third consecutive 200-meter race since winning the Olympic title when he ran 19.55 seconds in the Weltklasse meet, but he did not pass Kenny Bednarek of the U.S. until the last four or five meters of the contest.
Tebogo trailed Olympic silver medalist Bednarek and fellow American Erriyon Knighton coming out of the turn, but he worked his way past Knighton midway down the home straightaway before passing Bednarek at the very end of the race.
The 21-year-old Botswanan’s time was the third fastest of his career, while Bednarek’s 19.57 was his third personal best of the season and moved him into a tie for eighth on the all-time performer list.
Knighton finished third in 19.79 and he was followed by compatriot Fred Kerley in 19.81 and the Dominican Republic’s Alexander Ogando in 19.87.
Tebogo had set an African record of 19.46 while winning the Olympic title, but he led that race as he entered the straightaway.
“What was different [between this race and the Olympics] was the curve,” he said in quotes on the meet website. “Today, I didn't run the curve, I only ran the home straight - but with the Olympic final I ran throughout the whole race.”
After capping the Olympics with a scintillating 43.04-second anchor leg for Botswana’s silver-medal winning team in the 4 x 400-meter relay, Tebogo had run 19.64 and 19.83 in winning a pair of Diamond League races in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 22 and Chorzow, Poland, on August 25.
He then clocked 9.87 to win the 100 in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome on August 30 when he got off to one of the best starts of his career before easing up in the final three or four strides of the race while defeating a field that included second-place Christian Coleman of U.S. in 9.92 and third-place Kerley in 9.95.
The ease with which he ran that time led him to talk about doing something really special in the 200 in Zurich, but his mediocre curve prevented that from happening. Nonetheless he seemed confident about rectifying things when he competes in the 200 on the second day of the Diamond League final on Saturday.
“That is something I will do… because there is still more inside me,” he said. “I mean, it's all about taking risks. Without risks there is no rewards, so I am taking all the risks that I have got. As long as I finish the season healthy, then I am good to go.”
Strengthening his resume: With an Olympic gold and silver medal to his credit, as well as three consecutive World titles, Grant Holloway of the U.S. entered the Weltklasse meet as one of the most decorated performers in history in the men’s 110-meter high hurdles. But he added to his accolades when his winning time of 12.99 seconds in that event gave him his career-high sixth sub-13 clocking in the event this season.
Perhaps more importantly, it was 12th time he had dipped under 13.00 during his career, the most ever.
In addition to his prowess in the highs, the 26-year-old Holloway is a historian of the event and a stat guy. And as recently as the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June, he told NBC Sports’ Ato Boldon that fellow American Allen Johnson, the 1996 Olympic champion and a four-time World champion, was the greatest high hurdler in history, no questions asked.
Johnson is the hurdler that Holloway surpassed with his 12th sub-13 clocking.
Interestingly, the race was not typical for Holloway as compatriot and Olympic silver medalist Daniel Roberts beat him out of the blocks and was in the lead over the first hurdle. But Holloway recovered nicely and had taken the lead by the third hurdle and he continued to widen his advantage until about the eighth set of barriers.
Sasha Zhoya of France, who was running four lanes to the left of Holloway, began to make some ground on the American at that point in the race, but he finished .11 seconds behind him when he crossed the finish line in a personal best of 13.10. Freddie Crittenden of the U.S. placed third in 13.15, followed by 2021 Olympic champion Hansel Parchment of Jamaica and Roberts, who each ran 13.18.
“I did not react well to the gun but that is track and field so I had to accelerate in the finish,” Holloway said in quotes on the meet website. “The main thing for me was to run the most sub 13 and I did that so it is surreal. Nobody had ever done that many sub 13, ever. And now, I am on the top of that list so I am pleased.
“That was something I wanted to accomplish this season. I just kept trying and trying and trying for so long. So to run 12.99 just feels great.”
Effort was there: After becoming the first woman in history to break 29 minutes in the 10,000 meters in May, Beatrice Chebet of Kenya fell short in her bid to be the first female to dip under 14 minutes in the 5,000 in the Weltklasse meet.
The race was set up to give Chebet an opportunity at breaking the world record of 14:00.21 set by Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in the Prefontaine Classic last September.
In order do that, Katie Snowden of Great Britain was given the task of coming through 1,000 meters in 2:48.00 and 2,000 meters in 5:37.00 before fellow pacesetter Georgia Griffith of Australia would lead the race through 3,000 meters in 8:25.00, which was just off her personal best of 8:24.20 set earlier this season.
Snowden was very close to the desired pace when she came through the first kilometer in 2:48.23, but she was unable to maintain that tempo through 2,000 meters and it was Griffth who passed two kilometers in 5:37.17.
Unfortunately, she could not maintain that pace for much longer and Chebet found herself in the lead, with no one left to push her, with seven laps left in the race.
The 24-year-old Chebet, the Olympic champion in the 5,000 and 10,000, was still very close to world record pace when she came through 3,000 meters in 8:25.72, but she began to fall off the desired tempo not long after that and her split of 11:19.16 at 4,000 meters was five to six seconds slower than where she had hoped to be.
Although she continued to lose ground to the pace lights on the inside railing of track during the last kilometer of the race, her final time of 14:09.52 was a meet record, the fastest in the world this year, the second fastest of her career, and the seventh fastest ever run.
Ethiopians Ejgayehu Taye and Tsigie Gebreselama finished second and third, respectively, with times of 14:28.76 and 14:39.05.
“I really wanted to run the world record, but I missed it, this is due to the weather,” Chebet said in quotes on the meet website. “And the pacemaker was supposed to pace until 3000m. But she dropped from earlier. I used a lot of energy to push. It wasn't easy.”
Bouncing back: Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. defeated Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia for the second time in three 100-meter races this season when she won the event in 10.84 seconds in the Weltklasse meet.
The 24-year-old Richardson had finished a well-beaten second behind Alfred’s national record of 10.72 in the Olympic Games while racing in the rain, but she was victorious in the rematch in Zurich.
A much better start played a big role in the turnaround.
Alfred held a significant lead over Richardson after the first 30 meters in the Olympic final, but Richardson was never far behind her this time around.
Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain had gotten off to a terrific start, but Richardson began to close in on her at the midway point of the race.
According to stats on the meet website, Asher-Smith was six hundredths of a second ahead of Richardson at 60 meters, but her lead had been reduced to .03 seconds at 80 meters and she was hundredth of a second behind the hard-charging American 10 meters later.
Richardson’s time of 10.84 left her comfortably ahead of second-place Alfred, who ran 10.88, and third-place Asher-Smith, who clocked 10.89.
Another strong performance: Mary Moraa of Kenya ran her second-fastest time of the season when she won the women’s 800 meters in 1:57.08 in the Weltklasse meet, but the decisiveness of her victory was particular impressive as she finished well ahead of second-place Georgia Bell of Great Britain, who ran 1:57.94, third-place Addy Wiley of the U.S., who clocked 1:58.16, and fourth-place Jemma Reekie of Great Britain, who timed 1:58.49.
That trio had lowered their respective personal bests to 1:56.28, 1:56.83, and 1:55.61 within the last two months, but they were unable to keep pace with Moraa over the last 150 meters of the race in Zurich.
The Kenyan, who set a world best of 1:21.63 for 600 meters in the ISTAF meet on in Berlin on Sept. 1, trailed Shafiqua Maloney of Saint Vincent and Wiley heading down the backstretch on the second lap. But she surged into the lead heading into the final curve and had a two-stride advantage over second-place Wiley entering the home straightaway.
Bell was in sixth place with 200 meters left in the race, but the Olympic bronze medalist in the 1,500 closed better than anyone, except for Moraa, in the home straightaway.
Consistency personified: Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico will be looking for her 10th victory of the season when she toes the starting line for the women’s 100-meter hurdles in the Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels on Saturday.
Camacho-Quinn’s latest victory came in the Weltklasse meet when she won a race that included the top five finishers from the Olympic Games.
Following a false start by Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland, reigning World champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica led the getaway on the second try. But Olympic bronze medalist Camacho-Quinn had taken the lead by the fifth flight of hurdles and she never trailed again as she crossed the finish line in 12.36 seconds, followed by Olympic silver medalist Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France in 12.40 and Olympic champion Masai Russell of the U.S. in 12.47.
Grace Stark of the U.S. finished fourth in 12.49, followed by Nadine Visser of the Netherlands in 12.54.
The win gave Camacho-Quinn a 4-0 record in Diamond League races this season and it was her fifth victory in the last six finals she has run.
It also marked the fourth consecutive race — counting her semifinal performance in the Olympic Games — that she has clocked 12.35 or 12.36.
Entertaining clash: In a 100-meter match race that received plenty of pre-meet publicity, Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, the world record-holder in the men’s pole vault, defeated Karsten Warholm of Norway, the world record-holder in the men’s intermediate hurdles, when he ran 10.37 seconds in the event that was held on Sept. 4 as part of the Weltklasse meet festivities in Zurich.
After finishing second in 10.47, Warholm was required to wear a Swedish kit when he ran in the intermediate hurdles in the meet the following day. But that never happened as he said he “felt” his hamstring after the 100 and was unable to sprint properly during his warm-up for the intermediates.
Duplantis won the pole vault when he cleared 5.82 (19-1), but he admitted that the cool, wet conditions, as well as his body feeling “wrecked after yesterday’s race” factored into his inability to clear a minimum of 6.00 (19-8¼) for the first time in 10 meets during the outdoor season.
Nonetheless, he was glad to have taken part in the race against Warholm.
“The sprint yesterday was very impressive,” he said in quotes on the meet website. “For both of us it was a great experience. It was super amazing. I think we built a super event, it was very new and innovative. And for just being a pre-event show for today. I do not see why there could not be more events like this.”
Finding his groove: This had been anything but a normal year for shot putter Ryan Crouser as elbow surgery and other physical ailments led to him opening his outdoor season at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in late June and entering the Olympic Games in Paris with only two competitions under his belt.
Nonetheless, he won an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic title in the event and had won three consecutive meets entering this week week since he finished second in his first competition after the Games.
He raised his season best to 22.93 (75-2¾) on the second day of the three-day Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, last Saturday.
In the process, he won a high-quality affair in which Payton Otterdahl of the U.S. finished second at 22.46 (73-8¼), Olympic bronze medalist Rajindra Campbell of Jamaica placed third at 22.31 (73-2½), and Leonardo Fabbri of Italy was fourth at 22.24 (72-11¾).
Otterdahl’s mark was the best outdoor performance of his career and Campbell’s bettered the Jamaican record of 22.22 (72-10¾) that he had set last year.
The 31-year-old Crouser had taken the lead with a 22.36 (73-4½) put in the first round, but Otterdahl had moved past him with a 22.40 (73-6) effort in the fourth round.
World record-holder Crouser responded with a 22.90 (75-1¾) put on his fourth attempt before hitting 22.58 (74-1) on his fifth and 22.93 (75-2¾) on his sixth. Otterdahl produced his 22.46 (73-8¼) best in the fifth round.
“It was a fantastic competition,” Crouser said in quotes in a World Athletics post. “I always love coming to Zagreb and I think that this one topped the list. Not just on performance, but the atmosphere and the energy tonight. You can see it with all the athletes – 22.24m didn't even make the podium, that's a crazy result. I am glad that everyone performed that well here.
“My first round throw of 22.36m usually is enough for the win, especially that late in the season. It helped having those guys to push me to farther distances. I am still on less than 10 competitions this year, so it still feels like I am finding my shape.
Superlative stats: Including his performance in Zagreb, Crouser now has 26 puts of 22.90 (75-1¾) or farther during his career.
Six other men have combined to produce 14 puts of 22.90 or farther in the event’s history.
American Joe Kovacs, the runner-up to Crouser in the last three Olympic Games, has the second most puts of 22.90 or farther with six.
Easier said than done: Based on his comments heading into the race, Marco Arop of Canada seemed very confident of lowering the world record in the men’s 1,000 meters in the Hanzekovic Memorial on Sunday.
However, his winning time of 2:13.13 was more than a second slower than the world record of 2:11.96 that had been set by Noah Ngeny of Kenya in 1999.
Arop’s optimistic thinking was not unfounded as he had run 1:41.20, 1:41.72, and 1:41.86 in his three previous 800-meter races, with the 1:41.20 clocking giving him the Olympic silver medal and moving him to fourth on the all-time performer list.
When the first of two pacesetters went through the first 400 meters in 51.72 seconds in Zagreb, Arop was well back of him while running in third place. He was in second place when the second pacesetter came through 600 meters in 1:18.79 and he was in first when he clocked 1:43.94 at 800.
A final 200 in 28.01 seconds or faster would have given him the world record, but he covered the last fifth of the race in 29.19 for his winning mark of 2:13.13. He was followed by Jonah Koech of the U.S. in 2:15.15 and Stefan Nillessen of the Netherlands in 2:15.78.
Arop’s time moved him to fifth on the all-time performer list, bettered his Canadian record of 2:14.35 set in 2022, and broke the North American record of 2:13.9 that had been set by Rick Wohlhuter of the U.S. in 1974, the year for which he was selected as the male athlete of the year by Track & Field News.
“I felt good,” Arop said. “I think to beat the world record I need to be more aggressive early on, but there was just too much room to make up for. Overall, it was a big season with a personal best, an Olympic medal and a lot of Diamond League wins. In Brussels (Diamond League final) I would like to go after the world record (in the 800m), but the conditions have to be ideal.”
The world record of 1:40.91 in the 800 was set by David Rudisha of Kenya in the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Winning streak continues: Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the U.S. won her 14th consecutive meet in the women’s discus when she had the top three throws of the competition in the Hanzekovic Memorial.
Competing in her first meet since winning her second consecutive title in the Olympic Games in Paris, the 29-year-old Allman had a top throw of 67.83 (222-6) and she also had efforts of 67.74 (222-3) and 67.45 (221-3) that would have been good enough to win the competition.
Olympic bronze medalist Sandra Elkasevic of Croatia placed second at 67.12 (220-2), followed by Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands at 64.49 (211-7).
The victory was the 10th of the year without a loss for Allman, whose last defeat occurred in last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, when she won the silver medal behind U.S. teammate Lagi Tausaga, who improved her personal best by more than four meters during the course of the final.
Winning streak ends: Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg’s 14-meet winning streak in the men’s hammer throw came to an end in the Hanzekovic Memorial.
That’s when the 22-year-old Canadian placed third behind Olympic bronze medalist Myhaylo Kokan of Ukraine and five-time World champion Pawel Fajdek of Poland.
Kokan won the event with a personal best of 81.14 (266-2), followed by Fajdek at 79.10 (259-6) and Katzberg at 79.04 (259-4).
It was the first loss in 12 meets this season for Katzberg and his first defeat overall since he placed second in the Czelaw Cybulski Memorial in Poznan, Poland, in June of last year.
The defending World champion had thrown more than 80 meters (262-5) in 11 of 14 meets during his win streak, topped by a North American record of 84.38 (276-10) in the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi in May that was the farthest in the world since 2008 and moved him into ninth on the all-time performer list.
He also had a throw of 84.12 (276-0) in the Olympic Games that put him more than four meters ahead of silver medalist Bence Halasz of Hungary at 79.97 (262-4).
The 23-year-old Kokhan surpassed 81 meters (265-9) for the first time with his winning throw in Zagreb and moved to fourth on the all-time Ukrainian performer list.
Two liners: Shiann Salmon of Jamaica became the 26th member of the sub-53 club in the women’s 400-meter hurdles when she came from behind to win that event in 52.97 seconds in the Weltklasse Diamond League meet in Zurich last Thursday. Olympic silver medalist Anna Cockrell of the U.S. finished second in 53.17 after holding a small lead over Salmon as they each cleared the tenth barrier of the race. . . . . Olympic champion Nina Kennedy of Australia won the women’s pole vault at a height of 4.87 meters (15 feet 11¾ inches) in the Weltklasse meet while competing in a set-up at the main train station in Zurich on Sept. 4. It was Kennedy’s seventh consecutive victory and came in a competition in which Alysha Newman of Canada and Katie Moon of the U.S. each cleared 5.82 (15-9¾) while finishing in second and third place, respectively. . . . . Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine won her sixth outdoor meet of the season without a loss when she cleared 1.96 (6-5) in the Weltklasse meet last Thursday while competing in rainy conditions. Mahuchikh had raised the world record to 2.10 (6-10¾) in the Meeting de Paris on July 7. . . . . Wayne Pinnock of Jamaica snapped the eight-meet winning streak of Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou when he won the men’s long jump in the Weltklasse meet. Olympic silver medalist Pinnock recorded his winning leap of 8.18 (26-10) in the second round to top the 8.02 (26-3¾) best of two-time Olympic champion Tentoglou. . . . . Ackera Nugent of Jamaica won her third consecutive race in the women’s 100-meter hurdles when she clocked 12.55 in the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, on Sunday. Nugent had started her winning streak with a time of 12.29 in the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Chorzow, Poland on August 25 and she had followed that with a national record of 12.24 in the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea meet in Rome on August 30 that made her the fourth-fastest performer ever. . . . . Adriana Vilagos of Serbia set her fourth national record of the season in the women’s javelin when she won the event with a mark of 65.64 (215-4) in the Hanzekovic Memorial. It was the third victory in a row for Vilagos, a thrower who won the silver medal in the European Athletics Championships in Rome in June but was eliminated in the qualifying round of the Olympic Games last month. . . . . Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia won the men’s discus in the Hanzekovic Memorial with a throw of 67.95 (222-11) that gave him the victory in a competition that included second-place Lawrence Okoye of Great Britain at 67.05 (219-11), third-place Matthew Denny of Australia at 66.99 (219-9) and Roje Stona of Jamaica at 65.98 (216-5). Denny and Stona were the bronze and gold medalists, respectively, in the Olympic Games.
Fast times in NYC: Josh Kerr of Great Britain set a course record in the men’s race and Karissa Schweizer of the U.S. tied the course best in the women’s contest in the 43rd running of the 5th Avenue Mile in New York City on Sunday.
Kerr, the Olympic silver medalist in the 1,500 meters, timed 3:44.3 over the downhill course to smash the course record of 3:47.52 that had been set by Sydney Maree of the U.S. in the inaugural edition of the race in 1981.
Schweizer, who placed ninth in the 10,000 and 10th in the 5,000 in the Olympics, ran 4:14.8 to tie the course record that was set by Laura Muir of Great Britain in 2022.
The 26-year-old Kerr had finished a disappointing fifth in the 1,500 in the Weltklasse Diamond League meet in Zurich last Thursday, but he won his second consecutive 5th Avenue title after breaking away from the lead pack after the halfway point.
He finished well in front of second-place Josh Hoey of the U.S. in 3:48.9, third-place Amon Kemboi of Kenya in 3:49.3, and fourth-place Vincent Ciattei of the U.S. in 3:50.6.
American Hobbs Kessler finished ninth in 3:53.2 after placing fifth in the 1,500 in the Olympic Games.
The 28-year-old Schweizer ran in the lead pack of the women’s race until after the halfway point and she separated from everyone during the final stretch of the contest as her winning time left her two and half seconds in front of second-place Dorcas Ewoi of Kenya, who ran 4:17.3.
Kenyan Susan Ejore placed third in 4:19.0 after finishing sixth in the 1,500 in the Olympic Games. She was followed by Melissa Courtney-Bryant of Great Britain, who finished fourth in 4:19.9.
Looking forward: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. is scheduled to compete in invitational races of the women’s 200 and 400 meters in the Diamond League Final that will be contested in the Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels tomorrow and Saturday.
The Memorial Van Damme promoters initially announced last week that McLaughlin-Levrone would be competing in the Diamond League Final races of their meet, but it wasn’t long before Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny said that the two-time Olympic champion in the 400 hurdles was not eligible to run in those races because she had not competed in any Diamond League meets this year.
Her absence from those meets also made her ineligible for a “Global Wild Card” berth into the meet.
The end result is that McLaughlin-Levrone will compete in invitational races of the 400 meters tomorrow and the 200 on Saturday.
The 25-year-old McLaughlin-Levrone is coming off a stupendous Olympic Games in which she lowered her world record in the 400 hurdles to 50.37 seconds and also ran a 47.71-second split for an American team that won the 4 x 400 relay in 3:15.27, the second-fastest time in history.
McLaughlin-Levrone, who has set six world records in the 400 hurdles, has personal bests of 22.07 in the 200 and 48.74 in the 400.
You can click here for an event schedule and start lists for the Memorial Van Damme.
The meet will be broadcast on Peacock (subscription required) in the U.S., tomorrow and Saturday, starting at 2 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time.
Best wishes: Alvaro Martin of Spain, winner of the men’s 20- and 35-kilometer walk in last year’s World Athletics Championships, announced on Saturday that he was retiring from competing at the world-class level.
Martin won a bronze medal in the men’s 20-kilometer walk in the Olympic Games in Paris last month and he also teamed up with compatriot Maria Perez to win the inaugural mixed marathon race walk relay in the Games.
The 30-year-old Martin was a four-time Olympian who competed in the Olympic Games for the first time in 2012 when he was 18 years of age. He also took part in five World championships.
His highest finishes in global title meets prior to the past two seasons came in the Olympic Games in 2021, when he placed fourth in the 20k walk, and in the 2022 World Championships, when he finished seventh in the 20k event.
Martin has personal bests of 1:17:49 in the 20k walk and 2:24:30 in the 35k event, and ranks 10th on the all-time performer list in the shorter race and ninth in the longer one.
Tragic death: Rebecca Cheptegei, who represented Uganda in the women’s marathon in the Olympic Games in Paris and in last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, died last Thursday after suffering burns on more than 75 percent of her body when a former boyfriend was alleged to have doused her in gasoline and set her on fire four days earlier.
The 33-year-old Cheptegei was being treated at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, where she trained.
The incident that led to her death occurred on Sept. 1 after she and a former boyfriend had had an argument outside of her home in Trans Nzoia County, Kenya. According to local police, the disagreement was over land.
The former boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, died on Monday after reportedly suffering burns to more than 30 percent of his body when he assaulted Cheptegei as she was returning from church with her two daughters.
According to a Reuters post, Philip Kirwa, chief executive officer of the Referral Hospital, said in a statement that Marangach “developed respiratory failure as a result of the severe airway burns and sepsis that led to his eventual death.”
Cheptegei had finished 44th in the women’s marathon in the Olympics after placing 14th in last year’s World Championships. She had a personal best of 2:22:47 in the event, which puts her second on the all-time Ugandan performer list.
She was also an accomplished trail runner and had won the women’s up and downhill mountain race in the inaugural 2021 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, that were held in November of 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our sport has lost a talented athlete in the most tragic and unthinkable circumstances,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in a post. “Rebecca was an incredibly versatile runner who still had lots left to give on the roads, mountains and cross country trails.
“I have been in touch with our Council Members in Africa to see how we can help not only in our capacity as governing body of the sport Rebecca competed in, but to assess how our safeguarding policies might be enhanced to include abuse outside of the sport, and bringing together stakeholders from all areas of athletics to combine forces to protect our female athletes to the best of our abilities from abuse of all kinds.”