PARIS, France — World leaders Noah Lyles, Elaine Thompson, and Karsten Warholm were among the athletes picking up dominating wins at the IAAF Diamond League meet in Paris on Saturday.
Double Olympic champion Thompson easily put away a solid women’s 100m field with a 10.98 seconds performance to book her place in the Diamond League final in Zurich and Brussels on August 29 and September 6 respectively.
The Jamaican world-leader who shares the same time of 10.73 seconds this year with training partner and colleague Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, broke from the field over the last 60m to secure the win.
http://gty.im/1163660249“It’s very important to put races like this in because it was a strong field so to get the victory is great,” Thompson, who revealed that she is still in the preparation stage for the world championships, said.
Ivory Coast sprinter Marie-Josee Ta Lou picked up second in 11.13, while Dutch star Dafne Schippers finished third in 11.15.
Star sprinter and American champion Lyles deflected the publicity slight away from US teammate Christian Coleman when he stormed to an impressive victory in the men’s 200m in 19.65 secs, becoming the fourth-fastest of all time in the event.
The time was also a meeting record, removing the previous mark of 19.73, set by world record holder Usain Bolt in 2013.
http://gty.im/1163693253“I’m coming off a loaded week in training so that gives me a lot of confidence,” Lyles told reporters. “It felt fast. I blinked and all of a sudden the race was over.
“I’ve been putting in some great training sessions but it’s always different when you’re over here in Europe, it’s like a hiccup to overcome in itself with the travel.”
Lyles, who owns a personal best and world-lead time of 19.50, set in Lausanne last month, did enough to grab the spotlight in a week that was dominated by the headlines of Coleman’s alleged three missed three drug tests.
World and European champion Ramil Guliyev of Turkey was a distant second in 20.01 with Canadian champion Aaron Brown (20.13).
http://gty.im/1163646955In the men’s 400m hurdles, Norway’s world and European champion Warholm secured another impressive victory after he powered to 47.26 secs to win the event.
Following Warholm home was Ludvy Vaillant of France in personal best 48.30, while British Virgin Islands’ Kyron McMaster ran a season-best 48.33 for third.
Also at the meet, world champion Tom Walsh of New Zealand set a meeting record and seasonal best 22.44m to win the men’s Shot Put. Walsh also had marks of 22.31m, 22.21m and 22.10m on the day.
USA’s Joe Kovacs, the 2015 world champion threw 22.11m for second place.
World and Olympic silver medalist Will Claye of USA produced a meeting record of 18.06m to win the men’s triple jump, beat countryman Christian Taylor, the Olympic and world champion who did a season’s best 17.82m
