Ingebrigtsen, Rojas and Lyles light up Lausanne

The threatened storm stayed away but there were plenty of flashes of brilliance at the Athletissima Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, where Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Joe Kovacs, Yulimar Rojas and Noah Lyles were among the athletes to light up the track and field on Friday (26).

On a blustery evening at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, where places in next month's Diamond League final in Zurich were up for grabs, Ingebrigtsen ran a world-leading 3:29.05 to win the 1500m, while Kovacs ended world record-holder Ryan Crouser’s shot put win streak with a 22.65m victory. Femke Bol’s 52.95 in the 400m hurdles was among the three meeting records set on the day, and Rojas continued her dominance with another triple jump triumph.

Despite being fresh from winning the 1500m and 5000m at the European Championships, Ingebrigtsen’s late decision to compete in Lausanne paid off as he recorded the fastest time in the world this year to defeat a strong 1500m field. Striding ahead with 600m to go, the Norwegian Olympic champion remained right on the planned 3:30 pace indicated by wavelight technology on the track, and was a few strides ahead of his rivals at the bell. He remained with the lights down the back straight and left them behind with 200m to go, surging to a clear victory ahead of Kenya’s Abel Kipsang and Australia’s Stewart McSweyn.

The top eight all went sub-3:34, with Kipsang clocking 3:29.93 and McSweyn 3:30.18. Britain’s Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr finished fourth in 3:32.28 and Kenya’s four-time Diamond League champion Timothy Cheruiyot seventh in 3:32.91.

“It was a pretty good race,” said Ingebrigtsen. “Luckily the pacemaker was pushing the first 700m. The risk was that the pace would slow down when he quit so I had to push and it turned out well. I think I could have gone faster.”

Another athlete who continues to target fast times is USA’s Lyles, who has made no secret of the fact that he is aiming to break Usain Bolt’s 200m world record of 19.19. With a PB of 19.31 – the fourth-fastest of all-time – set when winning the world title in Oregon, on this occasion Lyles ran 19.56 (1.3m/s) to maintain his unbeaten season in the discipline.

In a clash of world champions, Lyles overpowered 400m gold medallist Michael Norman, who got a strong start and finished second in 19.76, and world indoor 400m champion Jereem Richards, who was third in 19.95.

The meeting was denied the expected women's world 100m medallist rematch after five-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was forced to withdraw due to hamstring discomfort and five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah, who claimed bronze in Oregon, left the track after a false start. It was USA’s Aleia Hobbs who went on to triumph, clocking 10.87 (0.0m/s) ahead of world 100m silver medallist and 200m champion Shericka Jackson (10.88) and Marie-Josee Ta Lou (10.89). Tamari Davis, who twice ran under the world U20 100m record in Memphis last month with a best of 10.83, also dipped under 11 seconds with 10.94 for fourth.

World medallists Marileidy Paulino and Sada Williams claimed the top two spots in the women’s 400m, Oregon runner-up Paulino winning in 49.87 and Williams finishing second in 49.94.

Kovacs and Rojas reign

Prior to Friday’s competition in Lausanne, the last time US shot put star Crouser lost an outdoor competition was in 2019 during that epic World Championships final in Doha. There, his compatriot Kovacs won with a 22.91m throw to Crouser’s 22.90m, as Tom Walsh matched that mark to finish third. Crouser and Kovacs have gone head-to-head in 14 finals since – the US pair filling the top two places in 11 of those contests. This time, after 10 runner-up finishes, it was again Kovacs’ turn to take top spot.

Throwing 22.65m in the second round, Kovacs won by 60cm ahead of Crouser, who later explained that he had been unable to train for three weeks leading up to the event due to covid. His best of 22.05m came in the third round, while New Zealand’s Jacko Gill threw 21.70m in that same round to finish third.

“I’m pretty happy today, especially with my series of throws - perhaps even more so than the big one,” said Kovacs. “It’s important that I throw far consistently and I was able to do that today. Throwing over 23 metres is on my mind, I think it’s about time and I’ll have to just trust myself and start taking more risks to get it.”

While Kovacs’ win ended Crouser’s impressive unbeaten record, Rojas extended hers in the triple jump. The 26-year-old Venezuelan, who jumped a 15.74m outright world record to win her third world indoor title in Belgrade in March, went beyond 15 metres again with 15.31m (-0.2m/s) in the fifth round. She opened with 14.99m at the start of a series that also included four fouls, but that didn’t matter as she won by 67cm ahead of Jamaica’s two-time world silver medallist Shanieka Ricketts (14.64m) and Ukraine’s European champion Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (14.31m).

Andy Diaz Hernandez secured a second successive Diamond League win in the men’s triple jump, following his success in Silesia with a leap of 17.67m – just a single centimetre off his PB – to triumph again. World indoor champion Lazaro Martinez was second, improving his outdoor PB to 17.50m, while Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun was third with 17.44m.

One throw was all India’s Neeraj Chopra needed to win the men’s javelin, the Olympic champion and world silver medallist launching the spear 89.08m in the first round for a mark that couldn’t be beaten. He followed it with 85.18m before a pass, foul and another pass, before throwing 80.04m in the final round. The win is Chopra's first in the Diamond League and secures his place in the final in Zurich.

Czech Republic’s Olympic silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch finished second with his fourth-round 85.88m and USA’s Curtis Thompson recorded 83.72m in the first round, which saw him finish third.

Slovenia’s world indoor bronze medallist Tina Sutej and Australia’s world bronze medallist Nina Kennedy, who recently claimed the Commonwealth title, both cleared 4.70m in the women’s pole vault, Sutej winning on countback. Fresh from her European title win and 4.85m PB, Finland’s Wilma Murto finished third with a 4.60m clearance, the same height that was managed by Italy’s Roberta Bruni for fourth.

The swirling wind made the going tough in the men’s high jump, the competition won by Ukraine’s world bronze medallist Andriy Protsenko on countback thanks to his flawless performance up to 2.24m. That was a height also managed by Qatar’s world and Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim, USA’s JuVaughn Harrison and New Zeland’s Hamish Kerr, while Barshim's joint Olympic gold medallist Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy finished fifth with a best of 2.20m.

No barriers for Bol and Broadbell

Back on the track, Bol showed no signs of tiredness following her impressive golden 400m hurdles, 400m and 4x400m treble at the European Championships, improving her own meeting record to 52.95 to win her specialist event by almost a second. The Dutch world silver medallist was ahead off the final bend and eased further away from her rivals, Jamaica’s two-time Commonwealth champion Janieve Russell finishing second in 53.92 and Andrenette Knight third in 54.33.

“It's amazing to run a meeting record here and run 52 seconds again, especially in this beautiful city,” said Bol. “I was less tired than expected, actually. In the past few days I spent 11 hours a day in bed. I am glad that I have some days to rest now before my last race of the season in Zurich.”

Jamaica’s Rasheed Broadbell claimed some big scalps in the 110m hurdles, carrying the momentum from his recent Commonwealth Games victory and Continental Tour win in Szekesfehervar through to Lausanne to dip under 13 seconds for the first time. Clocking 12.99 (0.0m/s) to improve on his previous best of 13.08 run in Birmingham, the 22-year-old held off USA’s world silver medallist Trey Cunningham, who ran 13.10 on what was his 24th birthday, as well as USA’s world champion Grant Holloway (13.11) and Jamaica’s Olympic champion Hansle Parchment (13.13) for a race the winner will “never forget”.

“It’s my first time under 13 seconds and I’m very happy,” said Broadbell. “I started my season with injuries but as you can see, as the season is progressing, it’s getting better and better.”

Like Bol in the 400m hurdles, Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn broke the meeting record to win the 100m hurdles, clocking 12.34 (-0.9m/s) to improve a mark (12.40) that had been set by Gail Devers in 2002. She beat Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who ran a 12.12 world record in the World Championships semifinals before winning global gold, and USA’s Tia Jones, the pair clocking respective times of 12.45 and 12.47.

The meeting record also fell in the women’s 3000m, where a late sprint saw Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba pip USA’s Alicia Monson to the finish by just one hundredth of a second. Niyonsaba, racing for the first time since May due to injury, dipped over the finish line in 8:26.80 ahead of long-time leader Monson, whose 8:26.81 for the runner-up spot took more than 13 seconds off her PB. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet was third in 8:27.14, while Netherlands’ Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan kept her calm after a stumble early in the race to finish fourth in 8:28.28.

Morocco’s Olympic and world title winner Soufiane El Bakkali had gone into the men’s 3000m steeplechase as the big favourite and he lived up to that billing, remaining on the targeted 8:03 pace until the closing stages when he kicked again to win in 8:02.45. Completely untroubled, he finished almost 10 seconds ahead of his nearest rivals, Ethiopia’s Hailemariyam Amare finishing second in 8:12.07 and Kenya’s Leonard Bett third in 8:12.08.

The top six all dipped under two minutes in the women’s non-Diamond League 800m, led by France’s three-time European silver medallist Renelle Lamote in a PB of 1:57.84. Improving on her previous best of 1:57.98, Lamote held off USA’s NACAC silver medallist Allie Wilson, also running a PB of 1:58.09, and Britain’s Jemma Reekie with 1:59.00. USA’s Khallifah Rosser comfortably won the non-Diamond League men’s 400m hurdles in 47.68 from France’s Wilfried Happio (48.66) and Ludvy Vaillant (48.94).

Friday's programme ended with huge cheers as Ajla Del Ponte anchored Switzerland to women’s 4x100m victory in 42.91 ahead of Netherlands and Spain.

City centre success for Duplantis 

With the spotlight on the pole vault, Mondo Duplantis made the most of the dedicated lakeside city centre stage to improve the meeting record to 6.10m at a street competition held on the eve of the main Athletissima programme.

Taking his career total of six metre-plus clearances to 53, the Olympic champion soared over 6.00m on his third attempt before having the bar raised to 6.10m and also clearing that on his third try.

Among those in the crowd was pole vault great Sergey Bubka, whose record of six metre-plus results Duplantis surpassed in July, when the 22-year-old improved his own world record to 6.21m to win the world title. Bubka is the only other athlete to have achieved a 6.10m clearance outdoors, with an outdoor best of 6.14m set in 1994.

“It still feels quite amazing, especially on those third attempts – you never know what can happen on the third attempt, so those always really get the juices flowing,” Duplantis said. “Six metres, it’s still very special.”

The Swedish star entered the competition at 5.60m and cleared that, 5.80m and 5.90m on his first attempts. He had the contest won at that point, with USA’s Olympic and world silver medallist Chris Nilsen finishing second on 5.80m and Philippines’ world bronze medallist Ernest John Obiena placing third on countback.

“I was pretty tired, I wish I could have made 6.00m and 6.10m on my first attempts but I took all three attempts to make both of them,” said Duplantis, who next competes in Brussels on 2 September, on his way to the Diamond League final in Zurich.

On the street event experience, he added: “It’s a different type of energy and you get a bit more interaction with everybody, they are so close to you. For us, it’s overall more fun, and I think for the fans they get a better appreciation because they can really see up close what we do and how amazing the pole vault is.”

Jess Whittington for World Athletics