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Kenya’s 1,500m queen Faith Kipyegon cruised to victory in the Diamond League final in Brussels on Saturday, but Botswanan sprinter Letsile Tebogo and American shot putter Ryan Crouser both suffered rare defeats.
Kipyegon, a three-time Olympic and world champion, had another sensational year in the 1,500m, even setting a new world record during the Paris leg of the elite athletics circuit.
And she made no mistake at the Stade Roi Baudouin, sprinting to victory in a competition record time of 3 minutes 54.76 seconds.
“The world record was not on my mind today, my goal was to finish my Diamond League season in a positive way and I did that,” Kipyegon said.
“It was a good race, but definitely not easy. 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.”
In the 16 finals on Saturday, the first 16 taking place on Friday, the Kenyan athletes performed very well.
Two-time Olympic 5,000/10,000m champion Béatrice Chebet also set a meet record of 14:09.82 to win the 5,000m in a powerful solo race.
Faith Cherotich edged out Bahrain’s Olympic champion Winfred Yavi to win the 3000m steeplechase in 9:02.36 and Emmanuel Wanyonyi produced a devastating final feat to win a high-quality men’s 800m in 1:42.70.
There was a surprise in the men’s shot put as Italian European champion Leonardo Fabbri took victory with a competition and national record of 22.98m, improving his personal best by 3cm.
– The best of a lifetime –
American Ryan Crouser, a three-time Olympic champion and two-time world gold medalist, finished second with a best of 22.79m, but there were no sour grapes despite missing the winner’s check of 30 000 $.
“I threw it pretty well. It was a very solid performance, five times for 22 yards,” Crouser said.
“I just didn’t have a throw as big as Leonardo Fabbri’s. He threw a better time, so a big throw from him. The level in shot put has never been higher.”
And Olympic champion Tebogo was beaten in the 200m by American Kenny Bednarek, who won in 19.67 seconds.
“I wanted to win the Diamond, but it was a roller coaster after the Olympics,” lamented Tebogo.
Fabbri’s victory in the shot put was one of three wins on the night for the Italian team, with high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi (2.34m) and long jumper Larissa Iapichino (6.80m) having also won.
In the field events, two more Olympic champions won their events, with Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi winning the women’s javelin with a season-best 66.13m and Australia’s Nina Kennedy winning the pole vault with 4, 88m.
Grenadian Anderson Peters beat India’s Neeraj Chopra by just 1cm to claim victory in the men’s javelin in 87.87m.
In the absence of Olympic gold and silver medalists Rai Benjamin and Karsten Warholm, it was the Parisian bronze medalist, Alison Dos Santos, who won the 400m hurdles.
The Brazilian clocked 47.93 seconds while Puerto Rican Jamine Camacho-Quinn confirmed her seasonal form by winning the 100m hurdles in 12.38 seconds.
Olympic 400m hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won her second invitational race in two days, clocking 22.40 seconds for victory in the 200m.
“Holidays and waffles!” said the American, who won a 400m race on Friday, after the race.
“It was great to race here, but to be honest I’m just happy with my successful season and how everything went.
“I’m happy to be able to leave in good health and look back on an excellent season.”
In the absence of McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m hurdles because she was ineligible having not competed on the Diamond League circuit, it fell to Parisian bronze medalist Femke Bol to take victory in 52, 45 seconds.
The 200m final itself saw American Brittany Brown take the podium in 22.20 seconds. Her teammate Sha’Carri Richardson was not present after her eighth place in the 100m on Friday.
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