{"id":1476,"date":"2021-08-28T18:37:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-28T18:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paris.diamondleague.com\/2021\/08\/28\/duplantis-and-thompson-herah-shine\/"},"modified":"2021-08-28T18:37:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-28T18:37:15","slug":"duplantis-and-thompson-herah-shine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paris.diamondleague.com\/en\/duplantis-and-thompson-herah-shine\/","title":{"rendered":"Duplantis and Thompson-Herah shine"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the afternoon\u2019s stand-out moments was the voices of 14,000 spectators at the Charl\u00e9ty Stadium, cheering in unison as Mondo Duplantis<\/strong>, assured of victory and the meeting record (6.01 m, one centimetre higher than Sam Kendricks<\/strong> in 2019, during the last edition), had a go at a height of 6.19 m, a centimetre higher than his own world record. The Swede was unable to clear it, but he absolutely relished the opportunity some three days after finishing outside the Top 3 in Lausanne, a fate he hadn\u2019t faced since June 2019! \u201cIt was very important for me to get back in the saddle of \u2018victory\u2019 mode straightaway. What made the difference in relation to Lausanne? It was you the public, in Paris\u201d, he enthused over the microphone, before he put his words into action by spending a long while beside the grandstands, joining in with the clapping that began in the front row, happily giving his time to the requests for selfies and giving away his belonging to the youngsters\u2026<\/p>\n

Thompson-Herah beats Fraser-Pryce<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prior this high point of the meeting, two other meeting records had already tumbled this Saturday, starting with that of the women\u2019s 100 m. Building on her performances of recent weeks, Elaine Thompson-Herah<\/strong>, who clocked a time of 10\u2019\u201972, deprived her compatriot and rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce<\/strong> of victory by two hundredths of a second. However, that didn\u2019t stop the Jamaican from later calming things down with regards to speculation about Florence Griffith-Joyner\u2019s world record (10\u2019\u201949), which she came close to surpassing in Eugene last week (10\u2019\u201954) stating that she is keen to beat it: \u201cI know everyone thinks I\u2019m targeting the world record but well\u2026 I\u2019m not far off it. However, if I stay where I\u2019m at for this year, I\u2019d be very happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

World best performances of the year for Niyonsaba and Kigen in the 3,000<\/strong><\/p>\n

The last meeting record was secured in the women\u2019s 3,000 m, with victory going to Francine Niyonsaba<\/strong> in 8\u201919\u2019\u201908. It\u2019s also the world best performance of the year over the distance for the Olympic number two in the 800 m in Rio. \u201cVictory and the record mean a great deal to me. To make the switch from the 800 m to a longer distance is not easy. I\u2019ve done a massive amount of training for this. I\u2019ve had to make some major decisions along the way, like heading off to train in Kenya, and today I increasingly get the sense that I went about things the right way.\u201d
Another world best performance of the year was set in Charl\u00e9ty this Saturday: the time of 8\u201907\u2019\u201912 clocked by Kenyan athlete Benjamin Kigen<\/strong> in the 3,000 m steeplechase, was the result of the constant hounding from his compatriot Abraham Kibiwot<\/strong> (8\u201909\u2019\u201935), who was right up there with him till the final few metres. \u201cI discovered this meeting in 2019 and I promised myself that I\u2019d return to win it one day.\u201d He\u2019s done it now, and in great style to boot!<\/p>\n

Tokyo\u2019s heroes make their presence felt<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a meeting punctuated by the presence of nearly 30 medallists from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan\u2019s heroes made it a point of honour to bring their A game to the Paris meeting. After missing the mark slightly in Lausanne in the middle of the week (eighth), Hansle Parchment<\/strong> won his first race as Olympic champion in the 110 m hurdles and secured his best time of the year in the process in 13\u2019\u201903 (+0.7 m\/s), which equates to one hundredth of a second faster than in the final in Tokyo.
In the women\u2019s high jump, the Olympic remake in Paris boasted all of the Top 5 in Tokyo\u2026 but this time victory went to Nicola McDermott<\/strong>. The Olympic number two – who briefly set her sights even higher – finished ahead of Mariya Lasitskene<\/strong> on countback at 1.98 m, giving her the chance to savour a role reversal: \u201cI\u2019ve been second or third so often this season that it feels great to finally snatch victory. I felt a little tired, which is why I passed on some of the jumps during the competition. It\u2019s always a risk to do that but I\u2019m pleased to see it finish well today.\u201d
In the 200 m, the main match between the Olympic number twos saw Kenneth Bednarek<\/strong>, who placed silver over the distance in Tokyo, in a face-off against Fred Kerley<\/strong>, second down the straight at the Olympic Games. The latter finished just ahead in the photo finish: their joint time of 19\u2019\u201979 (+1.6 m\/s) is a personal best for Kerley<\/strong>.
For her return to Paris, the solid performance posted by Allyson Felix<\/strong> saw her take third place (50\u2019\u201947) in a 400 m won by Olympic number two Marileidy Paulino<\/strong> (50\u2019\u201912). Femke Bol<\/strong>, European indoor champion, who bagged third in the hurdles race in Tokyo, finished fourth (50\u2019\u201959). The main takeaway for the 21-year-old Dutch athlete: \u201cI ran against Allyson Felix! It was on my bucket list and it\u2019s fantastic to tick that one off.\u201d
Securing bronze in Tokyo, Hugues Fabrice Zango<\/strong> was also keen to \u201cvery quickly get back on the road to victory after the Games. That\u2019s done now.\u201d Though the credit for the best jump of the competition goes to Yasser Mohammed Triki<\/strong> (17.16 m, +1.7 m\/s, on his first attempt), Teddy Tamgho\u2019s student ultimately took the win at the end of the final three (16.97 m, +1.7 m\/s).<\/p>\n

Perkovic loves everything about Paris\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Among the stars in Tokyo who got beaten today, it\u2019s worth noting that even Valarie Allman<\/strong> was unable to quash Sandra Perkovic<\/strong>\u2019s invincible reign on French soil: after the meetings in Montreuil and Sotteville earlier this season, the double Olympic discus champion (2012, 2016) dominated play in Paris, nailing the best attempt of the meeting (66.08 m on her second attempt) and victory in the final three with a throw of 65.68 m. \u201cI love this meeting so much – it\u2019s my fourth victory here – I so love France, Paris, the food, the wine, the streets\u2026 It\u2019s my perfect afternoon!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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