by Alfonz Juck
Mary Lasitskene, Dreaming of 2.10m? photo by PhotoRun.net
Wayde Van Niekerk, when will he drop the first sub 43?
Great performances in Lausanne on a near perfect evening in the home of the Olympic movement. Lasitskene was amazing and powerful in her jumping and Van Niekerk was just as dominating in his modest show of power in this run, perhaps the most relaxed 43.66 that this writer has ever witnessed.
Lasitskene tried at 210, Van Niekerk 43.66 and much more
LAUSANNE (SUI, July 6): Good conditions and a capacity crowd helped make Athletissima 2017 one of the best one-day meetings so far in this year. The summary with 5 World leads (Van Niekerk, Dibaba, Lasitskene, Edris, Kolak), 2 Diamond League records (Van Niekerk, Lasitskene) and 8 meet records (Van Niekerk, Edris, Kendricks/Wojciechowski, Crouser, twice Dibaba, Lasitskene, Kolak) was for this time of the season very special.
Event by event review
Men
100m: Justin Gatlin prevailed in a close race (+0.2), stopping the clock on 9.96 as Ben Meite was second with a season’s best 9.98. Akani Simbine was third (9.99) as Isiah Young was fourth (10.00).
400m: Wayde van Niekerk, in his first major 400m of the season, equalled the 11th fastest time in history with 43.62 despite a relaxed-looking last 50 metres. The South African, who was following up on sub-10 and sub-20 in the short sprints and the previous week’s 300m world best, set not only WL and MR but also a Diamond League record. Baboloki Thebe, who led into the straight, was second with a PB 44.02 ahead of fellow Botswana athlete Isaac Makwala (44.08).
1500m: Aman Wote (3:32.20) made a significant move on the last lap and held off the faster-finishing Charles Simotwo (3:32.59 PB) as the quickest in the field, Alsadik Mikhou, faded to 10th, Olympic winner Centrowitz was 7th.
5000m: Mukhtar Edris kicked with 300m to go to set a world lead and meeting record of 12:55.23. Selemon Barega, the 17-year-old world junior champion, ensured he had to run hard all the way, taking 25 seconds off his PB with 12:55.58. Also setting a PB was Joshua Cheptegei (12:59.83) in third, while Yenew Alamirew (13:06.81) was fourth.
400m hurdles (non-DL): Home favourite Kariem Hussein came through with a late burst, the former European champion stopping the clock on a season’s best 48.79. Byron Robinson faltered over the last barrier but hung on for second with 48.88.
Pole vault: Sam Kendricks made it six out of six for this season as he won with 5.93m before two unsuccessful attempts at 6.03. With the same height for second Pawel Wojciechowski added 2cm to his Polish record set in 2011 when he was world champion. Renaud Lavillenie was third with 5.87m.
Triple jump: Pedro Pablo Pichardo shocked Christian Taylor with his final round 17.60m after the American led with a third-round 17.49. Will Claye was third with 17.12m.
Shot: Ryan Crouser made it seven wins out of seven in 2017, his 22.39m meeting record being the best of his four over 22 metres. New Zealand’s Tom Walsh had a season’s best of 21.97m for second and Czech Tomas Stanek third 21.36 confirming his nr 1 position in Europe.
Women
200m: World champion Dafne Schippers came past early leader Maria-Josee Talou to clock 22.10 (-0.5). The runner-up hung on well to set an Ivory Coast record of 22.16. Krya Jefferson (22.34) was third.
800m: Francine Niyonsaba won in a season’s best 1:56.82 after going with the pacemaker’s lightning opening lap of 56.5. Charlene Lipsey (1:57.38 PB) was third ahead of Eunice Sum (1:57.78). PBs followed in fourth and finish for metric milers – world champion Sifan Hassan (1:58.69) and Laura Muir (1:58.69).
Mile (non-DL): Genzeba Dibaba ran the fifth fastest time in history, clocking 4:16.05 as she chased the world record of 4:12.56. The world 1500m record-holder returned to form after her sixth in Rome to go through 61s and 2:06 for the first two laps. After the last pacemaker dropped out she split 3:10.54 but could not maintain the pace. Nelly Jepkosgei was second (4:25.15). Dibaba clocked another meet record with 3:57.82 split over 1500 m.
100m hurdles: Sharika Nelvis improved her season’s best to 12.53 – four hundredths ahead of Jasmine Stowers and third-placed Chrstina Manning (12.58).
400m hurdles: Olympic champion and world No.1 Dalilah Muhammad pulled up after about 100m, leaving Ashley Spencer to take victory in 53.92 from Switzerland’s Lea Sprunger (54.29 PB) and Eilidh Child, whose 54.36 was her third best-ever.
High jump: Mariya Lasitskene cleared a Diamond League record of 2.06m to go fifth on the all-time list. For Lasitskene, who was over on her second attempt, it was an 18th consecutive victory. She tried afterwards at WR height of 210 cm. Kamila Licwinko, Sofie Skoog and Morgan Lake were a long way back on 1.93m in positions two to four.
Long jump: Ivana Spanovic, competing for the first time since her 7.24m European Indoor win, took victory with just 6.79m as athletes battled a headwind. Olympic and world champion Tianna Bartoletta was third with 6.65m.
Javelin: Sara Kolak went to seventh on the all-time list. An exciting competition saw Barbora Spotakova produce a world lead and meet record of 67.40m – her biggest since 2014 – in the first round. However, Olympic champion Kolak improved her Croatian record to 66.55m in the third round and then 68.43m on her last was the best in the world since 2013, also European U23 record.
4x100m: The track programme ended with UBS Trophy going to a winning Swiss team in national record of 42.53.
