Fine form!
Five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah led a trio of Jamaicans to wins at yesterday’s Paris Diamond League meet at Charléty stadium as she rebounded from her loss on Thursday to compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
Fraser-Pryce did not participate in yesterday’s race, citing fatigue for her withdrawal.
Thompson-Herah broke Fraser-Pryce’s meet record with a 10.72 seconds (1.3m/s) run in the 100m, while Olympic gold medal winner Hansle Parchment and Danielle Williams both produced seasons’ best performances to win their respective sprint hurdles events.
Despite hinting at fatigue a day earlier, Thompson-Herah extended her streak of sub-10.80 seconds times to five since the semi-finals in the Olympics as she dominated the race, running away from the field to win by a clear margin breaking the meet record 10.74 seconds set in 2015 by Fraser-Pryce.
Shericka Jackson, who was third in her last three meetings in the 100m against Thompson-Herah, was second in 10.97 seconds, her eighth sub-110.00 seconds run from her last nine starts. Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith took third in 11.06 seconds.
A third Jamaican Natasha Morrison was fourth in 11.09 seconds as the streak of three straight 1-2-3 finishes in major 100m finals by Jamaican women was broken.
Thompson-Herah was happy for her win, saying: “I am thankful I crossed the line healthy. I am already in the books so I am happy for that. I am just focusing on myself, on my start, on my execution and to be confident over the line.”
Parchment redeemed himself after a poor race on Thursday with a brilliant win yesterday, getting off to a fast start and took control of the race from the halfway stage to clock a season’s best 13.03 seconds (0.7m/s).
The Jamaican, who was a surprise winner at the Tokyo Olympics, had hit two hurdles in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday, but was more composed and smoother yesterday as he held off American Devon Allen who had won three days ago.
Allen also had a season’s best, running 13.08 seconds with Daniel Roberts third in 13.16 seconds.
Jamaican champion Ronald Levy, who won the bronze in Tokyo, was fourth with 13.24 seconds, running under protest after he had false started the first time.
Parchment, who is still seeking his first sub-13.00 seconds time in several years, said he still has some areas where he can fine-tune as the season continued.
“I still have a feeling that I could execute a little bit better, but I am happy for the win. In the last part, I did not maintain the technique enough —I was leaning a bit more than I was supposed to but otherwise it was enough,” he said.
Parchment said he had put the race in Lausanne behind him as he accepted there will be mistakes.
“I always believe in myself. The races cannot always be perfect. There will be mistakes, so I do not worry about that and stayed confident after Lausanne, ready for this challenge. I want to sharpen up my technique before the last races to produce better times,” he told reporters.
Williams, who was racing for the second time since the end of the Olympics, was also in season’s best form, running 12.50 seconds (1.7m/s) in one of the outside lanes to grab the win after Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper, who had gotten off to a fast start and led up to midpoint of the race, was third in 12.66 seconds as Nadine Visser set a new Dutch national record 12.58 seconds to finish in second place.
Williams, who failed to make the Jamaican team to the Tokyo Olympics, improved on her previous season’s best 12.62 seconds, winning on the Diamond League circuit for the first time this season.
“It is a season best and I think I executed the race as well as I could. I am pretty sure that there were some mistakes that I made but I can see what I could better for the next race,” Williams said.
Williams said she had ambitions of winning the Diamond League trophy at the end of the season and was already looking at lowering her season’s best.
Olympic finalist Janieve Russell cracked the top three for the second time in the 400m hurdles in the Diamond League this year, running hard at the start and held on to clock 54.75 seconds for a podium finish.
Panama’s Gianna Woodruff won with 54.44 seconds ahead of Anna Ryzhykova of Ukraine (54.59 seconds) as the American Cara Nnenya Hailey who led early was fourth in 54.78 seconds.
Candice McLeod finished seventh in the women’s 400m, running 51.41 seconds as Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic continued her great season, winning with 50.12 seconds, Barbados’s Jamaica-based Sada Williams was second in 50.30 seconds and American Allison Felix was third in 50.47 seconds.
Nigel Ellis was second in the men’s 100m, a non-Diamond League event, clocking 10.14 seconds (0.7m/s), while Julian Forte was fifth in 10.21 seconds.
American Marvin Bracy won in 10.04 seconds with Arthur Cisse of the Ivory Coast third in 10.17 seconds.