Fraser-Pryce and Jackson win Diamond League trophies
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won her fifth women’s 100-metre Diamond League title and Shericka Jackson won her first women’s 200-metre trophy as the Wanda Diamond League ended on Thursday with the second day of the finals at the Weltklasse Zurich meet at Letzigrund Stadium.
There were also runners-up spots for Yohan Blake, Shanieka Ricketts, Rasheed Broadbell and Natoya Goule, plus three other podium spots on the day.
Fraser-Pryce showed no signs of a hamstring injury that kept her out of a race in Lausanne two weeks ago as she got off to her usual bullett start and won in 10.65 seconds (-0.8m/s), the seventh sub-10.70 seconds clocking this season, avenging her loss to Jackson in Brussels last week.
Jackson was second in 10.81 seconds and the Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou third in 10.91 seconds, after Natasha Morrison was disqualified for a false start.
Jackson, however, made up in the 200m as she dominated the field to win in 21.80 seconds (-0.9m/s), well ahead of two Americans, Gabrielle Thomas who was second in 22.38 seconds, and Tamara Clarke in 22.42 seconds.
Yohan Blake was a creditable second in the men’s 100m, running 10.05 seconds (-0.3m/s), beaten to the finish line by World Championships bronze medallist, Trayvon Bromell, of the USA who won with 9.94 seconds and Canadian Aaron Brown third in a season’s best-equalling 10.06 seconds.
Broadbell had his five race winning streak snapped as he finished second in the 110m hurdles in 13.06 seconds (-1.0m/s) as American World Champion, Grant Holloway, avenged his two losses to the Jamaican, winning in 13.02 seconds, with Olympic champion Hansle Parchment third in 13.26 seconds.
Meanwhile, Goule ran a well judged women’s 800m to take the runner-up spot, moving up from her third spot last year with 1:57.85 seconds as Kenya’s Mary Moraa won in 1:57.63 seconds and American Sage Hurta third in 1:58.47 seconds.
Shanieka Ricketts finished outside of the top two in a final for the first time all season when she placed third in the women’s triple jump with a best mark of 14.85m (1.0m/s).
Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela won the Diamond trophy with 15.28m (-0.2m/s) with just two legal jumps as she got out to 14.99m (0.9m/s) in the final round.
European champion Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of the Ukraine was second with 14.96m (0.3m/s) also getting only two legal jumps.
Britany Anderson finished strong to take third in the 100m hurdles in 12.42 seconds (-0.3m/s) as World and Commonwealth Games champion, Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, set a meeting record 12.29 seconds to win with American Tia Jones second in 12.40 seconds.
Commonwealth Games champion, Janieve Russell, fought hard for her third place in the women’s 400m hurdles, clocking 53.77 seconds as European champion, Femke Bol of Holland, retained her trophy in 53.03 seconds with Panama’s Gianna Woodruff second with 53.72 seconds while Rushell Clayton was fifth in 54.25 seconds.
In the women’s 400 metres, Candice McLeod, just missed a podium position, placing fourth in 50.03 seconds as Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic set a new national record, and world leading 48.99 seconds, the 12th fastest of all time.
Her compatriot Fiordaliza Cofil was second in 49.93 seconds and Barbados’ Commonwealth Games champion, Sada Williams, was third with 49.98 seconds.
Stephenie Ann McPherson was eighth in 52.32 seconds.
– Paul A Reid