Hurdlers Clayton, Williams in season-best form at Wanda Diamond League
Hurdlers Rushell Clayton and Danielle Williams continued their preparation for the World Athletics Championships with season’s best performances at yesterday’s Wanda Diamond League meet in Stockholm, Sweden.
Clayton lowered her season’s best in the 400m for the second time in under a week, while Williams equalled her season’s best in the 100m hurdles as shot putter Danniel Thomas-Dodd also participated.
Clayton, who was third at the Jamaican National Championships last weekend and has run faster each time she has competed this year, was second, clocking 53.90 seconds on Thursday.
Last weekend Clayton ran 54.67 seconds in the semi-finals and 54.20 seconds in the final.
Holland’s Olympic medallist Femke Bol broke her own Diamond League and meet records while running a season’s best 52.27 seconds to win, while Ukraine’s Anna Ryzhykova was third with 54.33 seconds.
Bol broke her own record of 52.37 seconds set last year.
Williams ran 12.59 seconds (-0.5m/s) for fourth in the sprint hurdles, equalling the season’s best she set in the semi-finals at the national championships last weekend, in what was a close race.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won with 12.46 seconds, beating Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan (12.50 seconds) and American Nia Ali, who was third with 12.53 seconds.
Thomas-Dodd threw 18.77m for fifth in the shot put that was won by American world leader Chase Ealey of the USA with 20.48m, Sarah Mitton of Canada was second with 19.90m, and Auriol Dongmo of Portugal third with 19.30m.
— Paul Reid