Semenya and Samba sizzle in Paris (Results and Video)
Caster Semenya put her run-in with the IAAF over controversial new rules on testosterone firmly to one side as she scorched to the fourth-fastest time ever run in the women’s 800m at Saturday’s Diamond League meet in Paris.
There was also an outstanding performance by Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba, who set the second-fastest time ever in the men’s 400m hurdles in balmy conditions of 29 degrees Celsius (84F) at the Charlety stadium in southern Paris.
Semenya, double Olympic champion (2012, 2016) and twice world champion (2009, 2017), completely dominated her two-lap sortie, leading from gun to tape to clock a scintillating 1min 54.25sec that left the large crowd gasping.
Only Kenyan Pamela Jelimo, in Zurich in 2008, Soviet Union’s Nadezhda Olizarenko in 1980 and Czech world record holder Jarmila Kratochvilova (1:53.28), in 1983, have gone faster.
Semenya was initially tracked by Burundi’s Olympic silver medallist and reigning world champ Francine Niyonsaba and American Ajee Wilson.
The 27-year-old South African hit the bell in a swift 56.12sec, gradually pulling away down the back straight before turning the screw from 200m and not letting up through to the line, maintaining her unbeaten form over the 800m since her elimination in the semi-finals of the 2015 worlds in Beijing.
It was the perfect tonic for Semenya, who, off the track, has turned to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in her challenge of IAAF rules on testosterone occurring in female athletes that are to be introduced on November 1.
– Unstoppable Samba –
Naturalised Qatari Samba carried on his remarkable start to the season, scorching to the second fastest time ever over the gruelling event.
His 46.98sec winning time edged him ever closer to the world record of American Kevin Young set back in 1992. It also beat the season’s best of 47.02 set by Antigua’s Rai Benjamin, who opted to run the 200m in Paris.
“I’ve said it before – I want to become the fastest man in the world and I work hard to achieve it,” said Samba, who has only been doing the event for two years, but has now added Paris to his list of Diamond Leaguevictories that already include Doha, Rome, Oslo and Stockholm this season.
“It feels great to be the second fastest man in history. The world record is getting close but I just want to improve step by step and run fast. I’ve improved my technique since last year and who knows, maybe I can be one second faster next year!”
Samba’s 20-year-old rival Benjamin clocked a personal best of 19.99sec in the 200m behind American world indoor 400m record holder Michael Norman, his training partner, also 20, who clocked an admirable 19.84sec after two false starts.
Ronnie Baker wrapped up the sprints for the US team, timing a personal best of 9.88sec as France’s Jimmy Vicaut, China’s Su Bingtian and South African Akani Simibine all went sub-10sec.
Sergey Shubenkov, the current world champion from Russia and the only athlete to have run a sub-13sec time this year, was harshly ruled to have false started in the 110m hurdles, Jamaican Ronald Levy going on to win in 13.18sec.
“Obviously I did not false start, but the system said I did,” the Russian said, his words seemingly backed up by video repeats.
There was no such drama, however, for reigning Olympic champions Sandra Perkovic of Croatia and Colombian Caterine Ibarguen, who claimed victories in the women’s discus (with a meet record of 68.60m) and triple jump (14.83m) respectively.
– 44 for Lasitskene –
The women’s high jump saw Russia’s defending double world champion Mariya Lasitskene seal an incredible 44th consecutive victory with a season’s best of 2.04m, going very close at 2.08.
Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam, the Olympic and world heptathlon gold medallist, was second with 2.00m.
Renaud Lavillenie’s hopes of pleasing the home crowd fell flat after the world record holder could only finish third in a pole vault competition won by American Sam Hendricks with 5.90m on count-back from 18-year-old Swede Armand Duplantis in second.
Lavillenie’s teammate Kevin Mayer won a four-man triathlon comprising a long jump, shot put and 110m hurdles, but there were tears for sprinter Christophe Lemaitre, who pulled up injured in his bid to make the 10.15sec qualifying time to compete in the 100m in August’s European championships in Berlin.
Results Men
100m Wind + 0.8m/s
1 Ronnie BAKER USA 9.88 8
2 Jimmy VICAUT FRA 9.91 7
3 Bingtian SU CHN 9.91 6
4 Akani SIMBINE RSA 9.94 5
5 Yohan BLAKE JAM 10.03 4
6 Michael RODGERS USA 10.10 3
7 Arthur CISSÉ CIV 10.15 2
8 Jeffery DEMPS USA 10.23 1
200m Wind -0.6m/s
1 Michael NORMAN USA 19.84
2 Rai BENJAMIN ANT 19.99
3 Alex QUIÑÓNEZ ECU 20.08
4 Luxolo ADAMS RSA 20.21
5 Bruno HORTELANO ESP 20.30
6 Churandy MARTINA NED 20.68
Christophe LEMAITRE FRA
Alonso EDWARD PAN DQ
400m
1 Abderrahman SAMBA QAT 46.98 8
2 Kyron MCMASTER IVB 47.54 7
3 Karsten WARHOLM NOR 48.06 6
4 TJ HOLMES USA 48.30 5
5 Kerron CLEMENT USA 48.83 4
6 Bershawn JACKSON USA 49.16 3
7 Victor COROLLER FRA 50.03 2
8 Juander SANTOS DOM 50.71 1
800m
1 Ferguson Cheruiyot ROTICH KEN 1:43.73
2 Jonathan KITILIT KEN 1:43.83
3 Saúl ORDÓÑEZ ESP 1:44.36
4 Isaiah HARRIS USA 1:44.42
5 Alfred KIPKETER KEN 1:44.62
6 Joseph DENG AUS 1:44.67
7 Pierre-Ambroise BOSSE FRA 1:45.19
8 Erik SOWINSKI USA U 1:45.34
9 Thiago DO ROSÁRIO ANDRÉ BRA 1:45.59
10 Peter BOL AUS 1:45.82
11 Marc REUTHER GER 1:46.06
Jackson Mumbwa KIVUVA KEN DNF
1500m
1 Timothy CHERUIYOT KEN 3:29.71 8
2 Ayanleh SOULEIMAN DJI 3:31.77 7
3 Charles Cheboi SIMOTWO KEN 3:32.61 6
4 Aman WOTE ETH 3:32.81 5
5 Jakub HOLUŠA CZE 3:32.85 4
6 Filip INGEBRIGTSEN NOR 3:32.87 3
7 Bethwell BIRGEN KEN 3:34.27 2
8 Sadik MIKHOU BRN 3:34.55 1
9 Ismael DEBJANI BEL 3:35.71
10 Nicholas WILLIS NZL 3:36.26
11 Taresa TOLOSA ETH 3:36.81
12 Simon DENISSEL FRA 3:36.88
13 Baptiste MISCHLER FRA 3:37.17
14 Alexandre SADDEDINE FRA 3:37.36
15 Samir DAHMANI FRA 3:39.05
16 Quentin TISON FRA 3:40.31
Mounir AKBACHE FRA DNF
Vincent KIBET KEN DNF
110m Hurdles Final Wind +1.5m/s
1 Ronald LEVY JAM 13.18 8
2 Hansle PARCHMENT JAM 13.22 7
3 Devon ALLEN USA 13.23 6
4 Antonio ALKANA RSA 13.32 5
5 Jarret EATON USA 13.40 4
6 Orlando ORTEGA ESP 13.44 3
7 Aurel MANGA FRA 13.48 2
Sergey SHUBENKOV ANA DQ
110m Hurdles Heat 1 Wind +0.7m/s
1 Sergey SHUBENKOV ANA 13.05
2 Hansle PARCHMENT JAM 13.26
3 Aurel MANGA FRA 13.31
4 Jarret EATON USA 13.33
5 Devon ALLEN USA 13.34
6 Aleec HARRIS USA 13.42
7 Milan TRAJKOVIC CYP 13.56
110m Hurdles Heat 2 Wind -0.3 m/s
1 Orlando ORTEGA ESP 13.19
2 Ronald LEVY JAM 13.25
3 Antonio ALKANA RSA 13.31
4 Pascal MARTINOT-LAGARDE FRA 13.42
5 Aries MERRITT USA 13.51
6 Wenjun XIE CHN 13.53
7 Ludovic PAYEN FRA 13.63
Dimitri BASCOU FRA
Pole Vault
1 Sam KENDRICKS USA 5.96 8
2 Armand DUPLANTIS SWE 5.90 7
3 Renaud LAVILLENIE FRA 5.84 6
4 Piotr LISEK POL 5.84 5
5 Shawnacy BARBER CAN 5.84 4
6 Kurtis MARSCHALL AUS 5.70 3
7 Paweł WOJCIECHOWSKI POL 5.70 2
8 Axel CHAPELLE FRA 5.60 1
9 Seito YAMAMOTO JPN 5.60
10 Konstadínos FILIPPÍDIS GRE 5.45
11 Thiago BRAZ BRA 5.45
Raphael HOLZDEPPE GER NM
Discus
1 Fedrick DACRES JAM 67.01 8
2 Christoph HARTING GER 64.80 7
3 Robert URBANEK POL 64.68 6
4 Piotr MALACHOWSKI POL 64.47 5
5 Lukas WEISSHAIDINGER AUT 64.44 4
6 Ehsan HADADI IRI 64.36 3
7 Philip MILANOV BEL 64.00 2
8 Daniel JASINSKI GER 62.40 1
9 Mason FINLEY USA 61.91
10 Andrius GUDŽIUS LTU 61.31
11 Lolassonn DJOUHAN FRA 60.88
12Daniel STÅHL SWE 60.46
Results Women
200m Wind +1.1m/s
1 Shericka JACKSON JAM 22.05 8
2 Jenna PRANDINI USA 22.30 7
3 Marie-Josée TA LOU CIV 22.50 6
4 Jamile SAMUEL NED 22.63 5
5 Kyra JEFFERSON USA 22.69 4
6 Kimberlyn DUNCAN USA 22.95 3
7 Tatjana PINTO GER 23.35 2
8 Brigitte NTIAMOAH FRA 23.48 1
400m
1 Salwa Eid NASER BRN 49.55 8
2 Jessica BEARD USA 50.39 7
3 Phyllis FRANCIS USA 50.50 6
4 Shakima WIMBLEY USA 50.81 5
5 Stephenie Ann MCPHERSON JAM 50.85 4
6 Courtney OKOLO USA 51.15 3
7 Floria GUEI FRA 51.71 2
8 Anastasia LE-ROY JAM 52.44 1
800m
1 Caster SEMENYA RSA 1:54.25 8
2 Francine NIYONSABA BDI 1:55.86 7
3 Ajee WILSON USA 1:57.11 6
4 Habitam ALEMU ETH 1:57.17 5
5 Natoya GOULE JAM 1:57.69 4
6 Charlene LIPSEY USA 1:58.05 3
7 Emily Cherotich TUEI KEN 1:58.99 2
8 Renelle LAMOTE FRA 1:59.25 1
9 Eunice Jepkoech SUM KEN 1:59.25
10 Sifan HASSAN NED 1:59.35
11 Claudia SAUNDERS USA 2:00.47
Margaret Nyairera WAMBUI KEN DNF
3000m Steeplechase
1 Beatrice CHEPKOECH KEN 8:59.36 8
2 Celliphine Chepteek CHESPOL KEN 9:01.82 7
3 Hyvin KIYENG KEN 9:03.86 6
4 Norah JERUTO KEN 9:04.17 5
5 Winfred Mutile YAVI BRN 9:12.74 4
6 Roseline CHEPNGETICH KEN 9:17.08 3
7 Daisy JEPKEMEI KEN 9:17.35 2
8 Aisha PRAUGHT JAM 9:20.89 1
9 Karoline Bjerkeli GRØVDAL NOR 9:28.50
10 Fabienne SCHLUMPF SUI 9:39.89
11 Elena BURKARD GER 9:40.18
12 Geneviève LALONDE CAN 9:40.34
Ann GATHONI KEN DNF
Caroline TUIGONG KEN DNF
High Jump
1 Mariya LASITSKENE ANA 2.04 8
2 Nafissatou THIAM BEL 1.97 7
3 Yuliya LEVCHENKO UKR 1.97 6
4 Mirela DEMIREVA BUL 1.94 5
5 Elena VALLORTIGARA ITA 1.94 4
6 Kateryna TABASHNYK UKR 1.94 3
7 Marie-Laurence JUNGFLEISCH GER 1.94 2
8 Erika KINSEY SWE 1.90 1
9 Levern SPENCER LCA 1.90
10 Claire ORCEL BEL 1.85
10 Alessia TROST ITA 1.85
Triple Jump
1 Caterine IBARGÜEN COL 14.83 +0.1 8
2 Kimberly WILLIAMS JAM 14.56 +0.7 7
3 Tori FRANKLIN USA 14.49 +0.6 6
4 Kristin GIERISCH GER 14.42 +1.1 5
5 Shanieka RICKETTS JAM 14.38 +1.5 4
6 Ana PELETEIRO ESP 14.31 +0.6 3
7 Rouguy DIALLO FRA 14.27 +0.8 2
8 Olga RYPAKOVA KAZ 14.25 -0.4 1
9 Jeanine ASSANI ISSOUF FRA 14.16 +1.9
10 Hanna KNYAZYEVA-MINENKO ISR 14.04 -0.2
11 Nubia SOARES BRA 13.94 +1.7
Discus Throw
1 Sandra PERKOVIC CRO 68.60 8
2 Yaimé PÉREZ CUB 66.55 7
3 Denia CABALLERO CUB 63.13 6
4 Andressa DE MORAIS BRA 62.93 5
5 Anna RÜH GER 62.65 4
6 Claudine VITA GER 62.31 3
7 Nadine MÜLLER GER 60.28 2
8 Whitney ASHLEY USA 57.33 1
