Daily Times

EUGENE: Gudaf Tsegay smashed the women’s 5,000 metres world record and Armand Duplantis raised the bar again for the men’s pole vault on Sunday, as the season-ending Eugene Diamond League meet concluded on a high. Ethiopian Tsegay set a blistering pace from the start to win in 14 minutes 00.21 seconds, sprinting down the final metres to roars from the crowd as she shaved roughly five seconds off of Kenyan Faith Kipyegon’s previous mark. She had no sooner written her name into the record books than Sweden’s Duplantis soared over 6.23 metres to break the world record for a seventh time, bringing the house down after winning his second world championship title in Budapest weeks ago.

Duplantis, who cleared a centimetre higher than his previous best on the first try, said he would try to savour the moment rather than getting fixated on his gold medal chances at the 2024 Paris Games. “I’m not thinking about next year that much – I’m going to enjoy this moment and enjoy this with my family tonight,” he said. “Next year’s next year.” Shericka Jackson came off the turn with a massive lead to retain her women’s 200 metres Diamond League championship title in 21.57, but came short of her goal to break Florence Griffith-Joyner’s world record. The Jamaican Jackson won the 100 metres Diamond League championship a day earlier and finished more than half a second ahead of Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou on Sunday, as Anthonique Strachan of the Bahamas took third in 22.16.

The Olympic champion Andre De Grasse of Canada powered through the final stretch to win the men’s race in 19.76, as the United States’ Tokyo silver medallist Kenny Bednarek finished second in 19.95. American Erriyon Knighton took third in 19.97. “It’s been a challenging season, but I gotta finish strong,” said De Grasse. “Next year’s a big year obviously with the Olympics, so I wanted to try to just give it all to try to see where I’m at going into next season.”

American Athing Mu shook off the disappointment of her third-place finish at worlds to win the women’s 800 metres in 1:54.97, holding off Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, who finished second in 1:55.19. Jamaican Natoya Goule-Toppin was third in 1:55.96. “I’m happy that I could rejuvenate after worlds,” said Mu. “(I was) coming here with a clean mind and ready to go.” Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi upset the world champion Marco Arop in a blistering 1:42.80 in the men’s race, the fastest time of the year, wresting the lead in the final 50 metres of the race after finishing second in Budapest. The Canadian Arop finished five hundredths of a second slower and Algerian Djamel Sedjati took third in 1:43.06.

Dutch World Champion Femke Bol collected her third Diamond League championship with a confident 51.98 performance in the 400 metres hurdles, as American Shamier Little took second in 53.45 and Jamaican Rushell Clayton finished third in 53.56. The Ukrainian world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh cleared 2.03 metres on the second try to win the high jump while American Joe Kovacs got the best of his compatriot and rival Ryan Crouser, winning the men’s shot put with 22.93 on his fourth throw.