Wanyonyi nearly breaks world record
‘The most important thing for me is that even after such achievements like the ones I did at the Olympics, at the end of the day, you just have to keep running to maintain the form throughout the season.’
Daily Tribune‘The most important thing for me is that even after such achievements like the ones I did at the Olympics, at the end of the day, you just have to keep running to maintain the form throughout the season.’
EMMANUEL Wanyonyi celebrates after winning the men’s 800-meter event of the Lausanne leg of the Diamond League.
FABRICE COFFRINI/agence france-presse
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFP) — Emmanuel Wanyonyi went close to breaking David Rudisha’s vaunted 800-meter world record in the Diamond League meet in Lausanne in what was a mixed night for Olympic champions making their return after the Paris Games.
Wanyonyi repeated the blistering form that saw him win in the French capital, going within 0.20 seconds of the one minute and 40.91-second world record set by Rudisha when winning Olympic gold in London in 2012.
The Kenyan will have another chance at the next meet on the elite calendar, in Silesia, Poland on Sunday.
Other Olympic champions who were successful included Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, who blasted to an impressive 19.64 seconds to win the 200-meter run.
The 21-year-old, whose 200m gold in Paris was the first ever for his country, admitted that he had come to Lausanne on the back of eight days of no training, having made a rapturous return to Gaborone.
“The most important thing for me is that even after such achievements like the ones I did at the Olympics, at the end of the day, you just have to keep running to maintain the form throughout the season,” he said.
Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou left it late to win the long jump in 8.06m and Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh claimed victory in the women’s high jump in 1.99m.
It was not all good news for newly-crowned Olympic champions, however, with Grant Holloway, Cole Hocker and German shot putter Yemisi Ogunleye all failing to back up their Paris form by topping the Swiss podium.
There was at least some redemption for Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in beating Hocker in the 1500m.
The Norwegian had been an odds-on favorite for Olympic gold in Paris, but set out too quickly and eventually finished fourth.
“It’s been almost two weeks since Paris so there was plenty of time to recover,” Ingebrigtsen said of his win in a meet record of 3:27.83.
“For me a lot of it has been mental including going home, taking some easy days and then getting back to work. Tonight’s race gave me good answers.”
Perhaps the biggest upset was in the men’s 110m hurdles as Olympic champion and three-time world gold medallist Holloway was edged into second by Jamaica’s Rasheed Broadbell, who won in 13.10 seconds.
