Rain early in the evening and then the cold on Thursday evening undermined hopes of big records at the Zurich meeting, which was nevertheless marked by high-flying sprint duels and victories for Sha’Carri Richardson and Letsile Tebogo.
On the soggy track of the Letzigrund stadium, the flamboyant American sprinter, 2nd in the 100m at the Paris Olympics, got a little revenge by beating Olympic champion Julien Alfred, in her first race since the Games.
Leading throughout the race, Alfred had victory snatched from him on the line thanks to a cannonball comeback from Richardson, clocking 10.84 seconds (10.88 for Alfred).
“For me it was a great race,” Richardson said briefly after celebrating his victory.
In Paris last month, Richardson – the fastest on the straight this season (10.71) – was favourite to win Olympic gold but had to settle for silver, soundly beaten by Alfred who had brought her country Saint Lucia its first Olympic medal.
The men’s 200m also offered a duel between the top two finishers of the Olympics, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo and American Kenny Bednarek. But there was no revenge since Tebogo continued his series of prestigious victories by crossing the line in 19.55 seconds, two hundredths faster than Bednarek.
– Duplantis under six meters –
The evening was not marked by any great performances, even if the Olympic champions present (Mahuchikh in the high jump, Crouser in the shot put, Holloway in the 110m hurdles…) often held their own.
The Swiss public was hoping for a new world record in the pole vault with Mondo Duplantis, but the Swede, not helped by the weather and tired after his improbable 100 m the day before, stopped at 5.82 m.
“My body was broken after yesterday’s race and it was cold,” explained Duplantis, who still won the competition even though it was the first time this summer that he did not clear six meters (excluding qualifications).
On Wednesday, the Swedish world record holder (6.26 m) won a 100 m exhibition against the world record holder in the 400 m hurdles, the Norwegian Karsten Warholm, a challenge that the two friends had set themselves last year.
The Swede won (10.37) and as a token, the Norwegian had to perform a “Walk of Shame” on the track with a Swedish jersey on his shoulders.
– Chebet et Ingebrigtsen ratent les records –
In the middle distance, the double Kenyan Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet (5,000 m, 10,000 m) was aiming for the 5,000 m world record (14:00.21) in Zurich.
Helped until halfway through the race by a pacesetter, she then tried to hang on to the lights of the “wavelight” at the edge of the track but she gradually dropped the pace to finish in 14 min 09 sec 52.
“The weather was not good for a world record,” Chebet said. “I missed it and I think it was because of the conditions, and my hare gave up earlier than expected.”
In the men’s 1500m, the “wavelight” also indicated the pace of the world record but again, no one managed to follow it.
The race looked like a big showdown between the Olympic medallists – American Cole Hocker, Briton Josh Kerr and Yared Nuguse – and fourth-place finisher Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who was knocked off the podium in Paris, where he was the favourite.
Ingebrigtsen, who was ill last week after breaking the 3,000m world record, initially followed the record pace (3:26.00) but eventually gave up and was overtaken in the final metres by Yuguse, winner in 3 min 29 sec 21 (3:29.52 for Ingebrigtsen).
vg/bvo
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