Alison Dos Santos and Masai Russell each set a world record while Armand “Mondo” Duplantis won a historic pole vault in a barmy night of track and field in Zurich that would have more than pleased onlooking World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. The Swiss city’s Letzigrund Stadium had a raucous sellout 25,000 crowd and the still, balmy weather conditions helped no end for a heady night of athletics. Brazil’s Dos Santos was first up, clocking a sensational 45.80 seconds to beat the previous mark of 45.94 seconds set by Norway’s Karsten Warholm when winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
The weather’s good, the track’s amazing,” the Brazilian added. Then came Russell, the Olympic champion of the US at 12.09 seconds to beat the previous best of 12.12 seconds set by Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan at the Eugene world championships in 2022. Both Dos Santos and Russell will leave Zurich with a cheque each for $80,000 for having broken their respective records.
The world records were punctuated by a scintillating competition in the pole vault, eventually won by double Olympic and triple world champion Duplantis. The United States-born Swede came under real pressure from Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis, who vaulted a personal best of 6.20 metres. Duplantis cleared 6.25 metres for victory, while both vaulters tried a possible world record 6.32 metres, in a truly thrilling showdown that gripped the stadium’s attention.
It was the first time in vaulting history that two athletes had gone beyond the 6.20-metre mark. The icing on the cake came in the women’s 800 metres, with the star attraction Switzerland’s own Audrey Werro. Werro also did not disappoint, registering the third-fastest time ever in the two-lap race, 1:53.70, as she edged ever closer to Jarmila Kratochvilova’s Cold War world record of 1:53.28 set in Munich in 1983.
Thank you everybody!” the 22-year-old beamed. Femke Broeders-Bol finished second as she continues to improve in her transition from the 400-metre hurdle in which she was twice a world champion. Kenya’s world and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi held off Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati for a nail-biting victory in the men’s 800 metres.
Wanyonyi has said going for David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 was like running a marathon in less than two hours, and it once again proved elusive as he timed a world lead of 1:41.76 for the win, Sedjati just 0.07 seconds adrift. There is time for everything,” said Wanyonyi. US Olympic champion Cole Hocker, the world champ over 5,000 metres, claimed victory in a high-quality men’s 1,500 metres in 3:31.71 ahead of Kenya’s Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
