Triple jumper records 18.06m meeting record, while Lyles wins 200m in 19.65

Arguably, despite some notable efforts on the track, it was the men’s triple jump which produced the top performance of a very good Paris Diamond League meeting.

World leader Will Claye dominated the first two rounds with leaps of 17.36m and 17.39m, though world and Olympic champion Christian Taylor came close with a 17.38m third round and he improved to 17.49m in the fourth but Claye responded with a 17.71m leap.

Taylor went even further in round five with 17.82m to equal his season’s best but Claye’s response was a mighty 18.06m meeting record.

Claye said: “It was a great day. My confidence is very high and I’m in a very good space right now, physically and my mindset. This is the furthest I have ever jumped overseas and it’s hard to talk about a number for Doha but I want to win.”

The track highlight was provided by Noah Lyles who ran a stunning 200m to break Usain Bolt’s meeting record of 19.73.

He won by over three metres in 19.65 (0.2m/sec), a time that only he has bettered this year.

A distant second was world and European champion Ramil Guliyev in 20.01.

“I’m coming off a loaded week in training so that gives me confidence,” Lyles said. “It felt fast and it was the fastest I’ve ever felt coming off the turn.”

? 200 m ♂ (+0.2 m/s)
1⃣ @LylesNoah 19"65 MR ??
2⃣ @ramil_guliyev 20"01 ??
3⃣ @KingsleySC 20"13 ??

?Noah Lyles bat le record du meeting et efface Usain Bolt des tablettes !

?Noah Lyles broke @usainbolt's meeting record!#MeetingParis #ParisDL pic.twitter.com/MqgPbUx7rg

— MEETING de PARIS (@MEETINGPARIS) August 24, 2019

Elaine Thompson was impressive in winning the women’s 100m by almost two metres. Interestingly, though, her time was slightly slower than Dina Asher-Smith managed on the same day in Birmingham, despite a lighter headwind in Paris.

The Olympic champion won in 10.98 with Marie-Josee Ta Lou second in 11.13 and Dafne Schippers third in 11.15.

She said: “It was hard but with five weeks to go to Doha, I’m not at 100%      yet because it’s all about the World Championships.”

Daniel Roberts won the men’s 110m hurdles in an impressive 13.08 after his great rival Grant Holloway had led past halfway after a lightning start.

World and European champion Karsten Warholm started the night’s track action with a full one second victory in the 400m hurdles.

The Norwegian won in 47.26 with France’s Ludvy Vaillant second in a PB 48.30 and Kyron McMaster third in a season’s best 48.33.

The men’s 800m, which was not a Diamond League event, saw the pacemaker Abda Haran blast through 400m in 48.90. Canada’s Brandon McBride took it on and went through 600m in a still very fast 75.60 and on for a 1:41 clocking.

The final 200m took him a painful 28 seconds but he held on to win in a season’s best 1:43.78 but only just as Wesley Vasquez was a foot down in a Puerto Rican record 1:43.83.

World champion Pierre-Ambrose Bosse ran a season’s best 1:45.07 in sixth.

There was even greater depth in the 1500m. The pace was perfect with 54.97 at 400m and 1:52.19 at 800m and a big group of over a dozen was in contention at the bell which was reached in just over 2:35.

Ayanleh Souleiman led through 1200m in 2:50.02 and looked like he would hold off everyone but a fast finish from Ronald Musagala gave him victory by a foot.

His time was an Ugandan record-equalling 3:30.58 as he followed up his Birmingham victory one week earlier thanks to a well-timed 55 last lap.

Souleiman ran a season’s best 3:30.66 in second. Third place saw a battle between the Ingebrigtsens with Filip’s 3:31.06 getting the better of younger brother’s Jakob’s 3:31.33.

The first eight broke 3:32 including Australian Stewart McSweyn who equalled his PB of 3:31.81 in eighth while European Team Championships and Dream Mile winner Marcin Lewandowski could only finish 10th but his 3:31.95 was a Polish record.

Seven athletes broke two minutes in the women’s 800m. The opening lap was a far too fast 55.62 by Chanelle Price. Fellow USA athlete Raevyn Rogers led through 600m in an exciting 86.56 and looked good until hitting the straight and she faded to sixth as another American Hanna Green won in 1:58.39 with Natoya Goule second in 1:58.59.

The 1500m specialist Gudaf Tsegay was a distant last for much of the race but came through strongly to run a PB 1:59.52, just two hundredths behind Rogers, who had been three seconds ahead of her on the final bend!

The men’s 3000m steeplechase started promisingly with a 2:40.90 opening kilometre but the 2000m time of 5:28.29 ensured there would be no fast times.

On the last lap world leader Soufiane El Bakkali controlled it superbly and won in 8:06.64 to repel the challenge of Benjamin Kigen who was second in 8:07.09.

In the field the next most notable event to the men’s triple jump was a highly competitive women’s pole vault where Canadian Alysha Newman had the biggest win of her life.

After clearing 4.75m at the first attempt, a third time clearance at 4.82m gave her the win and a national record. Three others cleared 4.75m with Katerina Stefanidi beating Sanid Morris and Anzhelika Sidorova on countback.

A lower quality victory also went the way of Canada in the men’s high jump. There, Michael Mason won with 2.28m to defeat Andriy Protsenko and Ilya Ivanyuk on countback.

Another Commonwealth athlete, the 2015 world champion Tomas Walsh dominated the shot. He won with a meeting record and season’s best 22.44m. Joe Kovacs was runner-up with 22.11m where the top eight threw 21.20m or further.

World leader and world triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas further strengthened her position as favourite for Doha with a clear win in 15.05m.

Denia Caballero won the discus with a 66.91m throw as Sandra Perkovic was second with 65.01m.

World decathlon record-holder Kevin Mayer delighted the French crowd with a 13.55 win in the multi event 110m hurdles.

He also won the long jump with a 7.50m leap and was even more dominant in the shot which he won with another PB of 17.08m.

The women’s 400m was a close race but a strange one in that no one came remotely close to even a season’s best. Stephenie Ann McPherson finished strongly to win in 51.11.

The 110m hurdles B race was won by France’s Dimitri Bascou in 13.38 and France also won the women’s 4x100m in 43.48. However, the final event of the day, the men’s 4x100m, saw Canada win in a meeting record 38.26 to defeat France’s 38.67.

In the men’s 100m, Hassan Taftian equalled his Iranian record with 10.03 (-0.3m/sec).

Results can be found here.