The home crowd went away empty-handed after their roaring support for local heroes Gianmarco Tamberi and Filippo Tortu in Rome on Thursday evening, but they were nonetheless treated to a sparkling evening of Diamond League action.
From scintillating sprint battles to surprises in the jumps, here is everything you missed at the Stadio Olimpico.
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It was the sprints which drew the most attention on Thursday, with some promising line-ups in both the men’s 200m and the women’s 100m.
The former proved, as expected, to be an edge-of-the-seat showdown between old chums Noah Lyles and Michael Norman. It was Norman who took victory, leading from the off and just about managing to hold off a resurgent Lyles on the line to win in 19.70.
In the women’s 100m, meanwhile, Dina Asher-Smith arrived fresh from her dominant 200m victory in Stockholm hoping to make another statement against the likes of Marie-Josée Ta Lou and Elaine Thompson.
Thompson, though, was having none of it, and sailed past Asher-Smith in the second 50 metres to clock a world leading 10.89.
It was the Jamaican’s first Diamond League victory since she claimed the Diamond Trophy two years ago, and a reminder that there are more than one or two sprinters who are in with a shout of winning the trophy this season.
Elsewhere on the track, Genzebe Dibaba edged Laura Muir with 3:56.28 in the women’s 1500m, while the men’s 5000m threw up a minor surprise in the form of Telahun Haile Bekele.
The 20-year-old Ethiopian held his nerve against Selemon Barega, just catching his compatriot on the line after a rollercoaster climax to an enthralling race. The victory not only gave Bekele his first Diamond League victory, but also guaranteed him a place in the Diamond League Final. He, alongside Barega and Hagos Gebrhiwet, are the first athletes to qualify for the final in 2019.
There were also surprises in the field events, as Angelica Bengtsson and Malaika Mihambo took victories in the pole vault and long jump respectively.
With bigger names such as Katerina Stefanidi and Sandi Morris struggling to find their groove, Bengtsson was the only jumper to clear 4.76m, while Mihambo dominated a star-studded field which included Brittney Reese, Ivana Spanovic and Diamond Trophy holder Caterine Ibargüen.
The German, who was crowned European Champion last year, notched up 7.07m to smash her PB and clear the seven metre mark for the first time.
Perhaps the performance of the night, however, goes to Konrad Bukowiecki, who also blew his PB to smithereens with a 21.97 throw to take victory in the men’s shot put. The mark was also the second time that the 33-year-old meeting record had been broken in one night. #