The threatened storm stayed away but there were plenty of flashes of brilliance at the Athletissima Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, where Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Neeraj Chopra, Yulimar Rojas and Noah Lyles were among the athletes to light up the track and field on Friday (26).
On a blustery evening at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, where places in next month’s Diamond League final in Zurich were up for grabs, Ingebrigtsen ran a world-leading 3:29.05 to win the 1500m, while Kovacs ended world record-holder Ryan Crouser’s shot put win streak with a 22.65m victory. Femke Bol’s 52.95 in the 400m hurdles was among the three meeting records set on the day, and Rojas continued her dominance with another triple jump triumph.
Despite being fresh from winning the 1500m and 5000m at the European Championships, Ingebrigtsen’s late decision to compete in Lausanne paid off as he recorded the fastest time in the world this year to defeat a strong 1500m field. Striding ahead with 600m to go, the Norwegian Olympic champion remained right on the planned 3:30 pace indicated by wavelight technology on the track, and was a few strides ahead of his rivals at the bell. He remained with the lights down the back straight and left them behind with 200m to go, surging to a clear victory ahead of Kenya’s Abel Kipsang and Australia’s Stewart McSweyn.
The top eight all went sub-3:34, with Kipsang clocking 3:29.93 and McSweyn 3:30.18. Britain’s Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr finished fourth in 3:32.28 and Kenya’s four-time Diamond League champion Timothy Cheruiyot seventh in 3:32.91.
“It was a pretty good race,” said Ingebrigtsen. “Luckily the pacemaker was pushing the first 700m. The risk was that the pace would slow down when he quit so I had to push and it turned out well. I think I could have gone faster.”