Chepkoech sets World Record
Marie-Josee steals show in 100m, emerges fastest by clocking 10.89 seconds; Ahoure is second best
Monaco, July 21: New American sprint hope Noah Lyles raced to a dominant 200m victory in Friday’s Diamond League meet in Monaco, where Caster Semenya also shone in the 800m and Kenyan Beatrice Chepkoech smashed the steeplechase World Record.
Lyles celebrated his 21st birthday in style, the wannabe rapper scorching to victory in 19.65 seconds, the fastest run this season and a meet record.
World champion Ramil Guliyev of Turkey finished second in 19.99, but Lyles was well clear of the field in perfect, balmy conditions at Monaco’s Louis II stadium.
It was another gun-totape win for Semenya, who is challenging the IAAF over controversial new rules track and field’s ruling body plan to introduce on high testosterone levels in female athletes.
She shot out past even the pacesetters and with Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1983 world record of 1:53.28 seemingly in imminent danger, Semenya blasted through the first lap in 55.76sec, and increased her lead over the chasing pack as she lengthened her stride down the back straight before rounding final bend.
The 27-year-old, double Olympic champion (2012, 2016) and three-time world champion (2009, 2011, 2017), eventually tied up slightly as she pushed through to the line in 1:54.60, also a meet record.
But it was a relatively unknown Kenyan, Chepkoech, who stole the plaudits by setting a new 3000m steeplechase world record.
Chepkoech, 27, ran 8min 44.32sec to shatter the previous best set in 2016 by Kenyan-born Bahraini Ruth Jebet, whose name headlined an Athletics Integrity Unit report released earlier Friday into alleged doping.
Olympic champion Jebet had run 8:52.78 before Chepkoech, aided by a couple of pacemakers, shot around more than six seconds faster, her remarkable effort also smashing her own previous personal best by more than 15 seconds.
“I wanted to break the world record, that was the plan from the start of the season,” she said.
“I felt strong during the race and was thinking I might be able to break 8:50, but not at all dreaming about 8:44.
“It’s a great feeling to bring the world record back to Kenya!”
Marie-Josee Ta Lou racked up a fifth win of the season in the Diamond League by winning the 100m in 10.89sec ahead of Ivorian compatriot Murielle Ahoure (11.01sec), with Jamaica’s double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson taking third (11.02).
“It’s an incredible year for me,” said Ta Lou, a double world silver medallist in 2017. “I’m performing really regularly and the goal was to go under 10.90 and I did just that so I’m super happy.”
Shaunae Miller-Uibo shattered the Bahamas and Diamond League records with a blistering 48.97sec in the opening 400m. — AFP meet in Monaco, Semenya again delivered the type of race that promised to challenge the longest-standing individual world record in athletics. Leading from gun to tape, the 27-year-old South African was in world record shape at 600 metres before fading down the home straight to eventually win in 1min 54.60sec. “It was just fantastic!” beamed Semenya. “Only the last 100m were a little off for me. “It was a long month of racing for me and now I need to rest. I feel that on my body.” Semenya added: “I wanted to break 1:54 but maybe next time. I want to be consistent at this level. I wasn’t thinking about the world record and it wasn’t on my mind.” Kratochvilova’s record of 1:53.28 was set in 1983, the same year the then 32-yearold Czech runner won the world 400 and 800m double. Her feats, coming relatively late on in a track career, allied with her incredibly muscular physique spawned allegations of doping, but she has always maintained her innocence and put her success down to the vitamin B12.
Semenya has spent her career also under the spotlight thanks to her success and physique.
The South African is currently challenging the IAAF over controversial new rules track and field’s ruling body plan to introduce on November 1 on high testosterone levels in female athletes.
The double Olympic champion (2012, 2016) and three-time world champion (2009, 2011, 2017) is now unbeaten over the 800m since her elimination in the semifinals of the 2015 worlds in Beijing.
Turn to CAS
But off the track, Semenya has turned to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in her challenge of IAAF rules.
The powerfully-built Semenya is potentially the highest-profile female athlete that would be affected by such regulations.
Classified as “hyperandrogynous”, athletes like Semenya would have to chemically lower their testosterone levels to be able to compete, something the 800m runner says is discriminatory and in violation of the IAAF’s constitution and the Olympic Charter.
— AFP