Muir’s season-best enough for second

Laura Muir placed second over 1500m at the Lausanne Diamond League in Switzerland, outsprinted by American Shelby Houlihan in a repeat of the Eugene Diamond League meeting at the end of May.

Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia) made all the early running in the Stade de la Pontaise with World and Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya of South Africa cruising in third as the Milnathort athlete followed in sixth.

Muir took the lead with 300m to go as Semenya uncharacteristically faded, but was tracked all the way around the final bend by Houlihan. With 40m to go the American battled her way to the front taking the finish in a meeting record 3:57.34. Muir followed home in a season’s best 3:58.18.

There were also season’s bests for Morpeth athlete Laura Weightman in seventh (4:01.76) and Eilish McColgan in eighth (4:01.98), while Welsh athlete Melissa Courtney finished 10th.

With Semenya absent from the 800m, Francine Niyonsaba (Burundi) headed the field following a torrid battle with the in-form US athlete Ajee Wilson. Niyonsaba clocked 1:57.80 to Wilson’s 1:58.20. Lynsey Sharp (Edinburgh AC), in eighth, had the consolation of a season’s best timed at 2:01.02.

Abderrahman Samba (Qatar) notched up his sixth 400m hurdles victory following up his high point in Paris last Saturday when he became only the second man to beat 47 seconds.

Samba powered off the penultimate hurdle to clock 47.42 chased by world champion Karsten Warholm (Norway), who was timed at 47.94. GB’s Jack Green was seventh in 49.51.

Marie-Josee Ta Lou (Ivory Coast), who with a raft of early season 100m victories had a rare off day last Saturday in Paris to finish third in the 200m, leapt back to winning ways over 100m with 10.90 seconds.

Rio 100 and 200m champion Elaine Thompson (Jamaica) followed in 10.99.

Martyn Rooney won the “B” 400m in 46.17 while Jodie Williams placed fourth over 200m (22.85).

Just five days after topping the world 2018 rankings with a longjump of 7.05m in Birmingham, UK champion Lorraine Ugen came down to earth with a best of 6.48m to finish seventh. Malaika Mihambo (Germany) was a surprise winner on countback with 6.90m, a distance shared with Serbia’s Olympic bronze medallist Ivana Spanovic.

UK record holder Shara Proctor was fifth with 6.62m.