Top eight in 800m covered by one second

Scottish 800m record holder Lynsey Sharp (Edinburgh AC) had to settle for eighth place in the closest of finishes at the Stockholm Diamond League as Rio Olympics runner-up Francine Niyonsaba (Burundi) held her form to win in one minute 59.11 seconds.

The blanket finish saw Sharp clock 2:00.19, a season’s best. With just over one second covering the top eight, Lovisa Lindh (Sweden) placed second in 1:59.41.

Absent Olympic champion Caster Semenya has already done enough to book her place in August’s final in Zurich having won all three of her Diamond League races.

Andre De Grasse cemented his place at the top of the Diamond League 100m standings finishing nearly two metres ahead of the field.

The Canadian clocked a fabulous 9.69 seconds with the help of a following wind. The top five ducked under the 10-seconds barrier as Youseff Ben Meite (Ivory Coast) claimed second place in 9.84.

European indoor hurdles champion Andrew Pozzi (GB), hoping to make his 110m hurdles competitive debut, will have to wait a while longer suffering disqualification for a false start.

A world lead came in the 1500m where Timothy Cheruiyot (Kenya) won in three minutes 30.77 seconds.