Caster, Lyles shine in Diamond League

ZURICH: South African Caster Semenya wrapped up another fantastic season by claiming the women’s 800m trophy in the Diamond League on Thursday as American sprint hope Noah Lyles took the 200m crown.

“It was just fantastic,” said Semenya, who won in 1min 55.27sec, more than 2sec ahead of American Ajee Wilson in second.

Lyles was one of the headline acts in Zurich and the 21-year-old made no mistake as he won the 200m in 19.67sec, just two-hundredths off his personal best set in Monaco last month.

It was Lyles’ fifth win on the Diamond League circuit this season, with Turkey’s world and European champion Ramil Guliyev coming in second in 19.98sec.

The women’s blue riband event saw Britain’s newly-crowned European champion Dina AsherSmith, who struck triple gold in Berlin after also winning the 200m and taking the 4x100m relay with her British team, clock 11.08sec to take second in the 100m.

Nigerian Blessing OkagbareIghoteguonor having false started, Dina finished behind Murielle Ahoure in 11.01sec with another Ivorian, Marie-Josee Ta Lou, in third.

In the field, New Zealand’s Tom Walsh wrapped up his shot put trophy with a meeting and Diamond League record of 22.60m.

And Greece’s double defending title holder Ekaterina Stefanidi continued the form that saw her clinch European gold for a third successive title.

Ekaterina, with the world, Olympic and European titles to her name, cleared a best of 4.87m to nudge out American Sandi Morris, who holds the season’s best.