unofficial world record-holder given
the doping-related controversy
surrounding the Chinese from
that era.
Weightman said: “As the race
went on I felt stronger and stronger
and the last few laps I kept
passing athletes. At that stage your
competitive instinct kicks in and
you want to see how fast you can
run and I’m blown away to run 8:26.”
This latest meeting in the 2019
Diamond League series was staged
at Stanford, California, in front of an
8000-capacity crowd rather than
its usual venue of Eugene due to
the redevelopment of Hayward
Field ahead of the 2021 IAAF World
Championships.
Fine, sunny conditions
helped produce a series of good
performances and these included
the men’s 100m where Christian
Coleman ran a world lead of 9.
(-0.1) to beat Justin Gatlin (9.87) as
Britain’s Zharnel Hughes equalled
his season’s best of 9.97 in third
as he showed his increasingly
consistent ability to run sub-10.
“It’s always good to run on home
soil,” said Coleman. “I just compete
and try to come out with a win,
but, obviously, guys are steadily
getting better and better and always
running faster. It’s going to take
some pretty good training to get a
gold medal at the end of the year.”
British eyes were also on Laura
Muir and Dina Asher-Smith but it
was not to be their day as they lost
their respective races.
Faith Kipyegon, who is returning
from a baby break, took the
women’s 1500m in 3:59.04 from
Muir (3:59.47) as 2018 world No.
Shelby Houlihan finished strongly for
third in her first race of the summer.
Asher-Smith, meanwhile, was
beaten by an inspired Blessing
Okagbare in the women’s 200m
as the Nigerian stormed to a 22.
(1.9) win – just one hundredth of asecond outside her African record
- as Olympic champion Elaine
Thompson was second in (22.21)
and Asher-Smith third in (22.42).
A lively meeting saw plenty of
surprise results, too. Darlan Romani
of Brazil was a shock winner of the
men’s shot with 22.61m ahead of
Ryan Crouser’s 22.17m while Tom
Walsh was third.
For Romani the throw meant he
smashed his own South American
record of 22.00m set in 2018 and
the Brazilian became the first non-
American to win the shot at this
meeting, while in addition his throw
was also a Diamond League record.
Most exciting finish of the day,
meanwhile, came in the men’s
two miles when Joshua Cheptegei,
the world cross-country champion
from Uganda, held off the fast-
finishing Paul Chelimo of the US to
win in 8:07.50 as Selemon Barega
of Ethiopia wound up a close third.
A competitive Bowerman MileFaith Kipyegon
(centre) took
1500m victory
ahead of
Laura MuirACTION PRE CLASSIC, STANFORD, USA, JUNE 30
Blessing Okabare (second from left) was in inspired form in the 200m