Kenya’s 20-year-old Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi produced the top performance of a towering night of athletics at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on Thursday as he won the men’s 800m in 1:41.11.
That moved him to joint second on the world all-time list, tantalisingly adrift of the world record of 1:40.91 set by his compatriot and inspiration David Rudisha at the London 2012 Olympics.
Among the other delights for a packed crowd at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise was a revenge victory for Jakob Ingebrigtsen over the US runner who dispossessed him of his 1500m title in Paris, Cole Hocker. There was another notable reverse for an Olympic champion as Grant Holloway suffered a rare defeat in the 110m hurdles.
But elsewhere there were masterful victories for Olympic gold medallists Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine in the women’s high jump, Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece in the men’s long jump and Botswana’s 200m champion Letsile Tebogo.
Wanyonyi’s time exactly matched the then world record set by Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer in 1997.
In a non-Diamond League race that included four of the five men who followed him home in Paris, Wanyonyi’s world-leading run was also a Diamond League record.
The pacemaker had taken the field through 400m in 49.32, a shade off the requested 49.20, with Wanyonyi a couple of paces behind him. The Olympic champion held off the challenge of Canada’s world champion Marco Arop, with the latter clocking 1:41.72 and third place going to France’s European champion Gabriel Tual in 1:42.30.
“I’m so happy to have run the world lead today in Lausanne,” said Wanyonyi. “I really loved the crowd and I hope for the best in Silesia.”
Source: World Athletics
