Qatar’s high jump Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim made a last-minute withdrawal at yesterday’s London Diamond League, while Ismail Doudai Abakar smashed his lifetime best by almost a second to finish third in 47.72 secs in 400m hurdles.
With one eye on the Paris Games, Barshim, who famously shared Tokyo gold with Italian Gianmarco Tamberi, decided not to jump due to lack of space on the runway at London Stadium. Later, Barshim – who has struggled with injuries this season – admitted that he did not want to take a risk with Olympics round the corner.
“I didn’t jump, unfortunately. I’m disappointed,” Barshim said yesterday. “There was no space; it was a technical mistake I think from the organisers and it was very tight. So, when I tried to set up my run-up to jump, it was impossible. There was no place to do it.
“I’ve been jumping officially for about 15 years. This is only the second time in my career that something like this has happened. Of course, I’m frustrated, not only for myself but also for everyone who came out there to support me. I feel bad because I don’t like letting people down. I’m not injured; I wanted to come here and perform at my best. But, as I said, things happen. It’s frustrating, but we move forward. We have the Olympics soon, so I’m looking forward to that,” the 33-year-old.
In Barshim’s absence, World indoor champion Hamish Kerr won event with 2.30m jump. Last week, Barshim had won in Heilbronn, Germany with a leap of 2.31 metres, equalling his season’s best as eyes another Olympic podium finish in Paris.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Abakar sprang a surprise with a stunning show. Starting in lane 8, Abakar finished third behind Brazil’s 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos, who was a convincing winner in 47.18. Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke produced a season’s best of 47.63 to take second.
“That was a huge personal best for me so I am very excited now for Paris,” an elated Abakar said later. “I knew I could do it and now I can go there and I really feel I can get to the final. To take this much off my personal puts me really in the right place for the Olympics.”
Lyles fires Olympic 100m broadside, Bol cruises
Meanwhile, US sprint star Noah Lyles fired out a timely broadside at pretenders to the Olympic 100m crown at Diamond League meeting in London, where Femke Bol again shone in the hurdles.
Lyles, who won the world 100-200m titles in Budapest last year, clocked a personal best of 9.81 seconds in the blue riband event. It could not have been better timed, with the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics just six days away. “I’m going to win, it’s what I always do. I’m getting faster every week,” Lyles said.
In her own fine-tuning, world champion Bol set a new meet record of 51.30sec as she cruised to victory in the women’s 400m hurdles. “I am excited for Paris and of course to put on my best race there,” she said, with world record holder and Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in her crosshairs. “I am looking forward to racing Sydney – that will push us both. I will be ready for it and the relay as well of course.”
There was a fantastic send-off to a raft of Paris-bound British athletes in front of a near sell-out crowd of 58,000 at London Stadium, the venue for the 2012 Olympics and home to English Premier League club West Ham United. World and Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson just missed out on Caster Semenya’s Diamond League record by blasting to a stunning victory in 1:54.61 in the women’s 800m.
Perfectly led out by pacemaker Erin Wallace, the European champion was in total control of the race and came flying through the line in a meet record that improved her own British record.
Hodgkinson’s British teammate Matthew Hudson-Smith might have sat out the European championships in Rome, but that didn’t show as he bettered his own European record to 43.74sec in a scintillating 400m. It did not all go totally to plan for home favourites as Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita could only finish third and fourth in the 200m behind American winner Gabrielle Thomas – in a meet record of 21.82sec – and second-placed St Lucian Julien Alfred (21.86).
There were three individual Australian winners at London Stadium: world champion Nina Kennedy claimed victory in the women’s pole vault with 4.85m; Oliver Hoare claimed the men’s mile in 3:49.03; and Mackenzie Little won the women’s javelin in a personal best of 66.27m.
There was a surprise in the men’s shot put, however, as Italy’s European champion Leonardo Fabbri snatched a late victory with his fifth effort of 22.52 metres. American favourite Ryan Crouser, who will seek a third successive Olympic title in Paris, finished second with 22.37sec.
Nickisha Pryce of Jamaica proved her form with an impressive world lead of 48.57sec in the women’s 400m, a personal best and meet record. There was a further meet record in the non-Olympic distance of 3,000m, Switzerland’s Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu winning in 7:27.68.
