Zurich: Wayde van Niekerk, David Rudisha and Maria Arzamasova failed to reproduce their world title-winning form at the Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday.
Coming just four days after the action at the world championships came to a halt in Beijing, it was always going to be a big ask for athletes to pull out another big performance.
And so it proved despite a packed stadium at the first of two season-ending Diamond League finals, the finale coming in Brussels on September 11.
Poland’s Adam Kszczot won a high-quality 800 metres, beating Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi, Ethiopian Mohammad Aman and Kenya’s world record holder and newly-minted world champion Rudisha.
In the 400 metres, American Lashawn Merritt got the better of Van Niekerk and, in the women’s 800 metres, Kenyan Eunice Sum gained a degree of revenge over Arzamasova, winning in 1:59.14.
Genzebe Dibaba again played second fiddle to Ethiopian teammate Almaz Ayana, this time in the 3,000 metres, which the latter outsprinted the former to win in a meeting record of 8:22.34. Dibaba, however, was one of the 16 athletes on the night to win the Diamond Race for topping the season standings in her respective discipline.
There was no such drama for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the Jamaican replicating her winning Beijing form for victory in the women’s 100 metres in 10.93sec running into a headwind.
Russian Sergey Shubenkov was also victorious in the men’s 110 metres hurdles in 13.14sec ahead of American David Oliver, Czech Zuzana Hejnova was first across the line in the women’s 400 metres hurdles, Briton Greg Rutherford won the long jump with 8.32 metres and Kenyan Asbel Kiprop strode to a convincing 1,500 metres win (3:35.79).
Rutherford won the Diamond Race, meaning he could add that accolade to his being Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion simultaneously.
Pole Piotr Malachowski’s second place in the men’s discus was enough for the world champion to win the Diamond Race for a fourth time, just as Czech Barbara Spotakova did in the women’s javelin despite not even medalling in the Chinese capital.
