Thrilling finishes by Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Kirani James highlight Xiamen Diamond League event
Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi wins the men’s 800 meters in a world-leading 1:43.20 at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting on Saturday, September 2, 2023. Photo by Matthew Quine for Diamond League AG
By Israel La Rue
The first Diamond League event in the newly built, $1.2 billion Egret Stadium in Xiamen, China, featured world-leading performances in four events and tight finishes in two events, the men’s 400 and 800 meters.
Six days after the World Athletics Championships in Budapest ended, 19 medalists competed at the event, and the qualifiers for the Diamond League final, which will be held at the Pre Classic at Hayward Field on Sept. 16-17, came into sharper focus.
In the men’s 800 meters, 19-year-old Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the silver medalist at Budapest, set a world lead, meet record and personal best of 1:43.20, edging the reigning world champion, Marco Arop, by .04.
All of the action happened in the final 300 meters after the pacesetter went off the track. Arop moved from third to the heels of Wanyonyi, while Wanyonyi kicked.
Arop held on, passing Wanyonyi on the home stretch. But in the final 10 meters, Wanyonyi took back his lead to get his revenge for losing gold to the Canadian. Arop didn’t notice Wanyonyi regaining his lead as he celebrated prematurely, raising his hand in victory right before the finish line.
The win was Wanyonyi’s third of the Diamond League season, putting him in second place in the Diamond League standings with 25 points, Arop is right behind him with 24 points and Benjamin Robert, who surged to a third-place finish in the home straight with a time of 1:43.88, is sixth in the standings with 16 points.
In the men’s 400 meters, Kirani James, the 2012 Olympic champion, ran a meet record and season-best of 44.38, beating Quincy Hall, the bronze medalist at Budapest, in a photo finish.
Both sprinters made their move with 150 meters to go, and it all came down to the final 100. James held the lead, but Hall was right on his heels.
In the final 20 meters, they were neck and neck and finished that way through the finish line, but James had just enough of an edge to win. Both sprinters were credited with the same time.
James sits in eighth place in the qualification standings with eight points, Hall is in 10th with seven points, and third-place finisher Rusheen McDonald, who finished in 44.82, is in sixth with 12 points.
In the women’s 3,000 meters, Beatrice Chebet, the 5,000-meter bronze medalist at Budapest, set a world lead, meet record and personal best of 8:24.05.
The race was set up to be a fast one with the pacesetters running the first two laps in 2:1, with splits of 66 and 69 seconds.
Chebet, as always, was on their heels. Once the pacesetters stepped off the track, she slowed the tempo even signaling to the other runners with her hand to slow down.
But Mexican national champion Laura Galván had no intentions of listening to Chebet, passing her up to take the lead with two laps left.
Galván didn’t hold onto that lead for long as Chebet kicked with 300 meters left, easily passing by the Mexican and further separating herself from the field down the backstraight. Galván finished with a national record of 8:28.05.
Chebet’s last lap clocked in at 57.74 seconds. She has a huge lead in the qualification standings with 31 points, 12 points ahead of second place.
In the men’s 100 meters, Christian Coleman, Doha gold medalist, ran a meet record 9.83, which tied him for the fastest time in the world this season with Noah Lyles and Zharnel Hughes.
Coleman got his usual great start and held this lead through the whole race, surviving a late surge from all the way out in lane 10. Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson finished second, .02 behind Coleman.
Tokyo silver medalist Fred Kerley ran 9.96 to finish in third. He leads the qualification standings with 29 points.
Coleman is ninth in the standings with eight points, one spot shy of automatically qualifying for the Diamond League final, and Thompson is sixth with 11 points.
In women’s high jump, newly crowned high jump world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh jumped for a meet record and world lead of 2.02 meters.
Mahuchikh started her day at 1.89m and easily jumped over the first two marks, but struggled at 1.95, needing three attempts to make the height.
The Ukrainian found her groove again, easily jumping over 1.98 and passing 2 meters to go straight to the 2.02 mark, which she cleared on the first try. where she jumped over on her first try. Mahuchikh called it a day after ending with a world lead.
Mahuchikh is third in the Diamond League standings with 28 points. Second-place finisher Lia Apostolovski, who jumped 1.92m, is in eighth place with eight points and third-place finisher, Eleanor Patterson, the 2021 world champion, jumped 1.92m as well and is seventh place with 11 points.
In women’s long jump, Ivana Vuleta carried the momentum from winning her first world championship in Budapest to get her first Diamond League win of the season with a jump of 6.88 meters.
Vuleta’s first jump of 6.79m gave her an early lead, but Marthe Koala, the 2022 African champion, matched Vuketa’s jump on her third attempt.Vuleta distanced herself from the competition on her fifth jump to win. She is tied with Larissa Iapichino atop the qualification standings with 24 points.
Bin Feng, the 2022 women’s discus world champion who finished third in Budapest, got her first Diamond League win in front of her home crowd on her final throw of 67.41 meters.
In the meet’s final competition, the men’s 110 hurdles, Tokyo gold medalist Hansle Parchment closed fast to beat three-time world champion Grant Holloway with a time of 12.96. Holloway, who faded over the last few hurdles, finished third in 13.12 behind countryman Daniel Roberts, who ran 13.03.