World Champion Amantle Montsho of Botswana and Côte d’Ivoire’s Murielle Ahoure stormed to national records while Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare soared over seven metres twice at the Herculis Meeting – Diamond League in Monaco.
Montsho, won the 400m in a national record of 49.33 secs, the fastest time in the world this year, a national record and a Diamond League record, in front of the near-capacity crowd at the Stade Louis II stadium.
Stephanie McPherson of Jamaica clocked 49.92 secs for second, with American Francena McCorory third in 49.96 secs, both lifetime bests.
Afterwards Montsho said: ” I did not expect to run this quick, honestly.”
“For some reason I always seem to run fast here and I love the crowd’s support. Now I really need to take a rest and focus on Moscow. I really want to be on that podium.”
Okagbare had flighted around 6.85 – 6.98 all season and showed she meant business early on with a 6.86m first-round lead in the women’s long jump.
The Nigerian then produced a wind-assisted 7.04m (2.1m/s) in round two and then a lifetime best legal jump of 7.00m (0.0m/s) in the third-round.
Russian Darya Klishina finished second with a 2nd round jump of 6.98m (+2.4m/s) with Britain’s Shara Proctor managed 6.74m (+0.6m/s) in the final round to take third place.
“I would say nine out of ten. It’s a PB for me,” said Okagbare.
“My fourth and fifth jumps were better but I fouled them. My seven metres jump was far from perfect, and we’re working on a lot of different things.”
Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure won women’s 200m in a national record of 22.24 secs while Tiffany Townsend of the United States was second in a personal best of 22.26 secs and Jamaican Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was third in 22.28 secs.
Meet records
Kenyan Edwin Soi’s won the men’s 5000m in a dramatic style, passing Bahraini junior Albert Rop as they came into the home straight and kept his lead to finish in 12:51.34, the best in the world this year and a meeting record.
Rop settled for second place in an senior Asian record of 12:51.96 ahead of three Kenyans; Isaiah Koech (12:56.08), Thomas Longosiwa (12:59.81) and Lawi Lalang (13:00.95).
Milcah Chemos finished strongly to win the women’s 3000m Steeplechase in a meeting record of 9:14.17 ahead of her compatriot and current Diamond race leader Lydia Chepkurui, who finished second in 9:15.18.
Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop, became the fourth-fastest 1500m runner of all time, after he won the men’s race in 3:27.72 ahead of Britain’s Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Mohammed Farah, who set an European record of 3:28.81 behind him.
