Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Beatrice Chebet clocked a world-leading 14:09.52 meeting record at the 2024 Weltklasse Zurich – the last Wanda Diamond League meeting before the finals in Brussels on 13 and 14 September.
The Kenyan attempted a bold but unsuccessful 5000m world record in Zurich, breaking Vivian Cheruiyot’s 2011 meeting record of 14:30.10.
World 10,000m bronze medallist Ejgayehu Taye from Ethiopia finished second in 14:28.76, whilst Ethiopian Tsigie Gebreselama came third with 14:39.05.
“I really wanted to run the world record but the pacemaker dropped out earlier than planned. It was not easy after that,” said Chebet after the race.
In the men’s 200m, Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo executed a dramatic finish, edging out Paris 2024 runner-up Kenny Bednarek of the United States by 0.02 seconds with a time of 19.55 (0.4m/s).
Bednarek set a personal best of 19.57 in second place while US teammates Erriyon Knighton and Fred Kerley finished third and fourth with times of 19.79 and 19.81, respectively.
Following her world-best time of 1:21.63 in the 600m event in Berlin on Sunday, Kenyan world champion Mary Moraa delivered a commanding performance in the women’s 800m. She surged ahead in the home straight, crossing the finish line with a time of 1:57.08.
Meet The Authors
Yomog Meje is a former Nigerian junior athlete and the Associate editor at Athletics Africa.
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