The Meeting International Mohammed VI d’athlétisme, the 9th edition which held in Rabat on Sunday, was the first African stage in the history of the IAAF Diamond League and it brought its share of sports performance, with seven meeting records.
South African Caster Semenya (800m), the Ethiopian Almaz Ayana (5000m) and the Kenyan Conseslus Kipruto (3000 steeplechase) were among the strongest performers achieving both WL and MR.
Also the Moroccan Abdelaati Iguider (3000m) improved on the year’s best performance, while the American Lashawn Merritt (400m), the Latvian Madara Palameika (javelin), the Polish Piotr Malachowski (discus) and the Greek Katerina Stefanidi (pole vault) have broken the meeting’s records.
Although Semenya missed out on the Diamond League record, she improved the meeting’s record (1 :59.80) held by the Russian Yekaterina Poistogva since July 2013 after clocking 1:56.64 to win the 800m event.
Ethiopian Almaz Ayana crossed the finish line of the 5000m event in 14:16.31 time, doing better than her compatriot Senbere Teferi, who was third in the race (14:35.09).
Ayana also broke the meeting’s record (14:45.91) held by the Moroccan Mariem Alaoui Selsouli since 27 May 2012 in the process.
On his part, Conseslus Kipruto won the Men’s 3000m steeplechase event, in 8:02.77, improving the year’s best performance (8:05.13) and breaking the meeting’s record (8:07.80) as well.
Home star Abdelaati Iguider rose to the occasion to create a sensation at home, dominating the 3000m event to win in a 7:36.85. He improved the former mark (7:45.80) held by the Bahraini Zouhai Aouad since 30 April, 2015.
The American Lashawn Merritt scored the 400m event in a 44.66, thus breaking the meeting’s record held by the Jamaican Jermaine Gonzales (45.06), since 6 July, 2010.
Stefanidi improved on the meeting record, held by the Russian Angelina Krasnova (4.56m) since 14 June 2015, with a best clearance of 4.75m in the Pole Vault.
South African Ruswahl Samaai equalled the meeting’s record in the long jump, with a massive PB of 8.38m distance, the same mark established by Yahya Berrabeh on 23 May, 2009.
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