SA Press Association
South-Africa’s 400m Hurdler Cornel Fredericks continued his steady rise in the global rankings with another solid performance at the 2014 Meeting Areva – IAAF Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday.
Cornel Fredericks, who was third at the Diamond League event in Lausanne on Thursday, had a poor start but fought hard around the final bend and down the home straight to snatch second place in the French capital, in a season’s best time of 48.42 seconds.
The South African champion edged Javier Culson, who had won in Lausanne, by 0.03 seconds, with the Puerto Rican athlete settling for bottom spot on the podium.
American Michael Tinsley, the Olympic and World Championships silver medallist, produced a powerful late surge to win the race in 48.25.
Cornel Fredericks climbed to third place in the overall Diamond Race standings for his event, behind Tinsley and Culson, with four points in his discipline after eight legs in the top-flight global track and field series.
Two-lap specialist Andre Olivier, the only other South African taking part in Paris, took sixth place in a fast men’s 800m race.
Olivier, competing for the first time in more than a month, started quickly and was well placed at the bell, but he was nearly involved in a collision with 200m to go, with Kenyan Robert Biwott pushing him from behind in order to maintain his own balance.
The South African stood firm but was unable to recover from the brief stumble as 1 500m specialist Asbel Kiprop of Kenya strode clear to win in 1:43.34, the fastest time in the world this year.
Olivier crossed the line in 1:44.42, just 0.13 seconds outside his two-year-old personal best, while his training partner, Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos of Botswana, grabbed second position in 1:43.70.
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