EUGENE, United States, May 29 -Double Olympic champion faith Kipyegon clinched her first win of the season after running an imperious meeting record and world leading time at the Eugene Leg of the Diamond League, the Prefontaine Classic.
Kipyegon who finished second in her season opener in Doha in the 3,000m behind Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba, showed her superb and devastating finishing kick to win the women’s 1500m race in a time of 3mins, 52.59secs.
Kipyegon’s time was the ninth fastest in the 1500m history and it sets her up nicely towards qualification for the World Championships and Commonwealth Games.
She beat Ethiopia’s World Championship bronze medalist Gudaf Tsegay who timed 3mins, 54.29secs.
Meanwhile, in the corresponding men’s Bowerman’s mile, the Kenyan duo of Abel Kipsang and world champion Timothy Cheruiyot finished third and fourth in a race won by Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Kispang who has been in sizzling form this season could not replicate his form as he finished fourth, timing 3:50.87 which ranks as his personal best in the race.
Reigning world champion Cheruiyot timed 3:50.77 with winner Ingebrigtsen clocking a world leading time of 3:49.76. Australian Oliver Hoare was second. Vincent Keter finished a distant 12th.
-Shelly Anne wins women’s 200m
Elsewhere, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce made it a women’s sprint double for Jamaica with a victory in the 200m in 22.41, after Elaine Thompson-Herah had won the women’s 100m.
America’s Trayvon Bromell, the fastest man in the world last year, bounced back from a false start disqualification in Birmingham last weekend to win a star-studded men’s 100m in 9.93sec.
Jamaica’s Thompson-Herah, who won back-to-back Olympic 100m-200m doubles in 2016 and last year, captured the women’s 100m in 10.79.
Neither was a world best for 2022, but Thompson-Herah said she was just pleased to hit the line first and healthy on a rainy day in Eugene at the same venue that will host the athletics World Championships on July 15-24.
“I’m excited I crossed the line healthy,” Thompson-Herah said. “I don’t care about the time. The rain was falling. It was a little cold.
“It shows I’m on a great path,” added the Jamaican star, who pulled out of the Birmingham Diamond League meeting with a shoulder injury, testing herself in a lower-level meeting in Kingston last Saturday instead.
“I’m getting into shape,” added the Jamaican, who said on Friday that her training had also been disrupted by a nagging Achilles injury. “I’m getting where I need to be.”
Thompson-Herah made a smooth start on the damp track and took control at the 50m mark. Rising US star Sha’Carri Richardson won a close battle for second place ahead of Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, both credited with a time of 10.92.
Richardson, 22, shot to prominence last season at the US Olympic trials with a wind-aided 10.64 in the final. But she missed the Tokyo Games after a positive test for marijuana.
Compatriot Fred Kerley, silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics last year, was second in 9.98 and reigning world champion Christian Coleman, still working his way back after an 18-month suspension for violating doping whereabouts rules, completed a US podium sweep in 10.04.
-Additional information from AFP
