ZURICH - Recently-crowned double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson maintained her winning ways by holding her form to claim victory in an all-star women's 200m at the Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday.
Elaine Thompson of Jamaica competes in the 100m women race during the Diamond League Athletics meeting "Athletissima"
Dutch world champion Dafne Schippers, who won silver behind Thompson at the Rio Games, had an electric start from lane five, up quickly on the Jamaican over the opening 50 metres.
Coming into the home stretch, it looked as if Schippers had the victory in the bag, but she pulled up with 10m to run and dipped too early, allowing a strong-finishing Thompson into first in a Diamond League record of 21.85 seconds.
"I came out a winner and I'm happy!" said Thompson. "This is a blast. I came out to execute well.
"It's been a long season, my last stop will be in Brussels next week. I haven't been home since Rio and I'm longing to get back to Jamaica."
Schippers was second, just one-hundredth of a second adrift in 21.86sec, the second fastest time of her career bettered only by her 21.63 when winning the world title in Beijing last year.
"The time is really good, I achieved a season's best," said Schippers.
"This year, I had quite a few struggles. I hope to come back stronger next year.
"For the world championships in 2017, I will have to work on everything in the 200: start, curve, execution, speed and finish.
"One hundredth of a second to Elaine Thompson, this is really tight."
In one of the most stellar fields ever assembled over the women's 200m, American Allyson Felix, who won 200m gold at the 2012 London Games and is also a three-time world champion in the distance, was third in 22.02sec.
European champion and Olympic bronze medallist Dina Asher-Smith of Britain was fourth in 22.38sec, while Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown, Olympic champion in 2004 and 2008, had to be happy with sixth behind compatriot and relay specialist Simone Facey.
Between Thompson, Schippers, Felix and Campbell-Brown, the quartet have dominated the women's 200m since 2004, reaping seven of the 12 available medals in the last four Olympics and 10 of the 18 in six world championships over the same period, including nine individual 200m golds.