Van Niekerk, Rudisha fail to fire in Zurich

Van Niekerk, Rudisha fail to fire in Zurich

ZURICH - Wayde van Niekerk, David Rudisha and Maria Arzamasova failed to reproduce their world title-winning form at the Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday.

USA's Lashawn Merritt (R) runs to win the men's 400m race ahead of Grenada's Kirani James during the Diamond League Athletics meeting on September 3, 2015 in Zurich

Coming just four days after the action at the world championships came to a halt in Beijing, it was always going to be a big ask for athletes to pull out another big performance.

And so it proved despite a packed stadium at the first of two season-ending Diamond League finals, the finale coming in Brussels on September 11.

Poland's Adam Kszczot won a high-quality 800m, beating out Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi, Ethiopian Mohammed Aman and Kenya's world record holder and newly-minted world champion Rudisha.

In the 400m, American Lashawn Merritt got the better of Van Niekerk and in the women's 800m, Kenyan Eunice Sum gained a degree of revenge over Arzamasova, winning in 1:59.14.

Genzebe Dibaba again played second fiddle to Ethiopian teammate Almaz Ayana, this time in the 3000m, which the latter outsprinted the former to win in a meeting record of 8:22.34. Dibaba, however, was one of the 16 athletes on the night to win the Diamond Race for topping the season standings in her respective discipline.

There was no such drama for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the Jamaican replicating her winning Beijing form for victory in the women's 100m in 10.93sec running into a headwind.

Russian Sergey Shubenkov was also victorious in the men's 110m hurdles in 13.14sec ahead of American David Oliver, Czech Zuzana Hejnova was first across the line in the women's 400m hurdles, Briton Greg Rutherford won the long jump in 8.32m and Kenyan Asbel Kiprop strode to a convincing 1500m win (3:35.79).

Rutherford won the Diamond Race, meaning he could add that accolade to his being Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion simultaneously.

Pole Piotr Malachowski's second place in the men's discus was enough for the world champion to win the Diamond Race for a fourth time, just as Czech Barbara Spotakova did in the women's javelin despite not even medalling in the Chinese capital.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT