American Christian Coleman gatecrashed the long-awaited showdown between Marcell Jacobs and Fred Kerley by storming to victory in the men’s 100m at the Diamond League meet in Xiamen on Saturday.
Jacobs had beaten Kerley to Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021, the American claiming the world title a year later in Eugene when the Italian was injured.
That meant Jacobs had not raced against Kerley since the Olympic final. The delay in a re-match was extended when the pair failed to make the final of the recently-completed world championships in Budapest, where Noah Lyles won the 100m.
In Xiamen, in the first series meeting on Chi-nese soil since pre-Covid times in 2019, Coleman clocked 9.83 seconds for the victory, the fastest time of the year so far.
Coleman, the 2019 world champion who fin-ished fifth in the final of the blue riband event in Budapest, came across the line ahead of Jamaican Kishane Thompson, who timed a personal best of 9.85sec.
“I am so happy,” said Coleman, who missed the Tokyo Olympics because of an 18-month suspension for missing multiple drug-testing appointments.
“In the world championships I was fifth, it was a success but I was not very glad about it… but I came here and have my season’s best.”
Kerley rounded out the podium in 9.96, while Jacobs came in seventh, albeit in a season’s best of 10.05.
Jamaica’s 2011 world champion Yohan Blake finished sixth (10.04), just behind Brandon Carnes (10.01) and another American in the shape of Marvin Bracy-Williams (10.02).
Yaroslava Mahuchikh was one of four recently-crowned world champions to win in China.
The Ukrainian managed a best of 2.02m, a world lead and meet record, to win the women’s high jump.
“I am really happy that I managed to break my season best of 2.01,” Mahuchikh said. “I did not expect that because I felt a little bit tired.
“I did feel a little bit stressed before the World Athletics Championships, but most of the time, I just enjoy all my competition and feel relaxed.”
Serbia’s Ivana Vuleta (6.88m), Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali (8:10.31) and Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic (49.36sec) made no mistake for victories in the men’s 110m hurdles, women’s long jump, men’s 3000m steeplechase and women’s 400m respectively. Other world champs fared less well.
Canada’s Marco Arop could only finish second to Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi’s impressive winning time of 1:43.20 in the men’s 800m, a personal best that was also the fastest time of the year and a meet record.
American Grant Holloway was beaten to the line in the men’s 110m hurdles by Jamaican winner Hansle Parchment, in 12.96sec, with Daniel Roberts grabbing second.
Holloway’s teammate and fellow Budapest champion Laulauga Tausaga was third in the women’s discus throw won by Feng Bin on home soil, while Burkina Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango was runner-up in the men’s triple jump to Italy’s Andy Diaz Hernandez.—AFP
