Xiamen Diamond League: Duplantis finishes first in Pole Vault final; Warholm clocks world record in 300m Hurdles

Xiamen Diamond League: Duplantis finishes first in Pole Vault final; Warholm clocks world record in 300m Hurdles

Swedish superstar Armand “Mondo” Duplantis won the pole vault comfortably with a jump of 5.92m but failed with three attempts at 6.01 in a performance that never threatened his world record of 6.27 set in February.

Greek Emmanouil Karalis finished behind him at 5.82m. During his second attempt at 5.92, Karalis got a splinter in his chin and retired before his final run.

Karsten Warholm broke the 300m hurdles world record, taking 0.21 seconds off his own mark in the little-run event.

The 29-year-old Norwegian 400m world record holder crossed the finish line in a blistering 33.05 seconds.

Warholm, who won gold in the 400m hurdles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and silver in Paris last year, obliterated his own previous world best of 33.26 set four years ago in Oslo.

Faith Kipyegon came within 0.23sec of breaking a decades-old world record in the women’s 1000m, another non-Olympic distance, finishing in 2min 29.21sec.

“It went how I wanted just to start my season in a good way,” said the Kenyan. “I wanted to do my personal best which was very close to the world record.”

Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet triumphed in her distance duel with Gudaf Tesgay.

Chebet was delighted with how she came through her race against world record holder Tesgay and nine other Ethiopians in the women’s 5,000m after pulling away down the home straight to win in 14 minutes and 27.12 seconds.

“The season is still new, and I was not sure where the body is, so I just thought I’d try to push because there were a lot of Ethiopians there,” she said.

“Thank God I was able to run good, my speed is still there, my 200 reaction is still there, so I’ll go back home and do more training and focus on the world championships.”

South African Akani Simbine and American Anavia Battle confirmed their fine early season form with victories in the showcase sprint races.

Simbine leads the world in the 100m so far this year, and he powered to victory in 9.99 seconds ahead of Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (10.13) and world indoor sprint champion Jeremiah Azu of Britain (10.17).

Battle, the only woman to run under 11 seconds in the 100m this season, scorched off the bend to beat world champion Jackson into second place in the women’s 200m in 22.41.

Jamaican Jackson, who clocked 22.79 with American Jenna Prandini third in 22.97, was happy with her first outing of the year in the event she dominated for two years until a leg injury ended her 2024 season before the Olympics.

“I just wanted to finish healthy, and I’m healthy, so I’m good,” she said. “I think I did pretty good tonight.”

Jamaican Danielle Williams, who will be going for a third world title in September, surged ahead of American Grace Stark off the final barrier to win the women’s high hurdles in 12.53 seconds.

There were no surprises in the women’s high jump as Ukraine’s Olympic and world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh ran out of rivals at 1.97m, well short of her world record of 2.10.

Dutchwoman Jessica Schilder threw 20.47m with her opening effort to win the shot put ahead of world champion Chase Jackson, while American Valarie Allman took discus honours with a throw of 68.95m.

There was also Chinese success for the crowd to cheer when Zhang Mingkun won the men’s long jump ahead of Australian Liam Adcock with a leap of 8.18m.

(with inputs from Reuters)

Published on Apr 26, 2025