Latin American athletics shine in Lausanne Diamond League
Lausanne, August 26 (RHC/PL) -- Triumphs by Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas, Dominican Marileidy Paulino and Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce led Latin American athletics at the Diamond League in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday.
The triple jumper Rojas set a record for the competition with 15.56 meters; meanwhile, the sprinter Paulino registered a time of 50.40 seconds in the lap of the oval and the sprinter Fraser Pryce took revenge for the setback in the Olympic final in Tokyo and won the hectometer with 10.60 seconds.
In the tenth stop of the prestigious athletic competition, Rojas continued her conquest of records and improved by 23 centimeters the previous record of the meeting held by the Russian Tatyana Lebedeva of 15.33 meters in 2004, valid to surpass this time the Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts (15.02) and the Israeli Hanna Mnenko (14.47), silver and bronze, in that order.
The Dominican Paulino relegated the Barbadian Sada Williams (50.77) to second place in the 400 meters and the American Quanera Hayes (51.06) finished third.
In the queen event of the sprint, Fraser Pryce vanished the previous record of the American Marion Jones of 10.72 in 1998 and defeated the Olympic title holder Elaine Thompson-Hearh, second with 10.64; while her fellow countrywoman Shericka Jackson was third with 10.92, to complete the Jamaican podium.
Latin America and the Caribbean also celebrated in Lausanne the third place of Grenada's Anderson Peters, who threw the javelin to 84.32 meters and was surpassed by Germany's Johannes Vetter (88.54) and the Czech Republic's Jakub Vadlejch (85.73), first and second, respectively.
Likewise, Bahamian Olympic champion Steven Gardiner came in third in the 200 meters with 20.11 seconds behind Americans Kenneth Bednarek (19.65) and Fred Kerley (19.77).
Among the champions under the five rings in Tokyo, the American Ryan Crouser grabbed the headlines, taking his undefeated finals in the shot put to 22 after winning with an event record of 22.81 meters, ahead of New Zealand's Tom Walsh (22.10) and Croatia's Filip Mihaljević (20.36), second and third, in that order.
Other winners of the day were Serbia's Ivana Spanovic in the long jump (6.73 m), Russia's Mariya Lasitskene in the high jump (1.98 m), Canada's Marco Arop in the double oval lap (1:44.50 minutes) and USA's Christopher Nilsen in the pole vault (5.82 m).
The 2021 Diamond League will continue its action in the French capital of Paris next Saturday and will have its definition in the Swiss territory of Zurich next September 8 and 9.
