Emmanuel Wanyonyi
Lausanne, Switzerland, Aug 23 (PL) Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Olympic champion in Paris 2024, achieved the second best time in history in the 800 meters and conquered the victory in the Diamond League stop of athletics in Lausanne.
Wanyonyi clocked 1:41.11 minutes to fall just 20 hundredths short of the world record held by fellow Kenyan David Rudisha, whose world record is 1:40.91.
The 20-year-old Olympic titleholder improved by eight hundredths of a second on his personal best, set when he won the Olympic final in Paris.
Wanyonyi was followed by Canadian Olympic runner-up Marco Arop (1:41.72) and Frenchman Gabriel Tual (1:42.30), third.
In the other major men's middle-distance event, Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:27.83 minutes.
The Norwegian took revenge against the American Cole Hocker, champion in Paris, in a final in which Ingebrigtsen collapsed in the last lap and finished fourth, without a medal.
In other events of the Lausanne meeting, Letsile Tebogo (Botswana) repeated his Paris triumph by winning the 200 m with 19.64 sec, in a race in which the Dominican Alexander Ogando was fourth and achieved his best time of the season (19.94), and the Dutch Femke Bol won the 400 m hurdles for women (52.25).
Also the Kenyan Mary Moraa dominated the 800 (1.57.91), the British Dina Asher triumphed in the 1oom with 10.88, and the Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchick reigned supreme in the high jump with 1.99m.