Athletics – Diamond League – Monaco: A gala evening in the Principality

Published on July 20, 2018 at 10:04 pm


Mathieu WARNIER

Tenths of the twelve qualifying rounds of the Diamond League, the Herculis Meeting of Monaco has once again made the event. And the performance that will be remembered this evening in the Principality, is that of Beatrice Chepkoech on the women's 3000m steeplechase. Victorious with a margin of sixteen seconds on the American Courtney Frerichs, the Kenyan has simply cleared the world record of tablets with the distance traveled in 8'44''32. A world record that belonged to … Ruth Jebet, recently blamed for doping. "I wanted to break the world record, it was the plan since the beginning of the season. And I knew that my best chance would be Monaco because of the weather, the public and the whole environment of the meeting. And this plan worked perfectly, said Beatrice Chepkoech at the end of the race. I thought I could go under the 8'50 '' but I was not dreaming of a time in 8'44 ''. And I'm sure that time could be improved, maybe my next goal will be to go below 8'40 ".

Bosse and Martinot-Lagarde on the return, Lamote far from the bill

Some headliners of French athletics made the trip to Monaco to prepare for the European Championships in Berlin. On the 800m, Pierre-Ambroise Bosse found himself far from the winner Nijel Amos (1'42''14, meeting record and best world performance of the year) but with sixth place in 1'44''20, his best time of the year, the reigning world champion was satisfied with his performance. "It's been a long time since I was in a 1'42" race, maybe never, said the Frenchman after the race. It feels good to return to the top level and be part of the lead pack. I would have liked to sign a 1'43''but I left it to Saul Ordoñez, who will arrive with the status of favorite in Berlin while I will be outsider … and I like this status. To prepare for the decathlon of the European championships, Kevin Mayer lined up on the 110m hurdles but the Alsatian did as figuration in 13''82, to a tenth of his personal best, facing the Specialists of the event Sergey Shubenkov won in 13''07 ahead of Orlando Ortega and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (13''20, best time of the season). On the women's side, Rénelle Lamote could not do better than ninth place (1'58''83, best time of the season) on the 800m which was largely dominated by Caster Semenya (1'54''60, record of the meeting.)

Miller-Uibo above the lot, Lyles is distinguished again

The other notable performance of the evening will be that of Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the women's 400m. Never has a Diamond League race gone that fast. In 48''97, the Bahamian has exploded the world's best performance of 55 hundredths, her best career time to become the Bahamas record and meeting record. "I finally had that time in less than 49''00 that I was waiting for so I'm happy even though I'm also very tired. The crowd is amazing here, Salwa Eid Naser had a great race and it helped me too. Bahrain, second in 49''08, set a new Asian distance record in a race where Floria Guei took only eighth and last place in 51''66, fourteen hundredths slower than her best performance of the season. The men's 200m was, for its part, the opportunity to see the American Noah Lyles at work and the latter did not make the trip for nothing. Already the holder of the best world performance of the year since the meeting in Lausanne, the 21-year-old sprinter lowered his mark to 19''65, beating at the same time the record of the meeting which was the property of Justin Gatlin since 2014. Coming in numbers, the Ivorian fans got their money's worth because the women's 100m was summed up in a Côte d'Ivoire championship between Marie-José Ta Lou and Murielle Ahouré, the first quoted winning in 10''89 in front of the second (11''01). For his part, Timothy Cheruiyot dominated the men's 1500m with the best world performance of the year set in 3'28''41, the best time of his career. The last race of the evening, the men's 3000m steeplechase, saw the surprise victory of the Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali in 7'58''15, new best world performance of the year in front of the American Evan Jager while the former holder of this performance, Kenyan Benjamin Kigen takes only fourth place to nearly twelve seconds.