Lavillenie, Kanter and Spotakova shine in Lausanne | 24.08.2012
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| Renaud Lavillenie continued his winning streak at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on Thursday. |
The Olympic and European champion snatched victory from Germany’s Malte Mohr and Briton Steven Lewis with a first attempt clearance of 5.80m, although Mohr also cleared the height on his first attempt but had to contend with the second place having taken an extra attempt to clear the previous height of 5.70m. Lewis also cleared 5.80m but on his second attempt.
It was another close but great success for Lavillenie who has only lost once this season while Konstantinos Filippidis raised his Greek record by four centimetres to 5.80m. Lavillenie now leads the Diamond race with 16 points, ahead of Olympic and European silver medallist Bjorn Otto who has so far only accumulated 7 points.
Estonia’s Gerd Kanter, who surrendered his Olympic crown to Robert Harting in London, returned to winning ways with an effort of 65.79m. Great Britain’s Lawrence Okoye opened with a throw of 65.27m and that eventually proved enough to earn him second place ahead of Frank Casanas who threw 65.24m.
Double Olympic champion and world record holder Barbora Spotakova, also consolidated her Diamond Race lead taking victory with an opening round throw of 67.19m. Russia’s
Mariya Abakamova, last year's world gold medallist, after her disappointing 10th place finish at the Olympic Games, took second with 65.80m while the Daegu bronze medallist Sunette Viljoen threw 64.08m for third.
The men’s high jump was one of the true highlights on an exciting evening in Lausanne. Qatar’s Moutaz Essa Barshim Ahmed triumphed with a stunning 2.39m that equalled the highest jump in the world this year. The only other man to jump that high is Russian Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov. The Russian, on this occasion, finished second with a clearance of 2.37m, a height matched by Great Britain’s Robbie Grabarz but the Olympic bronze medallist finished third on countback.
Grabarz equalled Steve Smith’s 20-year-old British outdoor record with his performance on Thursday night.
The showpiece of the evening was undoubtedly the 200m featuring world record holder and multiple Olympic medallist Usain Bolt.
The Jamaican won in 19.58, ahead of European champion Churandy Martina who lowered his Netherlands record from 19.94 to 19.85.
Earlier, Bolt's training partner and world champion 22-year-old Yohan Blake broke Asafa Powell's meet record of 9.72 to win the 100m. He is now equal second with Tyson Gay on the world All-Time list.
Olympic champion Valeries Adams of New Zealand won the shot with a meet record of 20.95m to keep her 2012 unbeaten record.
Newly crowned Olympic gold medallist Olga Rypakova won the triple jump with a leap of 14.50m. The Kazakh's best of 14.68m came in the third round.
2011 World champion Olha Saladukha grabbed second place clearing 14.42m in the fifth round while the still to retire veteran Tatyana Lebedeva snatched a podium finish with 14.39m with her fourth attempt.
In a tightly contested 800m race, Pamela Jelimo outfoxed Olympic champion Mariya Savinova when she bursted clear of the Russian in the middle of the final bend and powering into the home straight.
The former Olympic champion won in 1:57.59 with 2011 European Athlete of the Year Savinova, finishing home in 1:58.10.
Click here for complete results.
