Caster Semenya (RSA) set a World Lead and Meeting Record of 1:56.64 in the Women's 800m at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat.
Pierre-Ambroise Bosse (FRA) won the Men's 800m in 1:44.51 at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat
LaShawn Merritt (USA) set a Meeting Record of 44.66 in the Men's 400m at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat
David Oliver (USA) set a Meeting Record of 13.12 winning the Men's 110m Hurdles at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat
Edward Alonso (PAN) won the Men's 200m in 20.07 at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat
In 11.02, Elaine Thompson (JAM) won the Women's 100m at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat
Janeive Russell (JAM) won the Women's 400m Hurdles in 54.16 at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat
Caster Semenya (RSA) set a World Lead and Meeting Record of 1:56.64 in the Women's 800m at the 2016 Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme de Rabat - © Kirby Lee
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Caster Semenya continued her successful season and took the lead in the women’s 800m Diamond Race when she won over two laps of the track at the first IAAF Diamond League to be held in Africa, staged in the Moroccan city of Rabat, when she won in a world-leading time of 1:56.64 on Sunday (22).
Pacemaker Anastasiya Tkachuk, from Ukraine, took the field through the first 400m in 56.70 and then Burundi’s 2016 world indoor champion Francine Niyonsaba hit the front and tried to break away from the classy field.
Niyonsaba passed 600m in 1:27.92 but couldn’t shake off the lurking presence of Semenya, who overtook her 50 metres from home and then pulled away to finish just 0.05 outside of Niyonsaba’s Diamond League record set in 2012.
The Burundian hung on to finish second in 1:57.74 as France’s Renelle Lamote edged out Kenya’s Eunice Sum to finish third in a personal best of 1:58.84 with the 2013 world champion fourth in 1:59.32.
Sum’s successor in Beijing last summer, Marina Arzamasova from Belarus, had a hugely disappointing race and could only finish in eighth in 2:01.49.
Who's the Bosse?
France’s Pierre-Ambroise Bosse surged a little earlier than Semenya in the men’s 800m and hit the front coming into the final bend, just as pacemaker Edwin Meli – who had taken the field through the first 400m in 51.17 – stepped to one side and the move seemed to catch his rivals by surprise.
However, the former European junior champion possesses a formidable turn of speed over the final 150 metres of his preferred distance and was able to hold off the fast-closing Taoufik Makhloufi with relative ease, stopping the clock in 1:44.51.
Algeria’s London 2012 Olympic Games 1500m champion finished second in 1:44.91 with Bosnia’s Amel Tuka, 2015’s fastest man over two laps of the track, third in 1:45.41; also finding that he had been badly positioned when Bosse when he made his decisive move.
Botswana’s 2015 Diamond Race winner Nijel Amos never looked comfortable, perhaps still tired after arriving in Rabat late the previous night, and had to settle for seventh in 1:47.34.
Another Botswanan to look a little limp was Issac Makwala.
To be fair the former African 400m record holder ran a stunning race for 350 metres but he over-estimated how much was in the tank and struggled badly over the final metres of the 400m, and could only glance grimly to his inside as first LaShawn Merritt and then Jonathan Borlee passed him as he his legs started to turn to lead.
Merritt, who timed his race to perfection and afforded Makwala a big lead over the first half of the race, came through strongly to win in a meeting record 44.66 while Borlee took second in 45.26 with the tiring Makwala third in 45.36.
Double Jamaican joy
Jamaica’s Janieve Russell produced a crisply executed 400m hurdles race to win in a personal best of 54.16, the second fastest time of the year and her compatriot Elaine Thompson fulfilled her role as favourite in the women’s 100m when she sped to a meeting record of 11.02, despite running into a 1.3mps headwind.
Thompson’s reaction was actually the slowest in the field and she was left with a good deal of work to do but over the final 30 metres she started to put daylight between herself and the rest of the field, with Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare a clear second in 11.11.
Alonso Edward showed his class over the final 50 metres of the 200m by pulling away to win in a heavily wind-assisted (3.8mps) 20.07.
Panama’s 2015 Diamond Race winner, in lane six, was challenged off the bend by Ivory Coast’s Wilfried Koffi and Spain’s Bruno Hortelano-Roig, on his inside in lanes four and three, but had an extra change of gears in the final quarter of the race.
Koffi was second in 20.35 while the Spaniard was 0.01 further back.
It wasn’t the prettiest of most efficient displays of hurdling from 2013 world champion David Oliver, who tipped over five of his first six hurdles, but once the big man gets going he’s a powerful force to be reckoned with and he put together a very strong final four barriers to win the 110m hurdles in 13.12.
It took Oliver until the final 30 metres until he got on level terms with Spain’s Orlando Ortega but the latter had to settle for second in 13.13, although the time was just 0.01 outside his recent national record.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF and the IAAF Diamond League
