Athletics, Diamond League: Tebogo, Wanyonyi shine; Bol, Ingebrigtsen find redemption in Lausanne
It was a mixed night for the Paris Olympic champions with Grant Holloway, Cole Hocker and German shot putter Yemisi Ogunleye failing to back up their form.
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Emmanuel Wanyonyi went close to breaking David Rudisha’s vaunted 800m world record in Thursday’s Diamond League meet in Lausanne in what was a mixed night for Olympic champions making their return after the Paris Games.
Wanyonyi repeated the blistering form that saw him win in the French capital, going within 0.20 seconds of the 1min 40.91sec world record set by Rudisha when winning Olympic gold in London in 2012.
The Kenyan will have another chance at the next meet on the elite calendar, in Silesia, Poland on Sunday.
Other Olympic champions who were successful included Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, who blasted to an impressive 19.64sec to win the 200m.
The 21-year-old, whose 200m gold in Paris was the first ever for his country, admitted that he had come to Lausanne on the back of eight days of no training, having made a rapturous return to Gaborone.
“The most important thing for me is that even after such achievements like the ones I did at the Olympics, at the end of the day, you just have to keep running to maintain the form throughout the season,” he said.
Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou left it late to win the long jump in 8.06m and Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh claimed victory in the women's high jump in 1.99m.
