Athletes impress in Diamond League

EUGENE-NAMPA/AFP Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim posted the best outdoor high jump since 2000 on Saturday with a winning leap of 2.40m at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting. The Qatari's performance was the most impressive in a spate of season-leading efforts produced in the fourth of 14 stops in the IAAF's elite Diamond League series. The 2012 Olympic bronze medallist is now tied with four other athletes as the fourth-best performers all-time outdoors in the discipline and his clearance was the highest indoors or out since the 2.40m of Russian Ivan Ukhov indoors in February of 2009. He improved on the Asian continental record of 2.39 that he shared with China's Zhu Jianhua, Zhu setting the mark in 1984 and Barshim matching it in Lausanne in 2012. Olympic gold medallist Renaud Lavillenie was also impressive, winning the men's pole vault in a season-leading 5.95m. As at the London Games last year and the European Championships, the Frenchman finished ahead of Germans Bjorn Otto (5.90) and Raphael Holzdeppe (5.84). Tirunesh Dibaba won the women's 5,000m in a world-leading 14min 42.01sec, Francine Miyonsaba of Burundi clocked a season's best of 1:57.72 in winning the 800m and the women's triple jump saw winner Caterine Ibarguen of Colombia with a leap of 14.93m and Ukraine's Olga Saladukha with a runner-up clearance of 14.85m both improve on the previous best this year. Czech Zuzana Hejnova, bronze medallist in London, notched the world's fastest 400m hurdles time of 2013 with a victory in 53.70sec -a comfortable 1.05sec faster than runner-up Georganne Moline of the United States. Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer was third. Season's bests on the men's side also included German Robert Hartwig's winning discus throw of 69.75m, Kenyan Silas Kiplagat's mile triumph in 3:49.48 and Kenyan Edwin Soi's victory in the 5,000m in 13:04.75 Soi finished ahead of Britain's double Olympic champion Mo Farah, who switched from the 10,000m to the 5,000m this weekend after battling a virus but didn't quite have enough even at the shorter distance. Farah settled for second in 13:05.88. American Justin Gatlin remained unbeaten in the 100m this year, triumphing in a wind-aided 9.88sec. Gatlin, the 2008 Olympic champion who has notched victories in Doha and Beijing this season, edged compatriot Michael Rodgers (9.94), with American Ryan Bailey third in 10.00 to squeeze Jamaican Nesta Carter off the podium. Jamaica's two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the women's 100m in a wind-aided 10.71sec. Nigeria's Blessing Akagbare was second in 10.75 and Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown third in 10.78. This is my last race until our national championships, so I was just working on the start, working on the finish, Fraser-Pryce said.