Samba powers to second place in Monaco
Monaco, July 14, 2019-Qatar's Abderrahman Samba made a roaring return from injury, finishing second in the men's 400m at the Diamond League event in Monaco on Friday.
Samba, who had set a personal best of 44.60 seconds in the discipline in South Africa to kick-start his build-up to the World Championships, ran a 45-second lap at the Stade Louis II to finish behind Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas, who won the event in 44.51 seconds.
“I'm so happy with that," 23-year-old Samba said.
“I'm just back from injury. I missed a few weeks but it's all good now. I felt like I got my rhythm back," added the 400m hurdles Asian Games gold medallist and the Asian champion.
The World Championships will be held at Doha's Khalifa International Stadium come September.
Samba won the 400m flat in Pretoria, before unsurprisingly running away with 400m hurdles gold at the Asian Championships in April, an event that served as a test event for the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
Last year, Samba was unbeaten in six Diamond League events even becoming only the second man after the world record holder Kevin Young of the US to dip under 47 seconds in the 400m hurdles event, winning in Paris in a time of 46.98 seconds.
In ominous fashion, he opened his Diamond League season in Shanghai with a 47.27 second effort to win the 400m hurdles gold before injury forced a break.
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