Barshim finishes 2nd in London Diamond League
London: Qatar’s Olympic and world high jump champion Mutaz Barshim settled for second place at the London Diamond League meet, with his best attempt of 2.33m, behind winner JuVaughn Harrison’s 2.35m at the London Stadium on Sunday.
The sterling high jump star has had a dazzling connection with his earlier London athletic meetings having won his first Olympic medal at the 2012 London Olympics and later the 2017 World Championships.
Barshim has also delivered a series of impressive competition performances in the UK including a silver at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham (2018) and clearing 2.40m – one of his all-time top ten jumps – for victory in the 2017 Diamond League meeting at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium .
The three-time Diamond League champion Barshim, however, termed his yesterday’s performance, in the final Diamond League meeting before the August championships in Budapest, as satisfactory.
In preparation mode for Budapest where he will be aiming to win his fourth Worlds title, Barshim said, “I think I had a good performance today, solid jumping and I’m happy about it. I didn’t get that 2.35 today but in general I’m really happy.
“The Worlds are around the corner so I’ve got to go and fix what needs to be fixed and come back. I’m used to not having long between competing so being in Monaco a few days ago is nothing new to me, sometimes the body isn’t as fresh as you want it to be but I plan on focusing on recovery and training between now and Budapest,” he said.
Harrison was the only one to successfully get over 2.35m, giving him a welcome confidence boost ahead of the World Championships.
Meanwhile Marie-Josee Ta Lou showed that she will be a force to be reckoned with at the age of 34 at next month’s world championships as she claimed another Diamond League 100m win in a scorching 10.75 seconds.
Noah Lyles (200m), Femke Bol (400m hurdles) and Jackline Chepkoech (3,000m steeplechase) also produced stellar performances. They were roared on by the biggest Diamond League crowd anywhere for five years as around 50,000 fans created a fabulous atmosphere as the event returned to London’s Olympic Stadium for the first time since 2019.
Flying past her was Ivory Coast’s Ta Lou to claim her third Diamond League win of the season, with slow-starting Jamaican Shericka Jackson third in 10.94. American champion Sha’Carri Richardson withdrew from the race after feeling a tight hamstring in her warm-up.
World champion Lyles also surged through late to win a stacked 200m as the American’s 19.47-second run improved his own fastest time in the world this year by two tenths.
Letsile Tebogo was second in an African record 19.50 while Zharnel Hughes, who took the 30-year old British 100m record last month, completed a notable double by also erasing John Regis’s long-standing 200m mark with 19.73 in third.
Bol also showed that she is in the hottest form when she blasted to a European record of 51.45ss in the 400m hurdles Only American world record holder (50.68) Sydney McLaughlin has ever gone faster and Bol, second behind McLaughlin in last year’s world championship and third behind her at the Tokyo Olympics, will be hoping to finally bag global gold in Budapest. Sifan Hassan looked short of race sharpness as Ethiopian world champion Gudaf Tsegay swept past her old rival on the home straight to win the 5,000m in a personal best 14:12.29s. In the 3,000m steeplechase Jackline Chepkoech also produced a brilliant personal best of 8:57.35s.
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