The Swiss missions
At her Diamond League premiere over 3000 m steeple Chiara Scherrer immediately showed her best side. The eastern Swiss coped well with the warm conditions in Paris and set a new national record with a time of 9:20.28 minutes. In addition to her personal best, she also improved Fabienne Schlumpf’s five-year-old Swiss record (9:21.65 minutes) by over a second.
Once again under 13 seconds, but missed a new personal best time due to a weaker second half of the track: Ditaji Kambundji left the performance to itself 100m hurdles sum up at the Stade Charléty. She finished sixth with a time of 12.90 seconds. Nigerian winner Tobi Amusan set a new continental record for Africa in 12.41s.
No exploit was successful with Jason Joseph, the only Swiss in the field. For the 23-year-old from Basel, that meant over 110 m hurdles already the semi-final terminus. With a time of 13.59 s, Joseph stayed almost half a second above his own best time and clearly missed the final in eleventh place overall.
With Devon Allen he knew a prominent winner. The American all-rounder, who is trying to play professional football with the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL this fall, beat all of the competition in a time of 13.16 seconds.
In a very quick way 100m sprint Ajla Del Ponte remained without a chance. With a time of 11.34 seconds, the Ticino was only eighth and last place in the heat. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was in a league of her own: The Jamaican set a meeting record and a world record for the year with a fabulous time of 10.67 s. Only the British Daryll Neita remained behind her in 10.99 s, also under eleven seconds. Marie-Josée Ta Lou (CIV) completed the podium with 11.01 s.
On the track
The men’s 200-meter race was a big surprise. With the South African Luxolo Adams Hardly anyone in Paris expected to win – probably not even Adams himself. This pulverized his personal best by almost two tenths of a second. Having never run under 20 seconds before, Adams won in 19.82 s. Canadian co-favorite Andre De Grasse (20.38 s) was disappointed after a poor start in fourth place.
In the oval
All three podium places in the women’s high jump were taken by athletes from Ukraine. With Yaroslava Mahuchich the 20-year-old high-flyer once again put the competition in their place. Mahuchich was the only one to jump over the two-meter mark and, with her successful attempt over 2.01 meters, secured the world record for the year and victory in front of Irina Geraschtschenko and Julija Levtschenko.