2024 Lausanne Diamond League: Emmanuel Wanyonyi steals the show to become second-fastest 800m runner in history
Wanyonyi was among a host of Olympic medallists including Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Letsile Tebogo and Yaroslava Mahuchikh to taste victory in their first meeting since the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Athletics
Middle-distance phenom Emmanuel Wanyonyi stole the show at the Lausanne Diamond League 2024 meeting posting the fourth-fastest 800m time in history on Thursday (22 August).
The newly crowned Olympic champion now shares second place on the world all-time list with the great Wilson Kipketer courtesy of his meeting record of one minute and 41.11 seconds (1:41.11).
Only fellow Kenyan David Rudisha, who clocked a world record of 1:40.91 en route to his gold medal in London 2012, has gone faster.
Wanyonyi cruised past Marco Arop with 200 metres to go to take the tape for a 1-2 podium repeat of the 800m final at the Olympic Games.
“I’m so happy to have run that crazy time here in Lausanne. Improving my PB once again setting the world lead today in Lausanne, is very good,” Wanyonyi said after the race.
In the penultimate track event of the night, Botswana superstar Letsile Tebogo affirmed his status as the sprinter of the moment with a comfortable victory in the men’s 200m.
The Olympic champion in the half-lap event coasted to victory in 19.64 seconds with Erriyon Knighton of the United States finishing second in 19.78s.
Double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen dished out some revenge in the men’s 1,500m beating Paris 2024 gold medallist Cole Hocker of the US.
Ingebrigtsen conceded his Olympic crown to Hocker in the three-and-three-quarter lap event where he missed out on the podium finishing fourth.
He was back to winning ways in Lausanne taking control of the race early on and leaving Hocker chasing his shadow all the way to the finish. Ingebrigtsen crossed the line in a meeting record of 3:27.83 with Hocker following behind him in 3:29.85.
High-jump queen Yaroslava Mahuchikh of the Ukraine came out on top clearing 1.99m with Australia’s Eleanor Patterson taking the second step on the podium with 1.96m.
Earlier Grant Holloway suffered a rare defeat with Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica upsetting the Olympic and three-time world champion in the 110m hurdles. The American looked in control but Broadbell finished strongly to take the victory in 13.10s with Holloway settling for second in 13.14s.
British one-lap ace Matthew Hudson-Smith continued his rich vein of form with a dominant win in his pet event posting the third sub-44 time of his career.
Hudson-Smith’s victory added to the 400m silver medal he won at Paris 2024, effectively leading from start to finish to win in 43.96s. Zambian Olympic bronze medallist Muzala Samukonga finished in second place with 44.06s.
Tokyo 2020 champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn gave herself a belated present a day after her 28th birthday winning the 100m hurdles in a season’s best 12.35s. Grace Stark of the United States and Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent finished second and third respectively sharing a time of 12.38s.
Meanwhile, Germany’s newly-crowned Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye had to settle for second place in the women’s shot with US star Chase Jackson taking the spoils with a best effort of 20.64m. Ogunleye bowed out with a heave of 19.55m.
In a riveting javelin competition, Grenada’s Anderson Peters produced a meeting record throw of 90.61m. Peters edged Tokyo 2020 champion Neeraj Chopra (89.49m) into second place with Julian Weber rounding out the podium with 87.08m.
The night before, Sweden’s Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis delivered another gravity-defying performance winning the city pole vault competition in the curtain raiser for the meeting.
The 24-year-old two-time Olympic champion sealed the victory at 6.0m before he raised the bar to 6.15m and cleared it on his third attempt to set a new meeting record.