In the attendance of H.E. President of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani, the fourth and final round of the Wanda Diamond League took place in Doha.

A host of World and Olympic champions are participating in the event amidst strict precautionary measures in Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium in Qatar Sports Club. A total of 117 athletes participated in the competition, 10 of which won medals at the Rio Olympics and 17 won in the World Athletics Championships in Doha. The organizing committee made extraordinary effort to ensure the competition takes place safely.

Qatar's Mohamed Al Garni came in second place at the 1500 m. men's race. He finished in 3:44:30 minutes. The number one place went to Morocco's Ilyass El Ouali. Qatar's Mohamed Abbas meanwhile came in third place at the 400m. sprint, finishing the race in 45:96 seconds. Kahmari Montgomery finished in first place with 45.55 seconds.

Replicating her performance in Rome last week almost to the hundredth double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was a comfortable winner of the womens 100m.

Jamaica started strongly and could simply not be caught, powering through the line in 10.87 (0.0). Multiple world medalist Marie-Josee Ta Lou was second in 11.21, just 0.04 ahead of USAs Kayla White.

Mondo Duplantis emerged the winner of the pole vault in a hard-fought victory. A first-time clearance at 5.71m gave him a slight edge over arch-rivals Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie. The three men skipped 5.77m and went straight to 5.82m, which Duplantis cleared on his first try, while Kendricks and Lavillenie needed three attempts. It meant the trio equaled the meeting record that had been set by Konstantinos Filippidis back in 2013. They were all unsuccessful at 5.92m; Duplantis saved his final effort for an attempt at 6.00m, but was unsuccessful once more. But the 20-year-old Swede was certainly not down-hearted to come up short of another six-metre vault.

"It's been a fantastic season and I enjoyed sharing the moment tonight with the guys," he said. "We've not been able to see each other this season as we often do due to obvious reasons. Tonight's win is for my sister who is celebrating her 18th birthday."

The expected three-way clash in the men's 110m hurdles didn't quite materialise after USAs Freddie Crittenden was a non-starter and Frances Wilhem Belocian was disqualified for a false start. But US indoor champion Aaron Mallet didn't appear to be hampered by the absence of his leading opponents and he put together the race of his life to win in a PB of 13.15 (0.3m/s). Swiss record-holder Jason Joseph was third in 13.40.

World silver medalist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk saved her best for last in the long jump which proved doubly beneficial as the event adopted the last round counts format. The Ukrainian leapt 6.91m (0.6m/s) to beat world bronze medalist Ese Brume and Khaddi Sagnia. Brumes superior final-round effort (6.68m) meant she finished ahead of Sagnia, even though the Swede had jumped farther (6.85m) earlier in the competition.

Ten days after winning at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Zagreb, USA's Payton Chadwick notched up another victory in the women's 100m hurdles. Cindy Ofili started well but faded over the final few barriers, while Taliyah Brooks finished strongly, but Chadwick held on to win in 12.78. Brooks was second in a PB of 12.86.

Earlier in the evening, Arthur Cisse took almost half a second off his PB to win the 200m in an Ivorian record of 20.23 in his first race over the distance since May 2018. Since the start of 2019, Cisse has now set national records for 60m, 100m and 200m all of which had previously been held by Ben Youssef Meite, the only other Ivorian man to win at a Diamond League meeting.

To see more photos which the ILQ team has taken at the event, CLICK HERE.

Source: QNA

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Leena Chung

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