Australian long jumper Liam Adcock has carved up the 'big boys' by breaking through in emphatic style for his maiden Diamond League gold medal. Still hurting from his runner-up finish at the April meet in Xiamen where the Queenslander led into the final round before being pipped, Adcock did the same to his world-class rivals in Rome on Friday. Lying third after five rounds, Adcock leapt 8.34m (-0.2) to grab first by 21cms from world leader Mattia Furlani (Italy) and two-time Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece). "That happened to me in Xiamen, I was leading the whole way and then in the last round got overtaken, so I was like it's my turn to clutch up now," the World Indoor medallist said. "I reckon I have a bit of clutch factor so it was great to be able to express that and jump a PB. "I wasn't feeling that great leading into it, but Furlani got the crowd fired up, obviously a home crowd for him, and it got me going too." It was the joint furthest jump outdoors this year, with the 28-year-old now revelling in the company of the 'big boys' and enjoying a breakthrough season after overcoming a series of injuries. "I'm old now which is tough, it's making it difficult to get any interest from sponsors, but I just keep showing up and doing what I can," he added. "I had a lot of years of injuries and this is my first year on the big boy circuit." It was a great night for Australia with Adcock joined on the podium by Sarah Billings and Abbey Caldwell. The middle-distance duo both registered career-best times in the 1500m, with Billings taking second in 3:59.24 followed by Caldwell in third (3:59.32). The race came to life with a bunched field at the bell and Billings coming with her strong run on the turn, but the Victorian was run down by Sarah Healy. "I wanted to be in striking distance in the last lap tonight. I felt really good with 200m to go and just told myself to go for it," Billings said. National record-holder Oliver Hoare aso qualified for the 2025 world championships, clocking 3:31.15 in the 1500m to finish ninth. The Commonwealth champion bided his time at the back of the field in the patiently-run race, mustering a finishing burst to move up the rankings and finish well under the 3:33.00 qualifying standard. Meanwhile, Kenyan Beatrice Chebet came close to breaking the women's 5000m world record when she clocked 14:03.69, a meeting record that was just 2.5 seconds shy of Gudaf Tsegay's 1997 world mark of 14:00.21. Chebet also recorded the second-fastest ever time in the women's 3000m - running 8:11.56 in Rabat last month behind Wang Junxia's 8:06.11 set in 1993. Jamaica's Andrenette Knight dominated the women's 400m hurdles, finishing in 53.67 seconds, while American Anavia Battle won the women's 200m in 22.53 seconds. The men's 110m hurdles produced the evening's closest finish, with Swiss athlete Jason Joseph clocking 13.14 and snatching victory from American Cordell Tinch, who finished in the same time. There was also a nail-bitting race in the men's 400m, with American Quincy Hall finishing in 44.22 secs, just a hundredth of a second ahead of South African Zakithi Nene. In the men's 1500m, France's Azeddine Habz surged in the closing stages to beat former world champion Kenya's Timothy Cheruiyot. Habz won by three-hundredths of a second with a time of 3:29.72, while Cheruiyot finished in 3:29.75. American Trayvon Bromell claimed victory in the 100m, finishing in 9.84 seconds, while Tokyo Olympics high jump gold medallist Gianmarco Tamberi failed to reach the podium as South Korea's Woo Sanghyeok took the win with a jump of 2.32m. with Reuters