KEQIAO (China): Akani Simbine won a thrilling 100m in a photo finish on Saturday at the second Diamond League meeting of the season while Armand “Mondo” Duplantis dominated the pole vault but failed to break his own world record. South Africa’s Simbine backed up his win in Xiamen last week by claiming victory in Keqiao, near Shanghai in China, by dipping under the line in 9.98 seconds, beating Jamaican Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson by a whisker (9.99). Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, who won the 200m at the Paris Olympics, was third in 10.03. Olympic and world champion Duplantis soared 6.11 metres to win the competition comfortably from Greek Emmanouil Karalis (6.01) but failed in his single attempt at 6.28, a centimetre higher than the record he set in February. Olympic and world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine won the high jump as the only woman to clear 2.00m. She also triumphed in Xiamen. Karsten Warholm underlined his superiority in the men’s 400m hurdles but did not trouble his world record of 45.94 seconds, set at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. The 29-year-old Norwegian clocked 47.28sec, the world’s fastest time so far this year. In the men’s 400m, Paris gold medallist Quincy Hall was well off the pace, finishing in eighth place in 45.99sec after coming back from injury. Fellow American Christopher Bailey won in 44.17sec. Another from the United States, Cordell Tinch, ran the fourth-fastest time ever in the men’s 110m hurdles as he romped home in 12.87sec. Tinch, who beat 110m hurdles world record holder Grant Holloway in the series opener in Xiamen last week, smashed Liu Xiang’s meeting record. American Anavia Battle, the fastest woman over 100m this year, made it two wins out of two in the Diamond League 200m this season in 22.38 with Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke second in 22.72. Grace Stark won the 100m hurdles in 12.42, well shy of the 12.17 Olympic champion Masai Russell clocked in Miami on Friday to record the second fastest time in history. Twice Diamond League champion Berihu Aregawi just held off compatriot Kuma Girma at the line to win the men’s 5,000m in 12:50.45 with Mezgebu Sime finishing third in an Ethiopian 1-2-3. Their compatriot Tsige Duguma ran the fastest time of the season to win the women’s 800m more than a second in front of Australian Sarah Billings in 1:56.64. American Chase Jackson, who will go for a third straight world title in Tokyo in September, won the shot put with a throw of 20.54m, while Greek Elina Tzengko beat a strong field with a throw of 64.90m to take the javelin. There was more Ethiopian success in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase with Abrham Sime storming home to win in 8:07.92, while Portugal’s former Olympic and world champion Pedro Pichardo won the triple jump in 17.03m. Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2025