media_artricles :: 2018

Richards, Ahye bag bronze in Oslo

Commonwealth Games champions T&T's Jereem Richards and Michelle-Lee Ahye raced to bronze in their respective races yesterday at the Oslo Bislett Games, fifth stop of the IAAF Diamond League.

Richards clocked 20.19 seconds to place third in the men's 200 metres, following World champion Ramil Guliyev and Canada's Aaron Brown to the line in the men's 200 metres.

Guliyev proved his success in London last year was no fluke in the half-lap event with the Turk taking victory in 19.90 ahead of Brown, who set a personal best of 19.98.

Earlier, Ahye crossed in third in 11.06 behind, Murielle Ahoure, who once again utilised her lightning start to put distance between her and her rivals in the women's 100m, which she went on to win in 10.91 (+1.6m/s) despite the late charge of Britain's Dina-Asher Smith, who scorched a national record of 10.92 in second.

T&T's Khalifa St Fort also face the starter in the dash and placed eighth in 11.28.

The meet had a number of exciting finishes including in the men's 400m hurdles when Qatar's Abderrahman Samba proved the highlight of the Games.

The race was billed as a head-to-head clash between Samba and close rival Karsten Warholm, the 2017 world champion from Norway who was relishing the chance to compete in front of a home crowd after his national record of 47.82 in Rome last week.

Warholm again blitzed through the opening 300m after the gun set the eight athletes on their way, but once again it was Samba who finished stronger, the Asian record holder powering over the final two barriers with crisp technique—something Warholm struggled with over the final two barriers—to comfortably come home in 47.60 to Warholm's 48.22. Turkey's Yasmani Copello finished third in 48.54.

Also, Mutaz Essa Barshim made it an even more successful night for Qatar, the world champion once again peerless in the men's high jump, which he won with a best of 2.36m, which he cleared at the first attempt to beat rival Danil Lysenko into second, the neutral athlete managing a best of 2.33m.

Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain was impressive in the women's 400m, taking victory in 49.98 ahead of world champion Phyllis Francis (50.47) and Shakima Wimbley (50.53).

In the women's 100m hurdles, a non-Diamond League race, Jamaica's Danielle Williams edged to victory in 12.60 to Alina Talay's 12.63.

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