The Prague Post - Seville, Jefferson-Wooden roar to 100m wins at Silesia Diamond League

The assembled field was outstanding in Poland. Of the 260 athletes appearing in Silesia, 55 were Olympic medallists, 101 have made the podium at world championships, and 68 were European championships medallists.

Quality shone throughout the meet, in front of 40,000 spectators at the Stadion Slaski, none less so than when Jamaica's Seville blasted to a meet record of 9.83 seconds for victory.

Americans Kenny Bednarek (9.87) and Christian Coleman (9.93) completed the podium.

The women's blue riband event was won by their teammate Jefferson-Wooden, in her first head-to-head over 100m with Olympic champion Julien Alfred, in a season's best of 10.78sec.

Alfred, of St Lucia, came in second, at 0.05sec.

Duplantis had an uncharacteristic three failures in the pole vault, before girding himself for the business end of the showdown with Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis.

The US-born Swede eventually claimed victory with a best of 6.20m, 20cm higher than Karalis. One attempt at what would have been a 16th world record, at 6.32m, was enough before Duplantis called it a day.

One of the stand-out performances on the track was Brazil's Alison Dos Santos, unbeaten this season, holding off Karsten Warholm in a thrilling 400m hurdles to win in 46.43sec, the sixth fastest time ever run.

The world-leading time smashed the meet record of 46.82sec set by Warholm last year.

"I expected a fast race, the line-up was amazing - everybody was here," said Dos Santos.

"I knew that to win here I had to give my best.

"It was a great race today and a great time."

The Brazilian made it four wins from four outings in Silesia and also four wins this season over Warholm, who claimed a fourth European title in Birmingham this month, as well as a second gold as part of Norway's 4x400m mixed relay quartet.

"You cannot be mad if you set a season's best," acknowledged Warholm.

"Of course I always want to win. But 46.5 is really good coming out of the European championships, which really took its toll. The other guys have not been racing in a month and they were fresher."

- Ingebrigtsen fourth in 1,500m -

Warholm's teammate Jakob Ingebrigtsen, fresh from winning European 5,000m gold, made his first Diamond League appearance in a 1,500m in two years.

Ingebrigtsen clung on to finish fourth in a race won by American Ethan Strand, in 3:30.77, ahead of Kenya's Phanuel Kipkosegi Koech and Olympic champion Cole Hocker of the US.

Ethan Katzberg and Camryn Rogers, who ensured hammer throw domination for Canada with two golds at last year's Tokyo worlds, dominated the two events here for victories with bests of 82.92 and 77.09m respectively.

Italy's Leonardo Fabbri, with a best of 22.08m, held off a quartet of Americans headed by Jordan Geist in the men's shot put.

Olympic and 2023 world champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won the women's 400m in 48.87sec, but there was no such luck for Morocco's two-time Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champ Soufiane El Bakkali, beaten into second by Ethiopia's Gemechu Godana, who clocked a meet record of 8:02.74.

World record holder Ja'Kobe Tharp claimed the victory in the 110m hurdles in 13.05se, while teammate Alaysha Johnson won the women's short hurdles in 12.52.

"This victory means a lot to me, especially in this strong field," said the 20-year-old Tharp.

"My coach would not be too happy about the race, some hurdles were not really good. But hey, I won this Diamond League race, so I cannot complain."

Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh equalled the meet record to win the women's high jump in 2.00m.

And Botswana's world 400m champion Busang Collen Kebinatshipi smashed the meet record set by world record holder Wayde van Niekerk in winning the one-lap race in an impressive 43.59sec.

I.Mala--TPP