Cherotich defeats Chemutai and Paulino defeats Nasir in the Paris Diamond League
Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino defeated Salwa Eid Naser in the women’s 400-meter race in Friday’s Paris Diamond League competition, while Grace Stark set a personal record to defeat Tobi Amusan in the 100-meter hurdles and Faith Cherotich won the steeplechase.
In order to overcome Bahrain’s Naser, who finished in second place at the last Olympics, the world champion had to beat Paulino of the Dominican Republic with a season-best time of 48.81, setting a new meeting record.
“All I focused on was to get to through to the finish line feeling strong, although I am not feeling very well, my stomach has been playing up a bit,” said Paulino.
Early in the race, Kenyan Cherotich, who finished third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the Olympics in Paris, trailed Ugandan silver medallist Peruth Chemutai.
In the final meters, 20-year-old Cherotich overtook her competitor with a personal best time of 8:53.37, repeating her victories in Doha and Oslo.
“It’s great that I have already won three Diamond Leagues this season being the youngest in the field,” remarked Cherotich.
“The big goal are the World Championships in Tokyo and I want to win.”
In the women’s 100-meter hurdles, American 24-year-old Stark took the lead from the beginning and won in 12.21 seconds, one tenth of a second off her personal best, forcing Nigeria’s world record holder and 2022 world champion Amusan to settle for second place.
“I wanted to break that 12.3 so bad, I was really pushing for it in Stockholm,” Stark explained.
“I’m just so excited to break 12.3, I really knew I could do it this year.”
Olympic champion Rai Benjamin set a meeting record of 46.93 in the men’s 400-meter hurdles, hardly perspiring, and managing to hold off Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba, who had previously established the mark in 2018.
Since our race in Stockholm was so quick, I simply took it easy. The season is so long that there was no need to come out and force something,” Benjamin stated.
MAHUCHIKH EXCEEDED
At last year’s competition, Ukrainian Olympic high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh broke the world mark with a leap of 2.10 meters; however, this time, she was only able to reach 1.97 meters, placing her second behind Nicola Olyslagers of Australia.
Despite not being a Diamond League event, the men’s 1,500m race had the home crowd cheering as Azeddine Habz of France broke the national record with a world-leading time of 3:27.49.
Habz posted the sixth fastest time ever over the distance, pulling about a second and a half off the previous record set in 2003.
“It’s incredible, there is no other word,” Habz declared.
“I had come to this meeting with the goal of breaking the French record.”
The world under-20 record was broken by Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech of Kenya, who finished second with an outstanding time of 3:27.72.
Following a severe fall that rendered him unconscious during the Olympics in Paris, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma returned to the track for another non-Diamond League event: the men’s 3000m steeplechase.
Returning to the location of his 2023 world record, Girma expressed his satisfaction at having finished the race and won.
“This is a big thing for me today, especially after the Paris Olympics,” remarked Girma.
For me, this was crucial because it seems like a long time ago. Though I was a little afraid, the legs weren’t too much of an issue. Since the race is over, I feel a lot better.
