Henriette Jaeger continued her unbeaten start to the outdoor season with a commanding victory on home soil in the women’s 400m in the Oslo Diamond League on Wednesday (10) evening.
Less than a week after winning in Rome with a late charge, Jaeger was already leading as she came into the home straight and the European U23 champion extended her advantage over a field including two reigning senior champions in a near dress rehearsal of the 400m final at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August.
On a chilly evening in the Norwegian capital, Jaeger stopped the clock at 49.52, the second fastest time of her career and just 0.03 shy of her national record, for a clear win over world indoor champion Lurdes Gloria Manuel from Czechia (50.13) and European champion Natalia Bukowiecka from Poland (50.34).
"I hope I can build on this win and have a really great season - I'm in such good shape but it's a long time until the European Champs in Birmingham still. I'm very excited to try my best to become the European champion," said Jaeger.
After Jaeger opened the international track programme with victory, Karsten Warholm endeavoured to bookend the evening with victory in the men’s 400m hurdles but the world record-holder suffered his third defeat of the season to Brazil’s Alison dos Santos, 46.89 to 47.40.
Hat-trick of hurdles wins for Zapletalova
World bronze medallist Emma Zapletalova also continued her unbeaten start to the outdoor season with her third successive Diamond League victory in the 400m hurdles.
In a near-repeat of her victories in Rabat and Rome in recent weeks, Zapletalova stretched away from her rivals over the last two barriers, winning in 53.13 from Jamaica’s Rushell Clayton (53.50) and world silver medallist Jasmine Jones from the United States (54.09).
"To take the third victory in the Diamond League, that is a special thing for me. And today, it was not easy at all. I felt very stiff at the start due to the cold weather," said Zapletalova.
Wind-aided 10.99 100m for Hunt
Three days after breaking the 11 second-barrier for the first time in wind legal conditions with 10.98 in Stockholm, Great Britain’s Amy Hunt made it back-to-back races under 11 seconds.
The world 200m silver medallist finished second behind Olympic champion Julien Alfred who won in 10.76 with a 3.2 m/s wind at her back with Hunt taking the runner-up spot in 10.99.
“I wish we'd had better conditions but I'm used to the cold and rain as a Brit! I'm super happy to have backed up my performance in Stockholm here tonight - I wanted top two,” said Hunt who is targeting a sprint treble in Birmingham, a feat which would emulate Dina Asher-Smith in Berlin 2018.
In an epic 800m won by 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus in a world lead of 1:42.08 by just 0.01 ahead of reigning world and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi from Kenya, Tobias Grønstad was an excellent fourth home soil in a big lifetime best of 1:43.61.
After a recent DNF in Shanghai, Sweden's Andreas Almgren was back in top form in the 5000m. The European record-holder was still in contention for the victory at the top of the home straight but couldn't quite run down Ethiopia's Addisu Yihune who took the victory in a world lead of 12:47.62 ahead of Bahrain's Birhanu Balew who passed Almgren to set an Asian record of 12:47.73.
However, Almgren was a highly creditable third in 12:48.61, the second fastest 5000m of his career so far.
17.59m for Diaz Hernandez in the triple jump
World indoor champion Andy Diaz Hernandez set the standard in the men’s triple jump with an opening round mark of 17.59m to equal his season’s best.
However, the Italian was shunted down the rankings by Jamaica’s Jordan Scott who rode out to a slightly wind-aided 17.66m (2.6) in the third round to take the victory, a mark which would have equalled his world lead had it been wind legal.
World champion Jessica Schilder also had to settle for the runner-up spot in the shot put behind Chase Jackson from the United States who smashed Valerie Adams’ meeting record with 20.74m in the first round. Schilder improved to 20.11m in the fifth round.
Home favourites Sondre Guttormsen and Sigrid Borge also finished second in the men’s pole vault and women’s javelin respectively.
Photos courtesy of James Rhodes
