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With several brilliant performances recorded, including Emmanuel Wanyonyi clocking the second-fastest time in history and Letsile Tebogo jogging a fast 19.64s to win the men's 200m, here are the lessons learned during the Lausanne Diamond League.
The Lausanne Diamond League was the perfect post-Olympics meet as several champions and medallists proved their performances in Paris were no fluke, backing it up with more convincing victories.
With several brilliant performances recorded, including Emmanuel Wanyonyi clocking the second-fastest time in history and Letsile Tebogo jogging a fast 19.64s to win the men's 200m, here are the lessons learned from the Lausanne Diamond League.
1 - Letsile Tebogo is HIM
In his first race after winning the Paris Olympics 200m title, Tebogo backed up his historic performance with another jaw-dropping victory in Lausanne.
The Batswana hero eased through the finish line in 19.63s, ahead of Erriyon Knighton who clocked a Season's Best of 19.78s, while Fred Kerley was third also in a SB of 19.86s.
Tebogo's performance is regarded as very impressive, considering the Olympic champion got up well before the line and, by his admission, hadn’t trained for eight days since winning the title in Paris.
It also affirms that his Olympic victory was no fluke and he's currently in the form of his life as a worthy challenger for Usain Bolt's World Record of 19.19s.
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2 - Emmanuel Wayonyi is the heir to the 800m World Record
Kenya’s 20-year-old Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi produced the top performance of a towering night of athletics in Lausanne on Thursday (22) as he won the men’s 800m in 1:41.11.
That moved him to joint second on the world all-time list, tantalisingly adrift of the world record of 1:40.91 set by his compatriot and inspiration David Rudisha at the London 2012 Olympics.
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Wanyonyi is unarguably the new star of the double lap event and surely it's only a matter of time before he breaks the 800m world record to become the king of the men's 800m event.
3 - Rivalry in the men's 1500m will dominate top conversations for many years
Jakob Ingebrigtsen got his revenge on Olympic champion Cole Hocker in a Meeting Record time of 3:27.83 to win the men's 1500m event with the American finishing second in 3:29.85, ahead of Hobbs Kessler (USA) third in 3’30”47.
His victory served as a huge bounce back from Olympic disappointment where he finished fourth and Hocker lowered his personal best by almost three seconds to upstage what was billed as another showdown between Ingebrigtsen and world champion Josh Kerr.
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While Kerr was not in attendance, the 23-year-old Norwegian re-asserted his top-dog status in the event. With Hocker and Kerr still in the mix, surely the men's 1500m is bound to create several news-leading headlines for the next few years and Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj 1998 world record of 3:26.00 set at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July is hanging on a thread.
4 - A perfect bounceback for some sprinters
Dina Asher-Smith had a subpar performance in Paris, where she failed to qualify for the women's 100m final and only managed a fourth-place finish in the 200m event.
Putting the disappointment behind her, the British record holder proved why she's one of the fastest women in history and a former world 200m champion, blazing to her fastest time this season of 10.88s despite a headwind.
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For context, her time would have won her the bronze medal behind silver medallist Sha'Carri Richardson at the Olympics, and putting up such a spirited performance in Lausanne was a testament to the fact that she's ready to challenge for that Diamond League title in Zurich.
In the 100 m hurdles, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn also had a bounce-back story as she lived up to her title of 2021 Olympic champion. The Puerto Rican settled for the bronze medal in Paris but stormed to victory in Lausanne in 12.36s ahead of Grace Stark (USA) and Ackera Nugent (JAM), both in 12.38s.
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Similarly, Femke Bol of the Netherlands, somewhat dismayed at finishing third in the Olympic 400m hurdles final, got back into winning mode after overhauling early leader Rushell Clayton halfway down the finishing straight and winning in a meeting record of 52.25, with the Jamaican taking second place in 53.32, one position ahead of compatriot Janieve Russell (54.48).
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5 - Best event of the Lausanne Diamond League
The javelin was, by far, the best competition of the evening. On their sixth attempt, the three finalists challenged each other to such an extent that Grenada’s Anderson Peters finally propelled his javelin to a Meeting Record of 90.61m.
World champion Neeraj Chopra came close with 89.49m for second), while Germany’s Julian Weber finished third with 87.08m.
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