LONDON: Oblique Seville left Olympic champion Noah Lyles chewing his dust on Saturday as the Jamaican blasted out of the blocks and kept the hammer down to win the London Diamond League 100 meters in a hot 9.86 seconds. Seville, so impressive through the rounds at last year’s Olympics before coming last in the final, roared into a two-meter lead after 20 meters and was never threatened as he came home clear, with Lyles finishing strongly, but not enough, for second in 10.00.
A sold-out 60,000 Olympic Stadium crowd braved early storms to watch some superb performances as athletes start to build toward September’s world championships in Tokyo.
Julien Alfred won the women’s 200m in a scorching personal best of 21.71 seconds, Briton Charlie Dobson was a surprise winner of the 400m, 18-year-old Kenyan Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech won the 1,500m and Mykolas Alekna won the discus with a Diamond League record of 71.70 meters.
As always, however, it was the 100m that was the center piece, with, as always, Lyles at the center of that.
The American, who had been struggling with an ankle injury, began his season in earnest last week with victory over 200m in Monaco and was in confident mood clad in a fetching mauve one-piece on Saturday.
However, it was the red blur of Seville that caught the eye after a brilliant pick-up stage that effectively settled the race by 25 meters.
“I am proud of how I ran among a stacked field. I was the only one to run under 10 seconds today, it is something special and phenomenal heading into a major championship,” said Seville, who has yet to turn his talent into individual gold on the world stage.
Lyles was also upbeat. “I feel great after that, I feel extremely healthy and I am feeling no pain,” he said. “I wanted the win but I think it was my fastest-ever season opener, so I will take that result today.”
Alfred wins 200m
The women’s Olympic 100m champion, St. Lucia’s Alfred, was hugely impressive winner of the 200m, forging clear in the latter stages to clock a meeting record. British duo Dina Asher-Smith (22.25) and Amy Hunt (22.31) followed her home.
In a high-quality 1,500 meters field it was rising star Koech who took the honors, forcing past Britain’s world champion Josh Kerr on the inside 200 meters out and driving clear to win in 3:28.82.
His compatriot, Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyoni, made it a middle-distance double by taking the 800m. Canadian Marco Arop, whom he beat by one hundredth of a second in last year’s Olympic final, came off the final bend in the lead but Wanyoni surged through to win in 1:42.00.
Medina Eisa, 20, beat fellow Ethiopian Fantaye Belayneh in a fantastic women’s 5,000 meters, battling in a back-and-forth final 200 meters to snatch victory in 14.30.97 as Belayneh set a personal best of 14:30.90.
Despite the injury absence of Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson, there was plenty to cheer for the home fans in the women’s 800m as Georgia Hunter Bell ran a superbly-judged race to win in 1:56.74 from American Addison Wiley.
There was British success in the men’s 400m too but not what was expected as Dobson overhauled favorite Matt Hudson-Smith on the line.
Dobson was 10 meters adrift entering the final straight but finished like a train to sweep past five rivals and looked stunned when he saw his personal best of 44.14 seconds on the screen. World and Olympic silver medallist Hudson-Smith, tying up, finished second in 44.27.
Alekna did not let a wet circle impact his performance as he won the discus with a mighty 71.70 throw – a Diamond League record but almost four meters off the world record the Lithuanian set in the United States in April in a performance dubbed “weather doping” because of the assistance gained from high winds.
