Lyles Nabs 200 Meters At The Line Against Olympic Champion Tebogo To Close Out Diamond League Finale; Brittany Brown Clutch When It Counts While Yared Nuguse And Josh Hoey Come Up Short

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Photos courtesy Diamond League AG

INTERVIEWS

Before the curtain fell on the Wanda Diamond League season on Thursday in Zurich, Switzerland, Noah Lyles lit up the stage like few others ever have. 

In a race nearly as close as his Olympic 100 meters victory last year in Paris, Noah Lyles ran down Botswana's Olympic champion in the 200, Letsile Tebogo, and pipped him at the finish line, 19.74 to 19.76. 

It was a fitting end to a breathless final day of the Diamond League circuit. 

"I think the most important thing is getting wins, confidence," Lyles said. "Every race I've been in has been either second or first. I can't be unhappy with that and we'll just keep improving as we go on."

The World Athletics Championships in Tokyo begin in 16 days, on Sept. 13.

Brittany Brown will be there, thanks to her victory in the 200 meters, where she ran down Dina Asher-Smith to reach the finish line in a season's best time of 22.13 seconds. Brown will be the fourth American in Tokyo in the women's 200 meters with her wild card entry. 

Four meet records kept the energy high at the Weltklasse, where forecasted rainy weather did not arrive.

In the 400-meter hurdles, Norway's Karsten Warholm dominated with a meet record time of 46.70, with Olympic champion Rai Benjamin absent and preparing for Tokyo. 

Femke Bol of The Netherlands, who has a clear path to the world title in the women's 400 hurdles since Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is focusing on a different event, broke the meet record with 52.18. 

Cordell Tinch won the men's 110-meter hurdles title in a meet record 12.92 seconds as yet another Olympic champion, Grant Holloway, was absent. 

Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain won the women's 400 meters in a meet record time of 48.70, taking down a Jarmila Kratochvilova meet record from 1982 (48.86). Naser held off a charge by Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic.

A total of 26 Diamond League champions were settled across an array of events Thursday at Letzigrund Stadium. 

Jacory Patterson of the U.S. strengthened his grip on the men's 400 meters with his victory in a new personal best time of 43.85 seconds. 

Olympic 100 meters champion Julien Alfred won her specialty in a time of 10.76 seconds. It was her first race since London on July 19. 

Christian Coleman won his third Diamond League title, winning the 100 meters in 9.97.

Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent won the women's 100-meter hurdles in a season's best time of 12.30, narrowly missing the meet record by .01 seconds.

Audrey Werro gave the Swiss crowd something to celebrate when she held off Great Britain's Georgia Hunter Bell in the women's 800 meters with a national record of 1:55.91. 

Three events with intrigue for American mid-distance fans ended with heartbreaking disappointment. 

In the men's 1,500 meters, Niels Laros of The Netherlands ran a national record time of 3:29.20 to defeat a trio of Kenyans. American Yared Nuguse, the Olympic bronze medalist but fourth at the U.S. championships, needed a vicotry to keep his Tokyo dream alive. But Nuguse finished back in the pack, seventh, in 3:30.84.

Josh Hoey had a similar opportunity in the men's 800 meters. Pushed off the U.S. team by the hard-charging high schooler, Cooper Lutkenhaus, Hoey needed to ace the Diamond League final to earn a free pass to Tokyo. As with Nuguse, it didn't work out. Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya asserted his dominance with a victory in 1:42.37 and Hoey was eighth in 1:44.25.

In the men's 3,000 meters, where a Grant Fisher victory could have bumped Cooper Teare onto the Tokyo team, he came up just a few hundredths of a second short. Jimmy Gressier of France won in 7:36.78, just ahead of Fisher in 7:36.81. Sweden's Andreas Almgren was also there at the line, third in 7:36.82.

Kenya's Faith Cherotich dominated the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase and won her second consecutive Diamond League title in 8:57.24.

In the women's 1,500 meters, Nelly Chepchirchir from Kenya caught Australian Jessica Hull at the finish line and won the title, 3:56.99 to 3:57.02. Linden Hall of Australia was third in 3:57.44.

Josette Andrews gave a great effort in th women's 3,000 meters and led coming off the final curve. Ethiopia's Fantaye Belayneh kicked past in the final meters to win in 8:40.56. Andrews was second in 8:40.95.

Germany’s Julian Weber threw a world lead and personal best of 91.51m (300-2) -- longer than a football field -- to win the men’s javelin, the farthest throw ever at a Diamond League Final.

Valarie Allman won her fifth consecutive Diamond Trophy in the women's discus, with 69.18m (226-11). She had the three longest throws of the competition. 

Mykolas Alekna, the world record holder, won the men's discus with 68.89 (226-0). 

Larissa Iapichino of Italy won the women's long jump for the second straight year, by a centimeter, over Germany's Malaika Mihambo (6.93m to 6.92m).

Leyanis Perez Hernandez of Cuba won the women's triple jump with 14.91m (48-11). Jasmine Moore of the U.S. was sixth.

New Zealand's Hamish Kerr won the men's high jump with 2.32m (7-7.25). JuVaughn Harrison of the U.S. was third.

Andy Diaz Hernandez from Italy jumped 17.56m (57-7.50) to beat Portugal's Pedro Pichardo (17.47m/57-3.75).