The 2024 Wanda Diamond League season kicked off in Xiamen just as the 2023 campaign concluded in Eugene: with Mondo Duplantis taking the men’s pole vault world record to new heights.

In the Diamond League Final in Oregon last September, the peerless Swede soared to 6.23m, his seventh world record. In Xiamen on Saturday (20), during his first trip to China, the 24-year-old Olympic, world outdoor and world indoor champion surprised even himself as he shot cleanly over 6.24m* at the first attempt at the start of an outdoor season in which he still has more than three months to build towards the pinnacle of the Paris Olympics.

Asked whether he had an eighth world record in mind, Duplantis replied: “Kinda not really.” But then came the rider that the disappointment of not having ventured beyond 6.05m in the indoor season – the height with which he retained the world indoor title in Glasgow last month – had left him going into the great outdoors with something of a personal point to prove.

“The indoor season was sloppier than I would have liked, so I had some fire in me today,” Duplantis confessed. “I really wanted to show what I could do.”

He did that – adding Xiamen to the expanding map on which he has made his global mark, after Torun, Glasgow, Belgrade (twice), Eugene (twice) and Clermont-Ferrand.

After first-time successes at 5.62m, 5.82m and 6.00m, Duplantis had the bar raised straight to 6.24m, 7cm higher than his maiden world record height in Torun four years ago.

“The conditions were good and there was a great energy from the crowd,” he said. “The six metre jump felt really smooth and I was thinking 6.24m was in reach.

“I just thought I’d put in my best jump, and it happened. I think there are still higher heights in me.”

Just once before has he opened his outdoor season with a six metre clearance – a 6.02m success at the Doha Diamond League meeting in 2022.

His winning margin in Xiamen was 42cm, USA’s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks taking second place with 5.82m and China’s Huang Bokai finishing third with 5.72m.

On the track, Gudaf Tsegay also picked up where she left off at the end of the last outdoor season. Or thereabouts.

The Ethiopian who landed the world 10,000m title in Budapest last August could not quite reach the world record high she produced in the Diamond League Final 5000m, but she underlined the range of her talent with the third fastest outdoor 1500m of all time.

Gudaf Tsegay celebrates her 1500m run in Xiamen

Gudaf Tsegay celebrates her 1500m run in Xiamen (© Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)

Still smarting from her loss to Elle St Pierre of the US in the 3000m final at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Tsegay looked like a woman with a point to prove as she pulled clear of her 18-year-old training partner Birke Haylom with 300m remaining, powering home in 3:50.30.

That elevated the world indoor 1500m record-holder from ninth to third on the world all-time outdoor list, a 2.79 improvement on her previous best. Only her Kenyan rival Faith Kipyegon (3:49.11) and her compatriot Genzebe Dibaba (3:49.11) have gone quicker. “That was a big surprise for me in my first outdoor race of the season,” Tsegay confessed.

Behind Tsegay’s PB, world lead and meeting record, eight other women ducked under four minutes. The plucky Haylom lowered her lifetime best from 3:54.93 to 3:53.22 – a clear second ahead of fellow Ethiopians Worknesh Mesele (3:57.61) and 2023 world silver medallist Diribe Welteji (3:57.62).

Then came Ethiopia’s world indoor 1500m champion Frewenyi Hailu, fifth in 3:58.18 – followed by four new members of the sub-four club: Australia’s Georgia Griffith (3:59.04), Ethiopians Habitam Alemu (3:59.06) and Saron Berhe (3:59.21) and Sarah Billings (3:59.59), also of Australia.

At the third time of asking, Lamecha Girma not only managed to complete a 5000m race but did so inside 13 minutes.

On his most recent attempt, at the 2023 Diamond League meeting in Zurich, the 3000m steeplechase world record-holder dropped out with two laps to go. This time he saved his strength for the last two laps, tracking fellow Ethiopian Addisu Yihune when the 2022 world U20 champion hit the front with 650m to go before pulling clear over the final 300m.

Girma finished a clear winner in 12:58.96, with Kenya’s 2022 Diamond League champion Nicholas Kipkorir coming through for second in 12:59.78 and Birhanu Balew of Bahrain snatching third in 13:00.47.

World record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech produced a dominant performance in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, powering to victory in 8:55.40, the 11th fastest time in history.

Faith Cherotich, the Kenyan teammate who took world bronze behind Chepkoech’s silver in Budapest last August, finished second in 9:05.49, with Uganda’s Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai third in 9:12.99.

Australian teenager Torrie Lewis lined up with the slowest lifetime best in the women’s 200m, 22.94, but produced the shock of the night to claim a maiden Diamond League victory and a clutch of notable scalps.

Torrie Lewis wins the 200m in Xiamen (© Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)

Drawn out in lane nine, the 19-year-old stole through to win in 22.96 (-0.4m/s) while Sha’Carri Richardson, the world 100m champion and 200m bronze medallist, dug deep to claim second place in 22.99 ahead of fellow US sprinters Tamara Clark (23.02) and Anavia Battle (23.02).

“I honestly didn’t notice I’d won until I saw the replay,” said Lewis.

Canada’s Marco Arop had to dig deep and show his world champion pedigree to get the better of Kenya’s Wyclife Kinyamal in a ding-dong home straight battle in the men’s 800m. Arop’s reward was a world lead of 1:43.61, with Kinyamal 0.05 down in second place and Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela third in 1:43.88, a PB.

There was also a world lead in the men’s 110m hurdles, 2023 world bronze medallist Daniel Roberts taking the victory in 13.11 (-0.3) ahead of US compatriot Cordell Tinch (13.16) and Japan’s Shunsuke Izumiya (13.17). Jamaica’s Olympic champion Hansle Parchment finished down in sixth in 13.33.

Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico finished strongly to edge the women’s 100m hurdles in 12.45 (0.2), overhauling world indoor 60m hurdles champion and world record-holder Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas by 0.01.

The 2022 world indoor champion Cyrena Samba-Mayela clocked a French record 12.55 in third, with the most recent two world outdoor champions Danielle Williams of Jamaica (12.56) and Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan (12.58) fourth and fifth respectively.

The opening race on the track, the women’s 400m, replicated the one-two from last year’s world final in Budapest, Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic (50.08) proving too strong for Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek (50.29).

In the final track race, the men’s 100m, world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman overhauled Fred Kerley, the 2022 world champion at 100m, clocking 10.13 (-0.6) ahead of his compatriot’s 10.17. World indoor bronze medallist Ackeem Blake finished third in 10.20.

Olympic champion Mutaz Barshim showed signs of rust in the men’s high jump. Understandably so, given the fact that the 32-year-old Qatari was taking part in his first competition since taking a six-month break with back and hip problems.

The three-time world champion nailed first-time clearances at 2.15m, 2.20m and 2.24m but then needed all three tries to make it over 2.27m. He tried once at 2.29m and twice at 2.31m, without success.

World indoor silver medallist Shelby McEwen needed just one try to make it over 2.27m. That first-time clearance was sufficient to earn the US jumper the victory ahead of Barshim on countback, with New Zealand’s world indoor champion Hamish Kerr in third with 2.24m.

Portugal’s Olympic triple jump champion Pedro Pichardo emerged from his injury-enforced break in winning style, a 17.51m meeting record securing victory ahead of world champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso (17.12m). Su Wen won the Chinese battle for third place, jumping 16.82, with Fang Yaoqing fourth (16.73m) and Olympic silver medallist Zhu Yaming fifth (16.55m).

China’s Gong Lijiao emerged a popular winner from the women’s shot put. The Olympic champion and two-time world champion’s best effort of 19.72m came in round two.

World champion Chase Jackson of USA was her closest pursuer with 19.62m until Maddison-Lee Wesche edged into second with the final throw of the competition, a 19.63m PB on the day her place in the New Zealand Olympic team was confirmed. Canada’s world indoor champion Sarah Mitton had to settle for fourth place with 19.35m

Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the US took the women’s discus with a meeting record 69.80m. Cuba’s Yaime Perez had to settle for second with 68.33m – a week after the monster 73.09m effort in Oklahoma that eclipsed Allman’s North American record. Feng Bin of China, the 2022 world champion, finished third with 67.07m.

There was just the one throw beyond 60m in the non-Diamond League women’s javelin, Dai Qianqian providing a home victory with a fourth round throw of 61.25m. Latvia’s Lina Muze-Sirma took second with 58.91m, ahead of Colombia’s 2023 world silver medallist Flor Ruiz Hurtado, third with 58.50m.

Simon Turnbull for World Athletics

*Subject to the usual ratification procedure

Gudaf TSEGAY

Gudaf TSEGAY

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